Maple Gold mobilises second drill rig at Joutel Project
Published by Jessica Casey,
Editor
Global Mining Review,
Maple Gold Mines Ltd has to reported the mobilisation of a second drill rig, while the first drill rig continues Phase II drilling at the 100%-controlled Eagle Project, to commence a 6000 m deep drilling programme at the Joutel Project in Quebec, Canada, held by a 50/50 joint venture (JV) between the company and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. This deep drilling programme is expected to include three drill holes in the Telbel mine area beneath and adjacent to the historical underground mine workings, which extend to roughly 1200 m below surface. Past gold production at Telbel focused on a single zone between 500 – 1050 m; however, data digitisation and 3D modelling have identified significant gold intercepts up to approximately 1400 m below surface that remain open for follow-up exploration.
Deep drilling at Telbel will be funded as part of a previously announced CAN$4.8 million supplemental Year Two JV exploration budget. To control potential drillhole deviation, Aziwell Canada Inc. has been contracted to provide directional drilling support on an as-needed basis during the Telbel deep drilling programme.
Fred Speidel, VP Exploration of Maple Gold, stated: “We are excited to commence initial deep drilling at Telbel, marking the first drilling at Telbel since the early 1990s. Last year's digitisation and modelling work identified significant higher-grade (>5 g/t gold [Au]) mineralisation extending beyond the mined-out stopes and has supported our drill targeting. The expanded Year Two JV budget provides us with the financial means to begin testing these compelling targets and near mine extensions at depth.”
Initial Telbel Targets and programme details
Maple Gold previously reported 3D modelling results for the main mine trend at Telbel after digitising more than 250 000 m of historical drill data, which highlighted the potential for higher-grade gold mineralisation above and below the historical underground mine workings, as well as additional discovery targets at a district scale.
The deep drill programme is expected to include one drill hole that will be collared south of the main Telbel mine horizon and drilled to the north (S-N) and two drill holes collared north of the target area and drilled to the south (N-S). This will provide valuable geological information by covering the entire stratigraphy of the mineralised system, and will also serve to test known sub-parallel mineralised zones that have not been fully explored in the past. Deep drilling will investigate mineralised trends with step-outs of over 350 m from historical information.
TB-22-001 (S-N) and TB-22-002 (N-S) are designed to test below the deeper plunging local trend observed at Telbel where historical intercepts below the mined-out areas included:
- 57.2 g/t Au over 3 m at 1215 m depth.
- 53.2 g/t Au over 2 m at 1175 m depth.
- 19.9 g/t Au over 3.7 m at 1285 m depth.
- 32.2 g/t Au over 2.3 m at 1130 m depth.
- 18.3 g/t Au over 2.4 m at 1205 m depth.
All approximate vertical depths.
Several of these intercepts have lower grade haloes. TB-22-003 (N-S) is designed to test the southeastern continuity of the shallower district-scale Eagle-Telbel trend where an 80.8 g/t Au interval over 0.5 m at 1135 m depth was intersected in quartz carbonate veinlets with visible gold from historical drilling. Importantly, this historical drillhole did not reach the main Telbel mine horizon.
Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/exploration-development/05082022/maple-gold-mobilises-second-drill-rig-at-joutel-project/
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