Orefinders Resources (TSXV: ORX) Advances the Mirado Gold Project in Kirkland Lake, Northeastern Ontario, in the Prolific Abitibi Gold Belt
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By Dr. Allen Alper
on 3/24/2015
Orefinders Resources (TSX: ORX) is currently working to explore and advance their past producing Mirado Gold Project, located in the prolific Kirkland Lake gold camp of northeastern Ontario. To date the Kirkland Lake gold camp has produced more than 40 million ounces of gold, making it one of the premier gold exploration regions for junior mining companies working in Canada.
Bill Yeomans, the President and CEO of Orefinders Resources (TSX: ORX), spoke with the team from Metals News to offer an update on the Mirado Gold Project located 35 kilometers southeast of Kirkland Lake.
Mr. Yeomans said, “Orefinders has 100% ownership of the past producing Mirado gold deposit in the Kirkland Lake gold camp of northeastern Ontario, where we plan to continue its development towards a production scenario. Our 6-month drilling campaign in 2013, together with historical work completed by Amax and others, generated an at-surface bulk tonnage resource with reasonable grades in a greenstone belt that is under-explored with excellent nearby mining infrastructure. Given the proximity of mills to our project, we have the potential to monetize unprocessed gold mineralization left behind in stockpiles by a previous operator. We think that this asset has potential to be a low capex producer within a relatively short timeframe. Furthermore, we have potential to grow the current Mirado resource at depth and along strike. Our current resource includes high grade mineralization intersected 300 meters below surface, 150 meters below the deepest historical underground development on the property, and if you look at producers in Kirkland Lake, this is where some major deposits begin. We consider the Mirado project to have excellent exploration potential for both shallow, open pit resources, as well as deeper high grade gold resources, which remain wide open for expansion on the property.”
Bill and his team had good reason for looking at these historical areas. He said, “At the Mirado project, when we reviewed the historical 1980’s drill results reported by Amax and Golden Shield Resources Limited, multiple high grade drill intercepts ranging up to 41.5 meters at 7.28 g/t Au were reported. We also noted that all surface and underground exploration activities halted abruptly after the October 1987 stock market crash, and that the project had remained dormant since that time. Our drilling returned a large number of spectacular drill intersections, an example being hole MD13-28 which returned 31.50 meters at 10.9 g/t starting at a down-hole depth of 18.5 meters.”
Mr. Yeomans saw that there was a lot of under-explored potential left in the greenstone belt, not just in the mine itself. He said, “We recognized that the deposit was never evaluated in terms of large scale bulk mining, and that many kilometers of the surrounding ground was never subjected to advanced exploration techniques and drilling. Much of this additional, untested ground was acquired by Orefinders for staking costs, and we plan to target gold bearing structures controlling the location of gold mineralization.”
“In 1986 Golden Shield extracted a 50,000 tonne bulk sample from a small open pit and stockpiled the material at the Mirado mine site. When operations halted suddenly during the fall of 1987, unprocessed stockpiles containing significant gold mineralization were left on surface.” The amount of resource in the stockpiles is significant, according to the company, enough that Orefinders completed an internal detailed evaluation for transport, processing and sale of the gold within the stockpile. Yeomans stated, “When SRK prepared an NI-43-101 inferred mineral resource estimate for Mirado in 2013, part of the inferred resource included the stockpiles. We are now in a position to submit a mine closure plan to the MNDM which will permit us to haul the stockpiled material to a custom mill for processing. In 2014 we completed an all-season road which is now licensed for hauling and there are several operating gold mills in the Abitibi. We have identified a few of these custom mills that would provide a good recovery for our gold mineralization within 100 kilometers hauling distance from the stockpiles.”
In closing, Yeomans comments that “There is excellent potential for the discovery of additional, structurally controlled gold deposits along strike and across favorable volcanic stratigraphy hosting the Mirado deposit. Mirado mineralization is developed near brittle-ductile felsic-mafic volcanic contacts in the vicinity of a regional anticlinal fold hinge. Extremely high grade gold mineralization occurs where felsic-mafic contacts located within the fold hinge are intersected by high angle, cross-cutting gold bearing structures. Historical underground workings and more recent diamond drill programs have delineated extremely high grade, stock-work style, gold-rich pyrite mineralization in this environment. This style of gold mineralization responds well to IP (induced-polarization) geophysics, as was presented in a stratigraphic cross-section for the Mirado deposit on our website at http://www.orefinders.ca/
Industry experts have also recognized potential for gold rich VMS mineralization on the property near the top of the Skead Formation, as well as bulk tonnage targets in gold bearing syenites which also occur on the property. These types of deposits do not necessarily outcrop and can be readily detected by IP combined with a good understanding of favorable geological environments on the property. Our substantially increased land position has targeted geological environments favorable for several different styles of gold mineralization. We look forward to being the first explorers to test several kilometers of favorable geology with modern exploration methods along strike and surrounding the Mirado deposit.
For more Information:
http://www.orefinders.ca
Bill Yeomans
President and CEO
Orefinders Resources Inc.
110-2300 Carrington Road
West Kelowna, British Columbia
V4T 2N6 Canada
Tel: 1-250-707-0911
Email: byeomans@orefinders.ca
Or
Kirk Gamley
Contact Financial
Tel: 1-604-689-7422
Email: kirk@contactfinancial.com
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