The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Drills turning at Flood; geophysics prioritizing gold targets North of 60 Mining News – June 24, 2022
The first hole of Blue Star's 2022 program cut near-surface mineralization at the Flood zone on its Ulu gold property.
More than two dozen gold occurrences have been identified on the Ulu and Hood River properties in Nunavut. Click on image for larger map.
Blue Star Gold Corp. June 22 reported that drilling is now underway at its Ulu gold project in Nunavut and the first hole testing the Flood zone is now complete.
"The launch of our 2022 exploration program has been executed very efficiently," said Blue Star Gold CEO Grant Ewing. "The initial drill holes will test potential extensions to the Flood zone deposit followed by testing targets in the Gnu Zone area where a new high-grade vein system was discovered by Blue Star in 2021."
According to a 2015 calculation, the Flood and Gnu zones on the Ulu property 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 first hole of the 2022 program was drilled to follow up on 96UL-28, a historical hole that cut 8.35 meters averaging 6.02 g/t gold from a depth of 15 meters. Blue Star reports that hole DD22-FLO-001 intersected variably mineralized zones from 4.65 to 17 meters.
The rig has now been moved to evaluate the geometry of the basalt-sediment contact in another area where past drilling has encountered strong gold mineralization. Highlights from historical drilling in this area include:
• 9.28 meters averaging 7.29 g/t gold in hole 89VD-20.
• 5.09 meters averaging 6.66 g/t gold in hole 04UL-02.
• 11.11 meters averaging 10.21 g/t gold in hole 04UL-32.
Blue Star says it plans to complete at least 2,500 meters of infill and expansion drilling at existing resources, as well as exploration drilling to test high-priority targets across its three properties – Ulu, Hood River, and Roma – covering a 45-kilometers (28 miles) stretch of the High Lake Greenstone Belt in Nunavut.
While drills are testing resource expansion targets at Flood, crews are carrying out ground and airborne geophysics across Blue Star's wider land package.
Ground geophysical surveying using a walking magnetics and very-low-frequency electromagnetic (VLF EM) system has covered the known vein structures at the Gnu zone and extensions to prospective stratigraphy inferred to host similar structures. Targets are the recently discovered Gnu Zone polymetallic vein, where hole 21BSG007 cut 8.15 meters averaging 20.8 g/t gold and hole 21BSG020 cut 5.34 meters averaging 3.7 g/t gold.
Additional geophysical grids are also planned as part of a target review process to determine if this type of survey can refine drill targeting at other showings.
In addition to the ground geophysics, Precision GeoSurveys Inc. will be flying a high-resolution heli-borne geophysical survey that utilizes a proprietary four-sensor magnetic gradient system to refine the structure, lithology, and alteration prior to mapping and prospecting programs.
This survey will be flown over the entire Roma, Ulu, and Hood River landholdings that were not covered during a similar survey carried out during 2021.
Blue Star plans to advance at least three high-potential targets to drill-ready status this season.
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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