$0.79
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Projects
Martiniere
Advanced Exploration - Gold - Detour Lake Area, Quebec
Balmoral is in the process of defining an important new, high grade gold bearing system on the Martiniere Property. To date the Company has intersected gold mineralization along two major structural trends -- the Bug Lake and Martiniere West Trend -- which in aggregate extend for over 1,900 metres along strike and to depths of over 400 vertical metres. Both trends remain open to depth.
Gold mineralization on the Martiniere Property is typical of gold deposits throughout the Abitibi region of Ontario and Quebec. It exhibits a strong element of structural (shear/fault) control, is gold dominant with only minor associated silver mineralization, demonstrates a strong association with certain lithologies or lithological contacts and, to date, demonstrates significant vertical continuity. The vast majority of the large gold deposits in the Abitibi have vertical dimensions which exceed their horizontal dimensions - often by a fact of 3 or 4:1. Several deposits have been mined to vertical depths exceeding 1,000 metres at average grades in the 7-8 g/t range. The Martiniere Gold System is located in area of complete overburden cover which has historically hidden it from the prying eyes of prospectors and explorers.
The Bug Lake Trend, discovered by Balmoral in 2012, features several, sub-parallel gold bearing zones located along an early, and frequently re-activated north-south oriented fault system. Similar to deposits throughout the Abitibi region this discovery is characterized by high-gold grades, variable widths and strong silica-carbonate alteration. The Bug Lake Trend remains open for expansion but has been traced thus far across 1,200 metres of strike length and to vertical depths of over 400 metres. Current testing is focussed on delineating the shallow potential of the system before progressing with additional deeper testing. It's scale and grade make Bug Lake the largest gold system along the Detour Trend and an important asset for the Company.
Located six hundred metres west of the central portion of the Bug Lake Trend the West Zone is a second prominent, high-grade gold-bearing feature. Originally discovered by Cyprus Canada in the late 1990's Balmoral has not drill defined the West Zone for 400 metres along strike and to vertical depths of over 300 metres. The West Zone sits in a separate structural zone from Bug Lake. This shear zone also hosts a number of gold occurrences on the Property which warrant additional examination.
In addition to these two better defined zones of gold mineralization Balmoral has identified at least 10 other prominent gold occurrences on the Martiniere Property, the most recent of which is some 2.0 kilometres east of any previous gold bearing intercepts. In addition, the historic Norbug gold occurrences, located over 3.0 kilometres northeast of the core of the Bug Lake Trend suggests the presence of a large gold bearing system in the greater Martiniere area, only a small portion of which has been tested to date.
Martiniere Gold System - Schematic Long Section
Base Metal Potential
In 2011 Balmoral reported the discovery of a volcanogenic massive sulphide ("VMS") system on the Martiniere Property. VMS systems similar to the one discovered at Martiniere are globally important suppliers of copper and zinc and can also contain significant gold, silver, lead as well as recoverable quantities of other metals. Drilling in the winter of 2015 (see NR15-05, Apr. 20, 2015) intersected semi-massive sulphides believed to be associated with this discovery which reported copper, zinc, gold and silver assay results of potential economic interest.
Immediately to the south of the Martiniere Property is the former producing Selbaie deposit which produced 53 million tonnes of ore at average grades of 1.0% copper, 1.9% zinc, 41 g/t silver and 0.6 g/t gold. The Mattagami VMS camp, which hosted a number of productive VMS deposits including the currently producing Bracemac-MacLeod deposit, sits in the same geological domain approximately 100 kilometres to the east, just southeast of the Company's Grasset Property.
In addition to the recent Cu-Zn-Ag-Au results, and the development of weakly anomalous gold mineralization throughout the dominantly iron (pyrite) rich Martiniere East VMS system Balmoral has intersected (see drill hole MDE-11-09 -- NR11, Dec. 5, 2011) intersected a narrow, strongly brecciated interval near the upper margin of the Martiniere East VMS system which returned 74.60 g/t gold and 1,390 g/t silver along with strongly elevated copper, zinc, cadmium and tungsten. This intercept suggests potential within this system, and potentially in association with other as yet defined systems elsewhere on the property, for the discovery of a polymetallic VMS discovery.
- Centrally located within the Company's Detour Trend Project, approximately 45 kilometres east of the Detour Gold Deposit, and a similar distance north of the Hecla's Casa Berardi gold mine.
- The Martiniere gold system features a number of, typically high-grade, gold bearing structural zones. The two largest gold bearing trends identified to date are the Bug Lake Trend, the current focus of activities, and the Martiniere West Zone Trend.
- The Bug Lake Trend extends for a minimum of 1,200 metres in a north-south direction and to vertical depths of over 400 metres. It remains open to the south and to depth on all section lines. The Bug Lake Trend features a number of sub-parallel, steeping dipping gold zones including the bonanza grade Footwall Zone.
- The Martiniere West Trend can be traced for over 700 metres along strike and features the high-grade West Zone which has been intersected from surface to vertical depths of over 300 metres. Several additional occurrences have been intersected along this trend.
- Central Zone - Initially discovered by Cyprus Canada the Central Zone consists of several high-grade intercepts located approximately 300 metres along projected strike from the West Zone along the West Zone Trend.
- ME-16 Zone and other discoveries- The ME-16 Zone is defined by a series of holes which represent the most easterly tests of the Martiniere Gold System completed to date. It is one of several high-grade vein zones on the Property which await additional follow-up testing.
- The vast majority of the 9.5 x 7.0 kilometre Martiniere Property remains untested
- Balmoral owns a 100% Interest in the Martiniere Property
Balmoral is in the process of defining an important new, high grade gold bearing system on the Martiniere Property. To date the Company has intersected gold mineralization along two major structural trends -- the Bug Lake and Martiniere West Trend -- which in aggregate extend for over 1,900 metres along strike and to depths of over 400 vertical metres. Both trends remain open to depth.
Gold mineralization on the Martiniere Property is typical of gold deposits throughout the Abitibi region of Ontario and Quebec. It exhibits a strong element of structural (shear/fault) control, is gold dominant with only minor associated silver mineralization, demonstrates a strong association with certain lithologies or lithological contacts and, to date, demonstrates significant vertical continuity. The vast majority of the large gold deposits in the Abitibi have vertical dimensions which exceed their horizontal dimensions - often by a fact of 3 or 4:1. Several deposits have been mined to vertical depths exceeding 1,000 metres at average grades in the 7-8 g/t range. The Martiniere Gold System is located in area of complete overburden cover which has historically hidden it from the prying eyes of prospectors and explorers.
The Bug Lake Trend, discovered by Balmoral in 2012, features several, sub-parallel gold bearing zones located along an early, and frequently re-activated north-south oriented fault system. Similar to deposits throughout the Abitibi region this discovery is characterized by high-gold grades, variable widths and strong silica-carbonate alteration. The Bug Lake Trend remains open for expansion but has been traced thus far across 1,200 metres of strike length and to vertical depths of over 400 metres. Current testing is focussed on delineating the shallow potential of the system before progressing with additional deeper testing. It's scale and grade make Bug Lake the largest gold system along the Detour Trend and an important asset for the Company.
Located six hundred metres west of the central portion of the Bug Lake Trend the West Zone is a second prominent, high-grade gold-bearing feature. Originally discovered by Cyprus Canada in the late 1990's Balmoral has not drill defined the West Zone for 400 metres along strike and to vertical depths of over 300 metres. The West Zone sits in a separate structural zone from Bug Lake. This shear zone also hosts a number of gold occurrences on the Property which warrant additional examination.
In addition to these two better defined zones of gold mineralization Balmoral has identified at least 10 other prominent gold occurrences on the Martiniere Property, the most recent of which is some 2.0 kilometres east of any previous gold bearing intercepts. In addition, the historic Norbug gold occurrences, located over 3.0 kilometres northeast of the core of the Bug Lake Trend suggests the presence of a large gold bearing system in the greater Martiniere area, only a small portion of which has been tested to date.
Martiniere Gold System - Schematic Long Section
Base Metal Potential
In 2011 Balmoral reported the discovery of a volcanogenic massive sulphide ("VMS") system on the Martiniere Property. VMS systems similar to the one discovered at Martiniere are globally important suppliers of copper and zinc and can also contain significant gold, silver, lead as well as recoverable quantities of other metals. Drilling in the winter of 2015 (see NR15-05, Apr. 20, 2015) intersected semi-massive sulphides believed to be associated with this discovery which reported copper, zinc, gold and silver assay results of potential economic interest.
Immediately to the south of the Martiniere Property is the former producing Selbaie deposit which produced 53 million tonnes of ore at average grades of 1.0% copper, 1.9% zinc, 41 g/t silver and 0.6 g/t gold. The Mattagami VMS camp, which hosted a number of productive VMS deposits including the currently producing Bracemac-MacLeod deposit, sits in the same geological domain approximately 100 kilometres to the east, just southeast of the Company's Grasset Property.
In addition to the recent Cu-Zn-Ag-Au results, and the development of weakly anomalous gold mineralization throughout the dominantly iron (pyrite) rich Martiniere East VMS system Balmoral has intersected (see drill hole MDE-11-09 -- NR11, Dec. 5, 2011) intersected a narrow, strongly brecciated interval near the upper margin of the Martiniere East VMS system which returned 74.60 g/t gold and 1,390 g/t silver along with strongly elevated copper, zinc, cadmium and tungsten. This intercept suggests potential within this system, and potentially in association with other as yet defined systems elsewhere on the property, for the discovery of a polymetallic VMS discovery.
