Wesdome expands Kiena with high grade discoveries

"This new discovery could have major positive impacts on the project, in particular on the next updated mineral resource estimate, the number of ounces per vertical meter, and on global economic characteristics of the project," said President Duncan Middlemiss.  "Additionally, the recent A Zone high grade intercepts inside and outside of the current A Zone resource block model shows the potential to expand the current resource estimate."Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. has announced underground exploration drilling results from the new high grade gold discovery in the footwall of the Kiena Deep A Zone at the Company’s 100% owned Kiena Mine Complex in Val d'Or.

On March 23, 2021, Wesdome announced the initial discovery of a new high grade gold zone in the footwall of the A Zone, which has been the focus of our drilling over the past several months. In addition, drilling has been ongoing to extend the A Zone laterally and down plunge.

New High Grade Footwall Zone

To date, the Footwall Zone is defined by new intersections of gold mineralization located within a 50 metre (‘m’) wide corridor adjacent to the footwall of A2 Zone. Gold mineralization is associated with quartz ± visible gold veins that are spatially associated with amphibolite altered komatiite and basaltic komatiite units. In some areas, gold mineralization is also observed in deformed basalt and/or flow breccias present within ultramafic units. Similar to the Kiena Deep A Zone, gold mineralization is deformed by subsequent folding, shearing, and faulting.  

Up to now, only 6 holes passed through the lithologies containing gold mineralization of the Footwall Zone. Given the limited drilling, it is difficult, at this time, to determine an exact number of new lenses forming the corridor of the Footwall Zone. The orientation, dip and geometry of these new lenses are still not known with sufficient certainty to determine the true widths. The Footwall Zone corridor remains open laterally and down plunge. The location of new gold intercepts in recent holes suggest that Footwall Zone extends over 300 m along plunge. The deepest hole returned 41.2 g/t Au (uncapped) over 51.2 m core length (Figures 1 and 2).

Footwall Zone Drilling

Highlights of the recent drilling are listed below and summarized in Table 1.

• Hole 6760W1: 41.2 g/t Au over 51.2 m core length (25.7 g/t Au capped)
• Hole 6742W3: 27.7 g/t Au over 12.3 m core length (27.7 g/t Au capped)
• Hole 6742W10: 16.7 g/t Au over 9.0 m core length (14.9 g/t Au capped)

All assays cut to 90.0 g/t Au. True widths are unknown at this time.

Kiena Deep A Zone Drilling

Ongoing drilling also continues to better define and expand the Kiena Deep A Zone predominantly along the lateral extensions of the zone (Figure 3). The high grades intersected will be included in future resource updates as the intercepts are located both inside and outside the December 2020 mineral resource estimate (MRE), which is the foundation on which the current PFS has been established. (See Wesdome press release dated December 15, 2020).

Highlights of the recent A Zone drilling are listed below and summarized in Table 1.

• Hole 6750: 122.1 g/t Au over 7.5 m core length (26.7 g/t Au capped, 4.7 m true width) A Zone
• Hole 6742W3: 96.1 g/t Au over 8.0 m core length (47.4 g/t Au capped, 7.1 m true width) A1 Zone
• Hole 6735: 24.5 g/t Au over 17.3 m core length (21.1 g/t Au capped, 7.0 m true width) A1 Zone

All assays cut to 90.0 g/t Au. True widths are estimated.

Mr. Duncan Middlemiss, President and CEO commented, “We are pleased with the recent exploration drilling that not only returned the best ever drill hole intercept at Kiena of 41 g/t Au over 51 metres, but also continues to confirm the presence of a new high grade corridor in the footwall to the A Zone. Initial drilling has already extended the corridor of the Footwall Zone over 300 metres down plunge thus confirming the potential to add new high grade resources at depth. This zone remains open laterally and along plunge.

We also have a number of other excellent exploration targets to test this year, and have in place an aggressive but focussed program to test these targets, including the B Zone at depth. Additionally, we are also currently ramping up a large surface exploration program, with the aim of unlocking additional value on the Kiena property further to the west and east of the Kiena mine initially, and later, over the entire property.

Finally, the PFS is progressing well, and we expect to have it completed in Q2, with a possible re-start decision shortly thereafter. The pre-production timeframe is less than six months, potentially driving the Kiena Mine into commercial production in Q4 of this year.”

Tags: Quebec / Exploration / Gold / All Articles