The West Side Story

Drilling West of Timmins continues to produce promising results

By: Stephane Villeneuve, Mining Life Online

Investors and geologists have been setting their sights on the historic Timmins camp, looking to find new economically viable gold and other metal deposits in the under explored west end of Timmins. The Abitibi Greenstone belt has seen numerous drilling programs ranging from Wawa, ON to Val D’or, Quebec and the Frasier Institute deems it the 4th most attractive mining jurisdiction in the world. The Abitibi Greenstone Belt is home to dozens of world class deposits and has reportedly produced more than 170 million ounces of gold, 400 million ounces of silver, 15 billion tons of copper, and 35 billion tons of zinc.

The Timmins West region continues to remain a mystery, with multiple companies looking to determine the extent of the mineralization and find new zones with potential for development.

Just some of the most recent junior activities include:

Melkior Resources Inc. (TSXV:MKR) (OTC:MKRIF) in partnership with  Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. recently announced the commencement of a 3,800m drill program, located 25 Kilometres west of Timmins on their Carscallen Project, along the previously defined Zam Zam – Shenkman Trend . The program looks to follow up on drilling previously done in 2019. 

Highlights from drilling include 23.5 g/t Au over 8.0 meters, 430 meters below surface, 25.7 g/t Au over 6.0 meters, 350 meters below surface and 5.68 g/t Au and 6.4 g/t Ag over 9.5m, including 67.9 g/t Au, 79.8 g/t Ag and 0.62 % Cu over 0.5m. Looking forward, the new drilling program looks to determine continuity up-dip and northwest-southeast of previously encouraging strikes, and continuity at depth, as well as evaluate potential new targets for future drilling in previously under drilled areas to the north and south.

Sanatana Resources another junior exploring in the area announced permits to begin further exploration of its Gold Rush Project, located WNW of Timmins and situated just north of Melkior's Carscallen Project. The project is in its early stages, with plans to do expand on the prospecting, mapping and chip sampling done during the summer of 2020. The current expansion plan includes further channel sampling, along with magnetic geophysical surveys to better characterize the area and highlight targets for drilling locations.

Sanatana was the company that once owned the Watershed Royalty which was granted to Sanatana in connection with an Asset Purchase Agreement between the Company and Trelawney Augen Acquisition Corp., now IAMGOLD Corporation, dated January 12, 2016, where IAMGOLD acquired a 100% interest in 46 mining claims in Chester and Yeo Counties, Ontario.

The Watershed Property surrounds the Coté Gold Project which is a joint venture between IAMGOLD and Sumitomo Metal Mining Company. Part of the Watershed Claims are included in the November 1, 2018 Feasibility Study and the balance of the claims surround the Coté Gold Project. Sanatana sold the Watershed Royalty to Ely Gold Royalties Inc., a Nevada focused gold royalty company. Its current portfolio includes royalties at Jerritt Canyon, Goldstrike and Marigold, three of Nevada's largest gold mines, as well as the Fenelon mine in Quebec, operated by Wallbridge Mining. The Company continues to actively seek opportunities to purchase producing or near-term producing royalties.

Canadian Silver Hunter Inc. (TSXV: AGH.H) Canadian Silver Hunter Inc. has completed a soil sampling program on its Lost Dog property. The program was designed to follow-up resistivity zones and IP anomalies identified in a previous IP survey, as previously announced in a news release dated October 13, 2020. 

The soil samples were submitted to ACTLABS in Timmins and will be analyzed for gold through fire assay as well as multi element analysis. The results will then be statistically analyzed to define anomalous thresholds, which will allow the Company to define anomalies and follow-up exploration targets for further investigation.

The Lost Dog property consists of 52 contiguous mining claim units covering close to 3,000 hectares. The property is located in Denton Township in the West Timmins gold camp, 12 km west of Pan American Silver's Timmins Mine, in the Porcupine Mining Division of Northern Ontario.

Galleon Gold Corp. (TSXV: GGO) In a recent press release, announced conformation of a high-grade discovery zone close to surface at their West Cache gold project. The newly discovered Zone #9 bears similar geologic features as the “west deep” discovery in 2010, and original samples bear a similar width and grade to the recent drilling.

Located 13 km west of Timmins, the project looks to expand its drilling and processing capacity with an announced 8.0 million in flow though for exploration and general expenditures. Highlights from the drilling include 7.16 g/t over 9.7m, with, a sub interval of 3.0m of 14.75 g/t Au

Going forward the project looks to infill the area between the two zones and determine any continuity potential between the two zones, as well as explore other areas around zone #9 for other areas with similar potential. In a recent conference with the Timmins chamber of commerce as part of their “ State of Mining” series President and CEO of  Galleon Gold, David Russel expressed a desire to push the program into production with sights to break ground on major production between 2024-25, with permitting and a preliminary Economic Study on the way.

GFG Resources Inc. (TSX-V:GFG) (OTCQB: GFGSF) announced Phase II of their drilling program at the Pen Gold project with an 8500m program set to explore a land package situated between Newmont's Borden Gold Project and Pan American Silver's Timmins West Mine. The program follows a series of soil sampling as well as aerial magnetic mapping done early 2020 and looks to expand on high priority targets identified by soil assays and preliminary drilling.

During the initial phase of exploration, several areas were identified, with surface grab samples ranging from 1.0  up to 8 g/t and preliminary drill results ranging from 7.3 g/t Au over 0.7m located at the Broadway prospect, 7.53g/t Au over 2.2m including 31.80 g/t over 0.5m and 21.26 g/t over 1.7m at the HGM and Crawford Prospects.

The project hopes to follow up on a recent discovery at the Nib Project, which intercepted 71.27g/t over 8.5m 50m below surface as well as follow up on several of the identified areas for further drilling with a focus on the eastern side of the property.

Rockridge Resources (TSX-V: ROCK) (OTCQB; RRRLF) Located to the south of GFG and only 35 Km west of the Borden gold mine, recently announced an update on their Raney gold project, a 3000m drill program focusing on expanding on drilling completed in early 2020.  The recent drilling shows similar alteration to what has been seen in previous high grade zones when compared to drilling done between 2008-2009 and preliminary assays have identified grades running 27.9 g/t Au over 6.0m with more updates on the horizon. 

Detailed Magnetometer surveys were also conducted on the property and has identified a prominent magnetic low response that coincides the Raney Gold Zone. The Survey also highlighted several areas with similar magnetic features that may be potential extensions to the Raney gold zone and have been identified for future drilling.

Affinity Metals Corp. (TSX-V:AFF) has thrown it’s hat in the ring on the west side of Timmins by diversifying the Company's Canadian exploration exposure. The company has recently acquired up to a 90% interest in the West Timmins Gold property located approximately 29 km southwest of Timmins.

The property package consists of 20 mineral tenures spanning 429 hectares. The property directly adjoins to the west and along geological strike to the Melkior Carscallen project with both properties optimally located directly along the northern flank of the prolific Destor Porcupine Fault Zone.

The West Timmins Gold property is located along the same structural and geological trend which hosts the Pan American Silver "Timmins West Mine" located approximately 13 km to the east along highway 101 and is also in close proximity to the Timmins mining camp, which is a major structural control corridor that has produced over 75 million ounces of gold.  A Timmins West "staking rush" this past spring has resulted in the recent acquisition of over 300 square kilometers of additional claims being positioned by area play participants which now surround both the Melkior - Carscallen and Affinity - West Timmins Gold projects. 

With companies investing in the Timmins west end the future of Timmins looks golden. In consideration to the already productive powerhouse of the Timmins camp, the exploration potential of the area on the west end can no longer be ignored. We will continue to monitor the situation.  

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Tags: Northern Ontario / Exploration / Gold / All Articles