Canada Silver Cobalt Works Inc (TSX-V:CCW, OTCQB:CCWOF) reported significant gold mineralization at Castle East and from the underground drill program at the past-producing Castle mine near Gowganda in the prolific silver-cobalt mining district of northern Ontario.
The Coquitlam, British Columbia-based company released gold assay results from its 60,000-metre 2020-2022 drill program and reviewed the company's gold data from the 2011-2019 surface drill and 2014 channel sample programs at Castle East, as well as the underground drill program at its Castle Mine from 2019.
In a statement, CEO Frank Basa said: "Historically, gold has been directly associated with silver in the Cobalt Camp. The gold values in the silver dore bar produced when the historic mines were in production accounted for 3 to 5% of the total 1,000 ounces by weight.”
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“Using the January 13, 2023, close price of gold and silver, the contained gold value of these bars would be 2-to-4 times the contained silver value in USD."
In addition, the company has not only discovered gold mineralization in the Nipissing Diabase, where most of the silver-cobalt veins occur, but also in the Archean Lithologies above the diabase sill.
The company highlighted the following drill and channel sample results:
- Intercepts from the 2020-2022 drill program include 4.35 grams per ton (g/t) gold (Au) over 2.34 meter (m) in hole CS-20-31, 3.11 g/t Au over 1m in hole CS-20-39, 2.94 g/t Au over 1m in hole CS-22-108, and 2.53 g/t Au over 1m in hole CS-22-113;
- Intercepts from the 2011-2019 drill program include up to 15.20 g/t Au over 1m in hole CS-19-19 from 298 to 299m, and 5.52 g/t Au over 0.37m in hole CS-18-16W from 315.97 to 316.34m;
- Intercepts from the 2014 channel sampling program all at surface include 3.77 g/t Au over 0.59m in sample L42138, 1.16 g/t Au over 0.78m in L42133, and 1.25 g/t Au over 0.81m in L42049;
- Intercepts from the 2019 underground drill near the Castle Mine Adit entrance include up to 14.49 g/t Au over 0.90m, including 22.70 g/t Au over 0.30m from 3.30-3.60m in hole C-U-19-016, and 10.75 g/t Au over 0.33m from 0.67 to 1m in hole C-U-19-005.
In Gowganda, around 95% of the mined silver came from the Nipissing Diabase due to visual mining methods and finding veins near surface at the edge of the Miller Lake Basin. Shallow Archean-hosted near-surface intercepts such as the 24.95 g/t Au over 0.30m in CS-20-31 provide “evidence opportunity” for the Miller Lake Basin to contain shallow silver and gold mineralization, said the company.
Canada Silver said the gold intercepts warrant exploration to understand the extent of the mineralization. Shallow drill holes and outcrop stripping is also warranted given the proximity of gold and silver to surface, added the company.
“The significance of these intercepts is that Castle East is no longer simply a silver-cobalt type deposit, but it adds a third, very critical element – gold,” noted the company.
The intercepts also boost the firm’s gold and silver exploration portfolio which has been expanding since the acquisition of the Eby-Otto gold project near Kirkland Lake.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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