Maple Gold Mines Ltd (TSX-V:MGM, OTCQB:MGMLF) revealed that two additional drill rigs have been secured, bringing the number of rigs being mobilized at Eagle and Joutel to five, to accelerate exploration activities across the company’s Québec projects.
The Vancouver-based advanced exploration company is in a 50:50 joint venture (JV) with Agnico Eagle Mines Limited to advance the district-scale Douay and Joutel gold projects located in Quebec's prolific Abitibi Greenstone Gold Belt.
"With five drill rigs actively turning on our Québec projects, the company remains on track to meet our targeted 2022 drill metreage," said Maple Gold CEO Matthew Hornor in a statement.
Maple pointed out that the additional rigs will help to complete the 6,000-metre (m) deep drilling program in the Telbel mine area at the Joutel project, as well as initiate the previously announced 10,000-metre deep drilling program at the Douay project in the coming weeks.
Tracking toward new gold zones at Douay
Significantly, Maple reported positive results this week from drilling completed at the Douay gold project during the first half of 2022, particularly related to sediment-hosted gold mineralization north of the Casa Berardi North Fault.
During the first year, the JV focused on infill and local step-out drilling, which resulted in positive conversion (21% increase) from inferred mineral resources to indicated mineral resources and incremental mineral resource gains within the known Douay mineral resource area.
This year, the work has centered on additional step-outs, deep drilling, and discovery targets. Maple said it would take the “same growth-oriented approach” in the third year to define the full potential of the mineralized system at Douay.
Maple has now received all assay results for 2022 drilling at Douay, which included 11 drill holes plus two drill hole extensions for 7,800m. Notably, 10 of the 12 holes returned intercepts over 0.45 grams per ton (g/t) gold (Au), and seven of these returned intercepts over 1 g/t Au.
In addition, the Nika Zone step-out DO-22-322A intersected 9.8 g/t Au over 1m starting from 584m downhole, as well as additional intercepts including 0.8 g/t Au over 10m and 1.6 g/t Au over 2m further downhole. The Douay West step-out hole DO-22-324 intersected 4.1 g/t Au over 0.6m from 505.6m.
"The company understands that step-out and discovery drilling may be inherently higher risk than infill drilling, but the reward can be game-changing on successes," said Fred Speidel, VP of Exploration at Maple Gold.
"The company views the H1/2022 drilling results at Douay as positive from an exploration perspective, particularly regarding sediment-hosted gold mineralization north of the Casa Berardi North Fault, where there is still only very limited drilling.”
Speidel noted that there is a drilling gap of over 7 km between the NW Zone and NE IP target, and multiple drilling gaps of up to 700m adjacent to the Central Zone.
“In addition, the H1/2022 drilling campaign also confirmed depth continuity of the intrusive-hydrothermal gold system at Douay,” added Speidel. “We look forward to initiating the 10,000m deep drilling program at Douay in the coming weeks."
The NE IP Target clearly stands out as a cluster of sediment-hosted gold anomalies, including several intervals above 1 g/t Au. This provides support for a new gold zone 4 km to the northeast of the current Douay mineral resource area. Seven holes have been drilled over a strike distance of around 1.2 km and multielement assays are pending and will provide data for additional vectoring for subsequent drilling in this area, said Maple.
The Nika and western part of the Porphyry Zone are currently interpreted to form the center of the Douay intrusive-hydrothermal gold system and upcoming deeper drilling will test for potential feeders in this area.
Drill rigs turning at Eagle Mine
In the meantime, three drill rigs are turning at the company's 100% controlled 77-hectare Eagle Mine property, which is located several kilometres west of the mining town of Joutel. Maple said the previously announced 5,000m Phase III drill program is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
A fourth drill rig was added in late October and continues to drill at Telbel. In addition, the fifth drill rig has arrived at the site and has been mobilized to Telbel, where Maple expects to complete the 6,000m program by January 2023.
As drill rigs become available from Eagle and Telbel, they will be relocated to Douay and Maple anticipates having all five drill rigs turning at Douay during the first quarter of 2023 to fire up the 10,000m deep drilling program.
Significantly, Maple has now released positive assay results corresponding to approximately 13,300m of drilling this year across Eagle and Douay, with nearly 10,300m of additional drilling completed at Eagle and Telbel.
"We look forward to additional results from drilling at Eagle and Telbel and to commencing the deep drill program at Douay to test potential depth extensions below the current pit-constrained mineral resource as soon as drill rigs from Eagle and Telbel become available," said Hornor.
Deep drilling at Telbel and Douay is being funded through a C$4.8-million supplemental second-year joint venture exploration budget. The third-year drilling and exploration blueprint will be drawn up by the partners in the late fourth quarter of 2022 and finalized during the early first quarter of 2023.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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