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Nice to see Victor is bullish as ever and to see Century rise the last 2 days while most miners were down. I believe we will regain our positive momentum we had prior to CTO once we get the next substantial update next week!
The short answer is, yes, there will be (at least some) more direct Bedard Dyke drilling, but also drilling adjacent to the Bedard Dyke also (how much more drilling will likely depend on what they find).
Our last drilling update was during the June 2nd conference call. At the time, the Lamaque drilling was focused on the Lamaque no. 2 area - they were drilling this area just ahead of mining and developing new stopes, in order to provide vital data to enable more efficient mining. The Bedard Dyke wasn`t ready at the time.
It sounds like they have now opened up the Bedard Dyke and have started to mine it. However, it`s not quite clear if the exploration drifts are quite ready as yet, to initiate the next phase of BD drilling.
They have identified 3 specific Bedard Dyke area drill (test) targets for this next phase drilling:
1) Test the system at depth
From the May 5th NR: ``The Bedard Dyke exploration permit will allow the Company to collar the access portal and proceed underground via 300 meters of exploration drifting and decline ramps.``
``The initial exploration drift into the Bedard Dyke will be used to immediately develop underground drill stations to continue further exploration which was not able to be drilled or collared from surface. The exploration team will be targeting the dyke through an underground drill program to test the new system at depth and to the southwest. The goal is to define multiple continuous mineralized flats that are assumed to continue outside of the mineralized zone which was recently discovered in the Company's February 2010 drill campaign.``
2) Test to see if the Bedard Dyke and the north dippers bump together (north dippers is 1 of 4 types of mineralized structures historically on the Sigma side of Lamaque, along with dykes, flats and shears - north dippers are most prominent in this area of the property, and were mined in this area during open pit mining)
``The exploration program will also examine potential rollover or "blowout" zones where the Bedard Dyke meets "north dipper" structures, identical to what was mined in the historical open pit``
3) A high grade shear zone just north of the Bedard Dyke
``and will target an additional high grade shear zone just north of the Bedard Dyke that was mined at depth historically.``
I am trying to locate the Gold Loan info with Deutsch Bank. Could someone point me in that direction. I think this is an important piece of DD and should be easy to access on the main page.
With regards to the Bedard Dyke, I forgot to highlight that they will be testing the system to the southwest also.
``test the new system .... and to the southwest. The goal is to define multiple continuous mineralized flats that are assumed to continue outside of the mineralized zone``
Also, with regards to the mineralized flats outside of the mineralized zone:
*I think the flats are horizontal (natually), and are positioned at various depth all the way down the dyke
*I think the flats run horizontally (even) beyond the mineralized Bedard Dyke borders
*My thinking is that Bedard is a zone area, where the dyke itself has been intersected by all these high grade flats that are going horizontally across the dyke and are positioned at various depth levels down the dyke. Remember, flats are 1 of the 4 mineralized structures on the Sigma side of the property. As such, flats can be fruitful independently, beyond the cozy confines of the mineralized dyke area.
I think this is why Century believes that there are multiple mineralized zones still to be drilled (associated with the flats) that go beyond the primary mineralized Bedard Dyke zone.
Can you, or others, shed any light on the formation of the flats-how they developed geologically? Are they the result of alluvial/erosive action in between magmatic events ? I'm a little puzzled as to how they occur in such an intruded environment. I've seen lenses occur when mineral is carried upward by magma (or the water it superheats) and traps beneath dense or otherwise unheated layers of rock. I'm curious as to the origin of flats in such an intrusive environment. Maybe sheds some light on the slight elevational differences (Rick?) was referring to when he was talking about the slurry awhile back.
Firstly, something for us to keep in mind, as successful as Sigma-Lamaque u/g has been for 70 years, many of the structures that produced 9,000,000 ounces are still open in all directions today (from the 43-101 rpt):
``Many mineralized areas within the system are open on both strike and dip.``
``The mineralizing system at Lamaque has been tracked over an aerial extent of 3,000 m east-west, 2,700 m north-south and to a depth of 1,900 m.``
Hi Chillby,
Those are good questions. When you have some spare time for technical reading, you might want to glance through the 43-101 report to see if you find the specific answers. Though, I`m not quite sure the answers to those specific questions are in there.
As a general note, it says that the volcanic activity dates back 2,705 million years. That`s a long long long time. It opens up the door to many formation possibilities since the original volcanic activity.
Perhaps the magma worked its way through cracks, and in some cases pushing the country rocks out of the way. Who knows, perhaps this may explain why the veins pinch and swell in the flats - just a wild guess though (I don`t have enough geology knowledge to know with any level of certainty).
Here is an explanation of intrusions from wiki:
``An intrusion is liquid rock that forms under the surface of the earth. Magma from under the surface slowly moves its way up from deep within the earth and moves into any cracks or spaces it can find, sometimes pushing existing country rock out of the way, a process that can take millions of years or more to form. As the rock slowly cools into a solid, the different parts of the magma slowly crystallize into minerals. The more slowly the crystals form, the larger the crystals can get.``
Here are some geology notes from the 43-101 report:
1) Sigma Mine Geology
``Sigma is located south of the Bourlamaque Batholith within the Central Pyroclastic Belt of the Val d’Or Formation. The deposit is hosted by an andesite unit bounded to the north by the `north shear` and by volcaniclastic rocks of intermediate composition to the south. The volcanics have been cut by two generations of pre-ore porphyry dykes, sills and a large composite stock that ranges in composition from diorite to granodiorite, and by a series of shears. Mineralization consists of gold in quartz-tourmaline-carbonate (QTC) veins, stringers and stockworks within the intrusive rocks and the shear structures. The gold bearing structures are oriented east-west. Late diabase dykes cut the veins in a north-south direction.``
2) Veins
``The veins consist of quartz-tourmaline-carbonate (QTC). The proportions of the vein forming minerals vary considerably and are of multiple ages. Typically a vein will be composed of 80% quartz, 15% tourmaline and 5% carbonate (calcite and ankerite). Scheelite is common in the veins. Visible gold is seen occasionally. Other ore associated minerals include pyrite (1 - 10%), minor chalcopyrite and on rare occasion tellurides (petzite, calaverite, krennerite, tellurbismuth). Wall rock is often bleached with silicification and albitization. At depths of 1,500 meters biotite is found in the veins displacing tourmaline. No change in gold tenor has been observed at depth with this change in vein mineralogy. The major veins generally have higher grade as they approach the Highway Shear.``
3) Type 4 Ore (Flats)
``These are sub-horizontal tension fractures, that range from a few centimeters to a meter or more in thickness, strike north-south, generally dip less than 20 degrees west and can pinch and swell in an unpredictable manner. Flats generally carry some of the highest grades mined and tend to have the highest grade near the vertical shears.``
4) Similarities between Simga and Lamaque mines:
``The geology of the two mines was originally thought to be much more complex than it now appears. The considerable volume of research over the past 30 years has clarified a number of significant questions. Many of the intrusive lithologies described above and differentiated in the Lamaque and Sigma geological legends are phases of the same rock units and the volcanics can most likely be divided into 4 or 5 Sub-Formations. Part of the re-evaluation project will be creating consistent nomenclature for the `new` Lamaque mine.``
Thanks p05. The variety of changes in Abitibi/Archaean rocks is fascinating. The interesting thing to me is the variety of different geologies containing precious metals - quartz-carbonate, iron-carbonate, porphyry, epithermal and hydrothermal deposits, secondary alluvial deposits and right on down the line. Being about just educated enough to be dangerous, it keeps occurring to me that some massive deposit of Au/Ag et al might be located deep under the area between Timmins and Val D'Or. It has come up in the "original" magma, been pushed up by later volcanic and tectonic activity, blasted through the cracks be escaping water and gas. The lenses and plutonic intrusions being found down at Amador's mine at Hollister, the similarities between the structures at Lamaque and Red Lake, the generally rich deposits on the north side of PDF as opposed to the generally low values south of it. Perhaps there was, when the rock was still hot a mile down, some lateral intrusion that today exhibits itself as a "river of gold" that runs mostly east-west inside the Abitibi greenstone boundary. My hope, of course, is that it all ran into an insurmountable obstacle at Lamaque and solidified against the BD. I wouldn't be surprised if the deeper workings of the mines turn up some surprisingly good values as they become accessible. But then, I won't be surprised if I'm completely out to lunch on this idea, either. No denying, though, that many of the best values from the region, though typically less than 6m in length, occur up against dykes and plutons intersecting PDF in a north-south orientation. If this holds true, then all of CMM's holdings at Val D'Or have the potential to match Sigma/Lamaque. I, too, will be very interested to see what the drills turn up over the next two years.
I also find it interesting that andesite is the host for so much gold, and not much copper, in the Val D'Or region. Common enough as an intrusive rock, but not so commonly a host for PGM's.
12 comments:
Included in the Bedard Dyke (March 15th) drill results was this hit:
100.50 g/t (1.69 m thickness)
That hit occured between 62.37 m (210 ft) and 65.87 m (216 ft) down.
100.50 g/t is equal to 3.23 in ounce per tonne
Victor said today that he saw a 3 ounce per tonne rock at the Bedard Dyke even before entering the mining area.
I am getting the impression that there are numerous 3 (+) ounce per tonne type rocks residing in the Bedard Dyke.
Nice to see Victor is bullish as ever and to see Century rise the last 2 days while most miners were down. I believe we will regain our positive momentum we had prior to CTO once we get the next substantial update next week!
Real_Economics
I forget, is there more drilling going on at Bedard?
The short answer is, yes, there will be (at least some) more direct Bedard Dyke drilling, but also drilling adjacent to the Bedard Dyke also (how much more drilling will likely depend on what they find).
Our last drilling update was during the June 2nd conference call. At the time, the Lamaque drilling was focused on the Lamaque no. 2 area - they were drilling this area just ahead of mining and developing new stopes, in order to provide vital data to enable more efficient mining. The Bedard Dyke wasn`t ready at the time.
It sounds like they have now opened up the Bedard Dyke and have started to mine it. However, it`s not quite clear if the exploration drifts are quite ready as yet, to initiate the next phase of BD drilling.
They have identified 3 specific Bedard Dyke area drill (test) targets for this next phase drilling:
1) Test the system at depth
From the May 5th NR: ``The Bedard Dyke exploration permit will allow the Company to collar the access portal and proceed underground via 300 meters of exploration drifting and decline ramps.``
``The initial exploration drift into the Bedard Dyke will be used to immediately develop underground drill stations to continue further exploration which was not able to be drilled or collared from surface. The exploration team will be targeting the dyke through an underground drill program to test the new system at depth and to the southwest. The goal is to define multiple continuous mineralized flats that are assumed to continue outside of the mineralized zone which was recently discovered in the Company's February 2010 drill campaign.``
2) Test to see if the Bedard Dyke and the north dippers bump together (north dippers is 1 of 4 types of mineralized structures historically on the Sigma side of Lamaque, along with dykes, flats and shears - north dippers are most prominent in this area of the property, and were mined in this area during open pit mining)
``The exploration program will also examine potential rollover or "blowout" zones where the Bedard Dyke meets "north dipper" structures, identical to what was mined in the historical open pit``
3) A high grade shear zone just north of the Bedard Dyke
``and will target an additional high grade shear zone just north of the Bedard Dyke that was mined at depth historically.``
I am trying to locate the Gold Loan info with Deutsch Bank. Could someone point me in that direction. I think this is an important piece of DD and should be easy to access on the main page.
Thanks in advance!
Hi Glorieux,
It`s on SEDAR, with an January 14, 2010 filing date. It`s the one tagged with document type of ``Other`` and the file size of ``4916K``.
With regards to the Bedard Dyke, I forgot to highlight that they will be testing the system to the southwest also.
``test the new system .... and to the southwest. The goal is to define multiple continuous mineralized flats that are assumed to continue outside of the mineralized zone``
Also, with regards to the mineralized flats outside of the mineralized zone:
*I think the flats are horizontal (natually), and are positioned at various depth all the way down the dyke
*I think the flats run horizontally (even) beyond the mineralized Bedard Dyke borders
*My thinking is that Bedard is a zone area, where the dyke itself has been intersected by all these high grade flats that are going horizontally across the dyke and are positioned at various depth levels down the dyke. Remember, flats are 1 of the 4 mineralized structures on the Sigma side of the property. As such, flats can be fruitful independently, beyond the cozy confines of the mineralized dyke area.
I think this is why Century believes that there are multiple mineralized zones still to be drilled (associated with the flats) that go beyond the primary mineralized Bedard Dyke zone.
p05,
Can you, or others, shed any light on the formation of the flats-how they developed geologically? Are they the result of alluvial/erosive action in between magmatic events ? I'm a little puzzled as to how they occur in such an intruded environment. I've seen lenses occur when mineral is carried upward by magma (or the water it superheats) and traps beneath dense or otherwise unheated layers of rock. I'm curious as to the origin of flats in such an intrusive environment. Maybe sheds some light on the slight elevational differences (Rick?) was referring to when he was talking about the slurry awhile back.
Firstly, something for us to keep in mind, as successful as Sigma-Lamaque u/g has been for 70 years, many of the structures that produced 9,000,000 ounces are still open in all directions today (from the 43-101 rpt):
``Many mineralized areas within the system are open on both strike and dip.``
``The mineralizing system at Lamaque has been tracked over an aerial extent of 3,000 m east-west, 2,700 m north-south and to a depth of 1,900 m.``
Hi Chillby,
Those are good questions. When you have some spare time for technical reading, you might want to glance through the 43-101 report to see if you find the specific answers. Though, I`m not quite sure the answers to those specific questions are in there.
As a general note, it says that the volcanic activity dates back 2,705 million years. That`s a long long long time. It opens up the door to many formation possibilities since the original volcanic activity.
Perhaps the magma worked its way through cracks, and in some cases pushing the country rocks out of the way. Who knows, perhaps this may explain why the veins pinch and swell in the flats - just a wild guess though (I don`t have enough geology knowledge to know with any level of certainty).
Here is an explanation of intrusions from wiki:
``An intrusion is liquid rock that forms under the surface of the earth. Magma from under the surface slowly moves its way up from deep within the earth and moves into any cracks or spaces it can find, sometimes pushing existing country rock out of the way, a process that can take millions of years or more to form. As the rock slowly cools into a solid, the different parts of the magma slowly crystallize into minerals. The more slowly the crystals form, the larger the crystals can get.``
to be continued.......
Here are some geology notes from the 43-101 report:
1) Sigma Mine Geology
``Sigma is located south of the Bourlamaque Batholith within the Central Pyroclastic Belt of the Val d’Or Formation. The deposit is hosted by an andesite unit bounded to the north by the `north shear` and by volcaniclastic rocks of intermediate composition to the
south. The volcanics have been cut by two generations of pre-ore porphyry dykes, sills and a large composite stock that ranges in composition from diorite to granodiorite, and by a series of shears. Mineralization consists of gold in quartz-tourmaline-carbonate (QTC) veins, stringers and stockworks within the intrusive rocks and the shear structures. The gold bearing structures are oriented east-west. Late diabase dykes cut the veins in a north-south direction.``
2) Veins
``The veins consist of quartz-tourmaline-carbonate (QTC). The proportions of the vein forming minerals vary considerably and are of multiple ages. Typically a vein will be composed of 80% quartz, 15% tourmaline and 5% carbonate (calcite and ankerite). Scheelite is common in the veins. Visible gold is seen occasionally. Other ore associated minerals include pyrite (1 - 10%), minor chalcopyrite and on rare occasion tellurides (petzite, calaverite, krennerite, tellurbismuth). Wall rock is often bleached with
silicification and albitization. At depths of 1,500 meters biotite is found in the veins displacing tourmaline. No change in gold tenor has been observed at depth with this change in vein mineralogy. The major veins generally have higher grade as they
approach the Highway Shear.``
3) Type 4 Ore (Flats)
``These are sub-horizontal tension fractures, that range from a few centimeters to a meter or more in thickness, strike north-south,
generally dip less than 20 degrees west and can pinch and swell in an unpredictable manner. Flats generally carry some of the highest grades mined and tend to have the highest grade near the vertical shears.``
4) Similarities between Simga and Lamaque mines:
``The geology of the two mines was originally thought to be much more complex than it now appears. The considerable volume of research over the past 30 years has clarified a number of significant questions. Many of the intrusive lithologies described above and
differentiated in the Lamaque and Sigma geological legends are phases of the same rock units and the volcanics can most likely be divided into 4 or 5 Sub-Formations. Part of the re-evaluation project will be creating consistent nomenclature for the `new` Lamaque mine.``
Thanks p05.
The variety of changes in Abitibi/Archaean rocks is fascinating. The interesting thing to me is the variety of different geologies containing precious metals - quartz-carbonate, iron-carbonate, porphyry, epithermal and hydrothermal deposits, secondary alluvial deposits and right on down the line. Being about just educated enough to be dangerous, it keeps occurring to me that some massive deposit of Au/Ag et al might be located deep under the area between Timmins and Val D'Or. It has come up in the "original" magma, been pushed up by later volcanic and tectonic activity, blasted through the cracks be escaping water and gas. The lenses and plutonic intrusions being found down at Amador's mine at Hollister, the similarities between the structures at Lamaque and Red Lake, the generally rich deposits on the north side of PDF as opposed to the generally low values south of it.
Perhaps there was, when the rock was still hot a mile down, some lateral intrusion that today exhibits itself as a "river of gold" that runs mostly east-west inside the Abitibi greenstone boundary. My hope, of course, is that it all ran into an insurmountable obstacle at Lamaque and solidified against the BD. I wouldn't be surprised if the deeper workings of the mines turn up some surprisingly good values as they become accessible. But then, I won't be surprised if I'm completely out to lunch on this idea, either. No denying, though, that many of the best values from the region, though typically less than 6m in length, occur up against dykes and plutons intersecting PDF in a north-south orientation. If this holds true, then all of CMM's holdings at Val D'Or have the potential to match Sigma/Lamaque. I, too, will be very interested to see what the drills turn up over the next two years.
I also find it interesting that andesite is the host for so much gold, and not much copper, in the Val D'Or region. Common enough as an intrusive rock, but not so commonly a host for PGM's.
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