The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Latest results from drilling higher-grade Flood zone areas North of 60 Mining News – September 24, 2021
A geologist checks for gold in core from drilling at one of Blue Star's High Lake Greenstone belt projects in Nunavut, Canada.
Blue Star Gold Corp. Sept. 22 reported the results from two holes that expand the high-grade core of the Flood zone on the company's Ulu property in the High Lake Greenstone Belt, Nunavut.
The Ulu property has historically been the target of significant exploration and development by BHP Minerals, Echo Bay Mines, and others. The past work includes roughly 97,820 meters of drilling and 1,700 meters of underground development.
According to a 2015 calculation, the Flood and Gnu zones at Ulu host 2.5 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 7.53 grams per metric ton (605,000 ounces) gold; and 1.26 million metric tons of inferred resource grading 5.57 g/t (226,000 oz) gold.
The 2021 exploration campaign is evaluating several priority targets in the area of the Flood zone gold deposit, as well as high potential targets along the Ulu fold hinge that extends roughly 5,000 meters north to the North Fold Nose (NFN) zone on the adjacent Hood River property.
The latest batch of assays is from two holes drilled in the immediate Flood zone deposit area.
Focused on expanding the higher-grade Flood zone core to the southeast, hole 21BSG001 cut 4.91 meters averaging 19.1 grams metric ton gold from a depth of 7.77 meters, and seven meters averaging 6.9 g/t from 25.48 meters.
Seeing to expand the higher-grade Flood zone core into a previously modeled gap, hole 21BSG002 cut 2.64 meters averaging 13 g/t gold from a depth of 164.48 meters.
Earlier this month, Blue Star reported partial results from one hole that cut impressive gold mineralization at Gnu, which lies about 750 meters north of Flood. This hole, 21BSG007, cut 8.15 meters averaging 20.8 g/t gold from a depth of 162.1 meters.
Blue Star says this intercept represents a new vein system and drilling to follow up on this result is underway.
"The current field program is operating smoothly, and it is very encouraging to see the continued strong results from the Flood zone drilling, and from the new vein system discovered in the Gnu Zone area ~750 meters to the northeast," said Blue Star Gold CEO Grant Ewing.
With two drills turning, Blue Star has completed 4,590 meters of drilling this year in 22 holes
This drilling has evaluated parallel and mineralized trends within 750 meters of the Flood zone, which include the Axis and Central zones and targets within the Gnu zone area. The program is also testing the North Fold Nose (NFN) zone about 5,000 meters north on the adjacent Hood River property.
"Flood Zone drilling this year was very selective to assist in refining the geological modeling with the results announced today indicating that even drilling for geology provides robust grade and widths. The campaign to date has successfully tested portions of the proximal Axis and Central zones, located roughly 125 meters and 250 meters northeast of the Flood zone resource respectively," said Blue Star Gold Vice President of Exploration Darren Lindsay. "The team is very excited about evaluating the intersection of these two mineralized trends as they approach the Gnu zone which now contains at least four sub-target areas defined by their style of mineralization."
Results from most of the holes drilled this year are pending due to the very slow turnaround time at assay labs due to COVID-related issues and the high volume of mineral exploration in Canada and Alaska.
In addition to drilling, Blue Star is evaluating the larger and underexplored potential of its Ulu, Hood River, and Roma properties, which cover more than 40 high-grade gold occurrences over a 50-kilometer (31 mile) long section of the High Lake Greenstone Belt. To help evaluate and prioritize targets across this expansive property, Blue Star has engaged GoldSpot Discoveries Corp. to apply its proprietary machine learning approach to relatively unexplored areas, mainly on the Hood River and Roma properties.
"We are excited to work with the Blue Star team and to help them define high priority areas for further exploration," said GoldSpot Discoveries CEO Vincent Dubé-Bourgeois. "GoldSpot will work closely with the technical team at Blue Star to analyze geophysical, geochemical and geological data to provide smart targets for further drilling."
Further information on the Blue Star and GoldSpot collaboration can be read at GoldSpot in high demand for AI exploration in the September 22, 2021 edition of Metal Tech News: https://www.metaltechnews.com/story/2021/09/22/mining-tech/goldspot-in-high-demand-for-ai-exploration/713.html.
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.
Reader Comments(0)