Maple Gold Mines Ltd said it has completed the first phase of deep drilling at its Douay and Joutel Gold projects in Quebec, Canada, with early indications "encouraging".
In addition to its 100%-controlled Eagle Mine property, Maple is in a 50:50 joint venture (JV) with Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd to advance the district-scale Douay and Joutel gold projects located in Quebec's prolific Abitibi Greenstone Gold Belt.
The JV completed over 13,100 meters of drilling across Douay and Joutel before the winter break-up. It drilled a total of 7,343 meters in three master drill holes and four successful wedge drill holes in the Telbel mine area at Joutel. At Douay, the JV drilled a total of 5,792 meters in five drill holes.
All Telbel drill holes intersected broad zones of semi-massive to massive sulfide mineralization, said the company. The Telbel drill holes intersected the main mine horizon, but perhaps more compelling is the fact that the wedges from TB-23-003 intersected zones of semi-massive sulfide well north of this horizon as well. Furthermore, TB-23-003W2 bottomed in mineralization with sphalerite and zinc observed in the drill core.
At Douay, the most compelling visual core observations were in the final DO-23-326X hole, collared near the Central Zone and extending beneath the Porphyry Zone at depth, with significant alteration, deformation, and mineralization showing abundant fine-grained pyrite.
“Early indications from the JV's first phase of deep drilling are encouraging, particularly at Telbel with the upper mineralized zones," said Maple Gold CEO Matthew Hornor.
"Sphalerite is a key indicator of VMS style of mineralization, and we look forward to the gold and multi-element assay results from these holes with the aim of vectoring towards a significant mineralized zone at depth.”
At Douay, Hornor noted that the company is “excited” by what it had observed in the drill core beneath the Porphyry Zone and looked forward to the assay results and valuable data that the first phase of deep drilling will generate.
Maple said it has identified additional targets that were previously permitted and approved for drilling at Douay but will wait on the additional assay results and internal 3D model updates before starting the next phases of drilling at Douay/Joutel. Assay results are expected in the second quarter of 2023 and will be reported once they are vetted and interpreted.
The district-scale Douay and Joutel property package hosts a significant number of regional exploration targets along a 55-kilometre strike length of the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone that have yet to be tested through drilling, making the project ripe for new gold and polymetallic discoveries.
Investors reacted to the news, sending Maple Gold shares up 7.1% to $0.15 on the TSX Venture Exchange in afternoon trading.
Despite that, Maple shares are still less than what they traded for at $0.17 when Agnico Eagle made its initial strategic investment at a premium of $0.24 a share. Notably, Maple has since drilled three of the top five intercepts ever at Douay, upgraded its mineral resource estimate to over 3 million ounces (Moz) with 21% conversion to the Indicated category, acquired the Eagle Mine and demonstrated the potential for high-grade mineralization at the property.
“Maple is well capitalized and has now completed the type of deep discovery exploration drilling at Douay and Joutel that other juniors would only dream of completing without the financial and technical support of a major like Agnico,” a Maple Gold executive told Proactive.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive