The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor A second round of exploration is bolstering optimism around a long-defunct gold mine near Cranberry Portage. Callinex Mines says a drilling permit has been received for its Gossan Hill Property, which includes the former Gurney mine, about 20 km northeast of the town. Two diamond drills rigs are being mobilized to the property in preparation for a winter drill program, the Vancouver-based company said. The program will consist of some 10,000 metres of diamond drilling in a planned 37 drill holes, testing known gold-bearing structures identified during a 2010-11 drilling program. Callinex said the program will also test new targets defined by its soil geochemical program, conducted last summer. Returned gold The 2010-11 drilling program consisted of 31 holes, all of which, the company said, returned gold and silver mineralization in 'encouraging' widths and concentrations. Callinex said one hole graded 9.47 grams of gold per tonne and 16.52 grams of silver per tonne over a core width of 4.7 metres; another graded 9.73 grams of gold and 6.91 grams of silver over a width of 5.75 metres. In the 2011 program, the company had tested a part of the property known as the 'Gossan Hill Zone' along 300 metres of strike length, and to a vertical depth of 350 metres from surface before the program was suspended for spring break-up. The zone is considered to be open along strike and depth, Callinex said, and one of the two drill rigs will now be committed to testing the structure's extensions along strike and depth. Sampling The geochemical sampling program of last summer was designed to expand the company's understanding of the gold-bearing structure, as well as to search for similar structures along the four-kilometre intrusive-volcanic contact. Results clearly defined the known Gossan Hill Zone, as well as a second strong anomaly two kilometres southeast, Callinex said. The second drill rig will begin drill testing of this anomaly. Records indicate the Gurney mine produced 28,045 ounces of gold between 1937 and 1939, when it closed never to reopen. According to the provincial government, the property was first staked as the Dominion claims in 1919. Wylie-Dominion Gold Mines Ltd. was incorporated in 1933 to develop those claims. The property would change hands several times over the decades. Exploration work was carried out in the 1980s and 1990, but mining has not occurred in more than seven decades.
