MetalCORP Limited
Press Release
MetalCORP Limited has announced the company has started the first phase of a deep drilling program on its 100% owned Hemlo East property, immediately east-southeast along trend from Barrick Gold's Hemlo mine, and approximately 35 km east of the town of Marathon in Northwestern Ontario. The initial three holes, to a minimum depth of 1000m, will test the first of two high priority targets identified in thorough data compilations done by MetalCORP's technical team. The Company has planned an additional phase of drilling to test the second target, Gouda Lake, which is farther to the southeast, later in the spring. The giant Hemlo gold deposit, located 2km from the Hemlo East claim boundary and still in production, hosts approximately 100 million tonnes @ 8.0 g/t Gold (Au) (representing approximately 23 million ounces of gold).
"We are extremely eager to begin this first phase of exploration on the Hemlo East property," commented Naomi Nemeth, CEO. "Our first target is immediately adjacent to the three Hemlo mines, and is structurally and stratigraphically along trend. This horizon is clearly traceable at surface, in anomalous geochemical and geophysical results and in existing drill hole data."
Over the past six months, MetalCORP's geological team has completed a thorough compilation of a multitude of geological, geochemical and geophysical surveys, which had been undertaken on the property following the discovery of the Hemlo deposit in the early 1980s. The compilation also incorporated the results of an Aeroquest AeroTEM II airborne magnetic and electromagnetic survey undertaken in late 2007 by MetalCORP. This airborne geophysics survey, in combination with the results of previous multi-parameter surveys, was used to outline the current drill targets.
The initial target, the Upper Anomalous Zone (UAZ), will be tested in combination with what is known as the Egg Lake Horizon, which lies stratigraphically and/or structurally below the UAZ.
The UAZ dips northerly at moderate angles and has been traced at surface, outlined geophysically, and intersected predictably in a considerable number of holes drilled by Lac Minerals in the 1980s. The UAZ can be traced across a strike length of at least 2 km and to a depth of approximately 450 meters, where it remains open. The UAZ is typically on the order of several meters or more thick, and is essentially a white mica- and sulphide-bearing (pyrrhotite-pyrite) schist.
Together with the Egg Lake Horizon, the UAZ displays broad zones of anomalous geochemistry, and, as demonstrated in the 1990s by research geologists Pan and Fleet, the rocks commonly contain a distinctive and unusual mineralogy which shows marked similarities to the gold mineralization at Hemlo.
As a consequence, the rocks of the UAZ are considered to be the along-strike equivalent of the ore zones at Hemlo. Assay results of the UAZ in drill core by Lac yielded consistently anomalous gold values, typically in the range of 0.4 to 0.7 g/t gold across several meters or more, but with individual meter-scale samples ranging up to 5 g/t gold.
Prior to MetalCORP's initial acquisition of parts of the Hemlo East property in 2007, and its final consolidation in late 2009, the property had been held continuously by Lac Minerals since the discovery of the Hemlo deposit. During that time, Lac, along with optionees Placer Dome and Teck, thoroughly tested many near-surface targets, and drilled nearly 150 diamond drill holes on a variety of targets. One of the areas tested was the Gouda Lake gold zone on the southern part of the property, which hosts a modest non-compliant NI 43-101 gold resource. As a consequence, there is a rich exploration database on the property that is largely available in the public domain.