Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.
Like most CMJ readers, I get a shiver up my spine at the thought of bonanza gold grades. So it was with excitement I read that Toronto’s Queenston Mining (Queenston.ca) had intersected 42.4 g/t Au at its Upper Canada property in Kirkland Lake, ON. Better yet, that was the grade over 5.5 metres.
Not all the grades at Upper Canada were as high. There was also 22.9 g/t over 6.6 metres, 13.2 g/t over 5.5 metres, 4.47 g/t over 37.2 metres and 4.40 g/t over 26.2. These results came for diamond drilling in the Upper L zone as well as the H, M & Q zones. Queenston says the results expand both the underground and pit potential of a large gold system.
A few high grade drill intersections do not a gold mine make, but Queenston has already outlined 1.96 million tonnes averaging 2.38 g/t Au in the indicated resource (uncapped) and 5.38 million tonnes at 4.55 g/t Au in the inferred category (uncapped). Together the resource contains an estimated 937,000 oz of gold that will be recovered by both open pit and underground mining.
I had hardly finished savouring the grades from the Upper Canada project, than I ran across absolutely jaw-dropping numbers from the Monster Lake project near Chibougamau, QC. Montreal-based TomaGold Corp. (TomaGoldCorp.com) reported cutting 237.5 g/t Au near the surface. And my jaw dropped further upon reading that the intersection was 5.7 metres long.
There is good reason to call it “Monster.”
Soquem drilled 20,000 metres and cut several trenches near Monster Lake from 1984 to 1995. The historical data suggests there are at least 10 gold showings and 45 intersections of greater than 1.0 g/t Au. The three principle showings are open along strike. TomaGold has identified 12 targets that it says deserve immediate follow-up drilling.
TomaGold (formerly Carbon2Green) acquired the Monster Lake property and two others from Stellar Pacific Ventures at the end of last year for slightly less than $1.6 million. Over two years, Stellar drilled 5,235 metres on gold bearing structures defined along a 4-km long north-northeast striking mineralized corridor. The mineralization is related to dark quartz-sulphide veins within an altered shear zone ranging from 3 to 10 metres in width in basaltic units.
No development decision has been made yet for the Upper Canada project, and the Monster Lake project is at an even earlier stage of exploration. After hearing of bonanza grades such as found at These projects, I am going to indulge in a little daydreaming. I’m sure the geologists from Vanstar Mining Resources (VanstarMining.com) are dreaming of bonanza grades, too, as they prepare to drill the Little Monster property, bordering on the Monster Lake project.