Sewell

Brief history:

The first exploration on the property was undertaken by the Mining Corporation of Canada over 1945 - 1947, and included approximately 14 holes over 1,180 metres. Over the 1980 - 1983 period, Noranda Exploration performed some geophysical work on the property, and drilled 17 holes over 1,862 metres. At that time, a small resource was estimated on one quartz vein.

 

Richmont acquired 100% of the Sewell property from Newmont Canada Ltd. in 2002. In 2004, after a small structural study on the old trench and outcrops, 4 drill holes were done over a total of 1,034 metres. 3 holes were performed to test the extension of the vein system at depth. All of these holes cut quartz veins with gold values, but indicated that the vein system was structurally more complex. Another hole, which tested southern structures, did not cut any gold value.

 

A reinterpretation of all the geological data on this property must be completed prior to more drilling.

 

Past exploration drilling results:

This property hosts a high-grade vein system which has yielded 19.2 g/t over 2.4 meters, and 9.6 g/t over 2.1 meters during previous drilling.

 

Geological characteristics:

The Sewell property is located in the Northern Swayze greenstone belt, part of the archean Abitibi subprovince, which is a Neoarchean granitoide-greenstone terrane that developed between 2.8 and 2.6 Ga. Mineralization on the property is associated with a WSW shear zone, which affects gabbroic to syenitic intrusive rocks with some metavolcanics.

 

Gold has been found inside the shear zone in quartz carbonate veins with coarse pyrite and some chalcopyrite. The shear zone includes chlorite and carbonate alteration with some disseminated pyrite.

 

Knowledge of the geology of the Sewell property is limited. Only one outcrop (stripping) has been recognized so far that shows the shear zone containing most of the known gold mineralization on the property. An important WSW-ENE fault zone develops directly in the middle of the stripping. Major alteration includes chloritization and carbonatization.

 

Two types of mineralization were recognized on the main showing: disseminated pyrite in a chloritic shear zone, which reported only low gold values, and milky to translucent quartz veins which contain visible gold and pyrite clusters.