HOPE BAY, Nunavut Deep drilling by MIRAMAR MINING has encountered visible gold in cores from 1-km below the surface. The program is underway at its 100%-owned Hope Bay project on the Arctic coast. Mineralization at the Boston deposit is now known to reach almost 1,400 metres below surface with a strike length of at least 750 metres.
The Hope Bay project includes the Boston, Doris and Madrid deposits, which are hosted in the first major Archean Greenstone gold belt discovery since Hemlo in 1982 and Yellowknife in 1938. A brief description of the geology is available at www.miramarmining.com. The three deposits investigated so far total 3.24 million tonnes of measured and indicated resources grading 15.7 g/t Au. Additional inferred resources are estimated to be 6.86 million tonnes at 12.3 g/t Au. Updated estimates are expected early in 2004.
The Boston deposit has the largest resources of the three. Gold mineralization occurs in three subparallel alteration zones. Each zone is composed of numerous, narrow quartz-carbonate veins, usually with pyrite. Gold is associated with sulphide mineralization (mostly pyrite) that forms within the veins and as a halo in the wall rock around the veins.
These interpretations are hopeful in nature. CMJ, too, hopes to see a new gold mine in the Far North. Miramar's Con and Giant mines in Yellowknife are nearing the end of their reserves, with closures only a year or two away.
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