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RC Drilling at Miramar's Hope Bay Project Identifies Three New Gold Targets
Tuesday June 24, 11:02 am ET
Large Alteration Zones With Coincident Gold Anomalies Suggest Potential For New Gold Discoveries
VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 24, 2003--Miramar Mining Corporation (TSX:MAE - News; AMEX:MNG - News) today announced further success from the winter drilling program on the Hope Bay gold belt in Nunavut. Reverse Circulation ("RC") drilling has identified three prospective targets: South Nexus, Gas Cache and Boston NE in the Boston area, each representing large areas of alteration with coincident gold anomalies, suggesting potential for the discovery of new gold deposits in each of the areas.
"One of the objectives of our regional exploration program is to assess the gold potential of our huge land package at Hope Bay by using RC drilling to outline targets that lie in the extensive overburden covered areas," said Tony Walsh, Miramar's President & CEO. "We continue to turn up exciting new targets that warrant more intensive exploration, with South Nexus providing the highest gold values we have ever encountered in RC drilling on the belt. Moreover, in the past two years we have demonstrated our ability to quickly turn targets like these into important new deposits, as happened with the very successful program in the Madrid area, which now hosts Naartok, Suluk and other important gold occurrences."
"Our three-pronged strategy to explore and develop Hope Bay continues to yield positive results on all fronts," said Mr. Walsh. "First, by bringing the small, high grade Doris North project into production, we expect to generate cash flow that can be reinvested in the exploration of the belt. Second, we have extended the strike and depth of the gold mineralization in both the Madrid and Boston areas through our successful winter drilling program. And third, the identification of targets with potential for new gold discoveries through our RC drilling validates the attention we give to grass-roots exploration of the belt."
RC Drill Program
RC drilling is used to evaluate large tracts of land where there is little outcrop and prospective geology is interpreted to occur buried beneath overburden. Shallow vertical holes are drilled in the overburden covered areas to sample any basal till immediately above bedrock for analysis of gold grains, and to collect a 3m sample of rock chips from bedrock for rock type identification, alteration intensity and rock geochemistry, with gold values 20 parts per billion or greater considered significantly anomalous.
A 248 hole, 4,289m RC program has been completed in the Hope Bay belt in 2003, testing seven prospects for their potential to host new gold deposits. Results define three target areas, each of which is believed to have the potential to host a significant new gold discovery. Of particular interest is the South Nexus target, where RC drilling has outlined an extensive trend of anomalous gold values within rocks similar to those hosting the Suluk deposit, where drilling in 2003 has more than doubled the depth extent of the gold mineralization. In addition, the previously identified Gas Cache alteration trend was extended to over 1,000m in length, and RC drilling 4km northeast of Boston encountered a new alteration zone with potential for new gold discoveries. Miramar is currently preparing its summer drilling program that would likely include follow up work on the successes of the program to date.
These results confirm the potential of the Hope Bay belt to yield new targets within highly prospective host rocks and new gold targets outside of the three principal resource areas at Boston, Doris and Madrid.
Technical Information
South Nexus
Two sub-parallel alteration trends were identified in the South Nexus area where 78 vertical holes totalling 1,532m were drilled during the 2003 program, defining two alteration trends.
Drilling on the eastern trend identified a package of stratigraphy similar to that hosting the Madrid mineralization and occurs on the southward projection of the favourable stratigraphy hosting Naartok, Suluk, South Suluk and other gold occurrences in the Madrid area. In the South Nexus area, these rocks are weakly to strongly carbonate altered and strained over a 1,300m by 350m area, an area that could accommodate all of the Suluk and South Suluk mineralization. Sampling of rock chips returned gold values up to 220ppb (parts per billion or 0.2g/t) gold, the highest values returned in three years of RC exploration at Hope Bay. Diamond drilling is planned for this target, which has the potential to host a significant new gold deposit, during the 2003 summer season.
The western trend, more than 200m by more than 2,000m, is coincident with the southward projection of the Deformation Zone, and returned gold values up to 50ppb. The host rocks are similar to those hosting the South Patch 14 Zone, a narrow high grade resource. Finding prospective mineralization adjacent to a known gold bearing trend (the Deformation Zone) is a priority target for core drilling.
Gas Cache
Wide spaced RC drilling was completed in this large overburden filled valley in 2002 that is interpreted to be underlain by an antiform with a core of Doris-type rocks, a setting similar to the very high grade Doris deposit. The 2003 program (62 holes for 1,288m) tightened the line spacing to 200m and extended the drilling area north and south. Two alteration trends have been identified: one 600m in length, the other greater than 1,000m in length. Both are coincident with the edges of a magnetic low within mafic volcanic rocks, a feature typically associated with alteration halos around gold deposits on the Hope Bay belt, and have a rock chemistry signature similar to those rocks that host the Doris resource. While gold values are relatively low, Miramar believes the coincidence of favourable geology, alteration and magnetic low warrants the continued evaluation of the Gas Cache area.
Boston NE
Three areas of moderate to strong carbonate alteration and associated magnetic lows were encountered in a preliminary evaluation (28 holes for 549m) of a large overburden covered area 4km northeast of the Boston deposit, a setting similar to that hosting other significant gold deposits within the Hope Bay belt. The northern-most alteration zone occurs within Doris-type mafic rocks with attendant pervasive weak to strong carbonate alteration in RC drill chips and outcrop. Samples from this area returned anomalous gold values up to 25ppb in holes spaced 300m apart. Doris-type rocks also bracket a second 500m wide strong carbonate alteration trend at a strained mafic-felsic volcanic contact with anomalous gold values. Miramar believes follow-up diamond drilling is warranted for the Boston NE target based on the strength and style of alteration observed in the RC chips combined with the favourable structural environment interpreted from geophysical data. The third area of moderate carbonate alteration lies in sediments and did not return any significant gold values.
Other RC Program Areas
Basic geologic data was collected using the RC rig proximal to the Inge showing located in the NW corner of the Hope Bay Belt. Target testing within assessment areas included the Tonalite showing, the Flying Squirrel anomaly and south of the QSP prospect. No significant results were returned from these areas.
Hope Bay Project
The Hope Bay project is 100% owned by Miramar, extends over 1,000 square kilometres and encompasses one of the most prospective undeveloped greenstone belts in Canada. The belt contains a number of significant gold deposits which, host an aggregate measured and indicated resource of 1.6 million oz of gold averaging 15.7 g/t, plus an inferred resource of 2.7 million oz of gold averaging 12.3 g/t prior to the start of the 2003 program. All deposits remain open to expansion. Miramar is committed to advancing Hope Bay to become a major Canadian gold bearing Greenstone belt and have been rewarded with the Boston deep drilling program, the extension of Suluk to depth and along strike and the RC successes of the 2003 winter drilling campaign.
Quality Assurance/Quality Control
This information is reported under an extensive quality control program supervised by Edward Mahoney, P.Geo. Project Manager, Development with Miramar Mining Corporation, who is an appropriately qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
Additional Information
Following are specific technical results including tables and diagrams detailing some of the matters described above. If you are missing these illustrations, please download this news release from Miramar's website at http://www.miramarmining.com/, to which they are attached, or contact us at the numbers listed below. All other information previously released on the Hope Bay Project is also available on these websites.
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