The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2019 – Published Nov. 1, 2019
A geologist carries out sampling and mapping ahead of the 2019 drill program on Solstice Gold's Nunavut gold project east of Agnico Eagle's Meliadine Mine.
Solstice Gold Corp. completed its first ever drill program at Nunavut (formerly Kahuna), an early stage gold project that borders the east side of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.'s Meliadine mine property.
"Agnico Eagle's Meliadine mine, which reached commercial production last month, is only seven kilometers (4.4 miles) from Solstice's claims in the Rankin Gold Belt. We are looking forward to drilling targets in the hunt for the next potential gold discovery in an exciting region," said Solstice Gold Executive Chairman David Adamson.
Solstice Gold was formed in early-2018, when Dunnedin Ventures Inc. spun out the gold prospective portions of its Kahuna diamond project. The portions of Kahuna retained by Dunnedin host more than 40 diamondiferous kimberlite targets.
Following it formation, Solstice carried out the first systematic, gold-focused exploration at Kahuna. This 2018 program included the collection of 2,049 till samples, 2,905 boulder and outcrop samples, as well as 1,675 line-kilometers of ground magnetic surveying.
This work turned up three target areas – QEMS (Enterprise), Westeros Fold and Megafold NW.
Sampling of a large boulder field at Qaiqtuq, which is within the QEMS target area, returned 66 grams per metric ton gold. Sampling of bedrock outcrop in this same area returned up to 5.74 g/t gold.
Many of the gold-bearing boulders at Qaiqtuq are interpreted to be locally derived due to their association with gold-bearing outcrop, large size, angularity and relative abundance.
The Westeros Fold area hosts two gold targets – South Westeros and North Westeros.
Located on the southern limb of the Westeros fold, South Westeros is a roughly 5,000-meter-long area of highly magnetic units cut by faults. Boulder grab samples from this area returned up to 11.7 g/t gold.
North Westeros is interpreted to be coincident with large, regional fault structures. Grab samples collected from this area contained as much as 12.7 g/t gold.
Megafold NW is situated on the northwestern limb of a very large regional fold. Out of the 60 boulder and 131 outcrop samples collected from this area, 21 contained more than 0.5 g/t gold. The best sample returned 24.4 g/t gold from a one-meter-wide quartz vein-in-iron formation outcrop. Mapping and magnetic data along this 5,000-meter-long target area suggest the presence of numerous parallel and likely folded iron formation units.
Solstice's 2019 exploration got started with mapping and sampling at Enterprise, previously referred to as QEMS, an area immediately adjacent to and along strike of Agnico Eagle's Meliadine claim block.
Solstice said the late-summer drilling, which got underway in August, testing 11 land-based targets, leaves highly prospective ice-based targets for winter follow-up.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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