www.niogold.com
NioGold Mining Corporation (TSX-V: NOX) (OTC: NOXGF.pk) is a gold exploration company with extensive land holdings in Northern Quebec’s most prominent gold mining region adjacent to 8 producing gold mines. The Malartic project holds NI 43-101 compliant Indicated resources of 600,000 ounces gold in addition to Inferred resources of 360,000 ounces gold.
The gold resources are defined along a three-kilometre segment of a regional gold mineralised fault zone, in and around the former Marban, Norlartic and Kierens gold mines, which collectively produced 600,000 ounces gold. NioGold controls a 20 km (12.5 miles) segment of this prospective fault zone. The Company plans continued aggressive drilling on its land holdings to expand the current resources and for new discoveries.
NioGold Mining hits high grade gold outside current resource
Gold exploration junior NioGold Mining (TSX-V:NOX, Frankfurt:NG1, OTC:NOXGF) dropped more positive drill results on shareholders laps this morning. The results, from the company’s Malartic property which sits in Quebec’s highly prospective Abitibi gold mining district, confirmed the presence of high grade gold outside of the currently known deposits.
Drill hole MB-10-101, which was collared approximately 1 kilometre northeast of the Marban deposit, intersected 31.2 grams per tonne gold over 1.3 meters and 5.2 grams per tonne gold over 1.2 meters. NioGold previously drilled two holes into the same target, named Marban NE, in 2007, which also returned moderate to high grade gold over narrow intersects.
“Gold values of economic interest at Marban NE are found in sheared or fractured mafic volcanics close to altered and mineralised porphyry intrusions,” NioGold added. “The occurrence is interpreted to represent the east extension of the North shear where limited past drilling was conducted outside the North Zone.”
Meanwhile, in drill hole MB-10-098, the best intersect reported was 23.2 grams per tonne gold over 1.2 meters, which was drilled 450 meters east of any previous drilling on the Marban deposit, adding the potential to increase the size of the resource.
Drilling also confirmed three shear zones containing sulphide mineralisation to the north-west and on trend with the Norlaric-Kierens deposits and the North and North-North Zones. The highlight from the results was 12.4 grams per tonne gold over 1.8 meters in drill hole MH-09-014 and 6.9 grams per tonne gold over 1.1 meters in drill hole MH-09-018.
“Our initial exploration targeting was markedly accurate in tracing the main strands of the Norbenite-Marbanite away from the known gold deposits despite local structural complexities. These structures remain strong to the east and west and generally enclose zones of alteration, vein stockwork, sulphide mineralisation, and locally intruded by swarms of porphyry intrusions, characteristic of productive segments along the major deformation corridors in the district. Results to date returned thick sections of anomalous gold mineralisation and some higher grade intersections of economic interest” commented Rock Lefrançois, NioGold President & COO.
“We have budgeted for 20,000 metres of drilling for 2010 as a first pass exploration program along this prospective deformation zone.”
In January NioGold reported a large increase in the indicated and inferred resources at Malartic. Inferred resources increased by 34% to 361,000 ounces, while indicated resources jumped 730% to 598,000 ounces. The combined indicated and inferred resource now stands at 959,000 ounces.
The resource calculation was based on the assumption of a 0.5 grams per tonne cut-off grade for mineralization above 200 meters, which could be extracted via an open pit operation, and a 2.5 grams per tonne cut-off grade for resources below 200 meters which would require underground mining.
