BMEX Gold Inc (TSX-V:BMEX) has been very excited by drill results so far from its King Tut project in the Abitibi region of Quebec and is keen to follow up with carefully staged exploration to de-risk the asset further.
The company holds two gold projects in the region, both of which have seen considerable previous drilling with significant results - King Tut, for which it has filed an option agreement to acquire all, comprises 120 claims on over 5,000 hectares; and Dunlop Bay, which the company is also fully earning into, covers 76 claims and over 4,000 hectares.
Dunlop Bay sits 15 kilometres (km) north-east of Glencore's Matagami Lake mine plant (gold, copper, zinc, silver), which serves the Bracemac-McLoed mine.
In August 2021, BMEX announced a key corporate move, naming seasoned geologist Robert Pryde as its new president and director to advance its goals further. He brings with him four decades of experience in both the mining and energy exploration sectors.
During his career, Pryde has led and supported projects through various stages of exploration, from pre-discovery to development and production, BMEX noted.
Currently, the BMEX team is carrying out a fully funded 2021 exploration program at the two assets, for which it gave some details in August 2021. The work includes magnetic surveying, 3D modelling and drilling.
A first pass diamond drill program
During the first half of 2021, the company completed a first pass, 19 hole - 5,119 metre (m) diamond drill program at King Tut, in which nearly every hole returned anomalous gold values related to quartz-carbonates veining, indicating that a hydrothermal gold-bearing system is hosted there.
Most significantly, in June, the company reported a drill assay of an impressive 81.89 grams per ton (g/t) gold over 0.45 metres (m) in one hole. It was intercepted from a depth of 185.65m and a re-assay of the sample returned 143.79 g/t of the yellow metal, BMEX noted.
Other drill results released included 5.82 g/t gold in one hole over 1m from 72m depth, which was contained within a longer intercept of 6.5m at 1.18 g/t gold, starting from the same depth.
The same month, the company's chief geologist Chris Wild spoke to Proactive and kicked off by describing the geography of King Tut.
"King Tut is located in northwestern Quebec, in the Abitibi region. It's on a major structure, which hosts several high-quality world-class gold deposits so we're very keen to advance this project to a point where we can start looking at the resource picture," he said.
On the positive BMEX drill results received so far for the project, Wild added that they had underlined the company's belief that King Tut was an asset with great potential.
Plumbing system in place
"The gold system we are looking for is quite robust, to encounter visible gold, the kind of quartz veining that we encountered shows that the plumbing system is in place and that it is actually very strong ... I'm super keen to follow up on these results," Wild explained to Proactive's Steve Darling.
Looking ahead for King Tut, he said the company would not be "rushing in", but instead taking a systematic approach, which would stretch over the next four to six months.
Firstly, there will be drilling, supported by a geophysical mag survey. BMEX will also re-log drill core to gain as much data, understanding of the project as possible, before taking all that information to remodel it in 3D to better understand the geology.
Thern the company will aim to design a follow-up drill program based on the 3D model to optimize the drill targets, the company's chief geologist has said.
Meanwhile, at the polymetallic Dunlop Bay, BMEX aims to carry out various exploration programs, from which the company can finalize a drill program.
The Abitibi gold belt is an established mining district and hosted over 100 mines, and has generated a whopping 170 million ounces of gold since 1901.
From 1985 to 1990, Falconbridge and Barrick Gold (Lac Minerals) carried out an extensive drilling program at King Tut. Historical drilling showed 75.69 g/t gold over 1m. Meanwhile, at Dunlop Bay, 18,695m of drilling in 114 holes was conducted between 1985 and 1995 on the main gold occurrence, hitting a series of quartz veins, veinlets, and breccia.
Contact the writer at giles@proactiveinevstors.com