Soaring gold grades from Kodiak Exploration's (KXL-V, KXLAF-O) Hercules project caused the company's share price to take off recently, closing more than 50% higher on the results. To continue reading this article, you must be a subscriber to The Northern Miner
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Hercules Gold Property – Drilling Underway Kodiak has discovered an extensive gold-mineralized system in the Beardmore-Geraldton Gold Camp (4.1 million ounces high grade gold production) near Thunder Bay, Ontario. Quartz-carbonate veins, frequently containing visible gold and sulfides, have been uncovered by trenching over an aggregate strike length of more than 5 kilometres, with strong individual veins up to 11 metres wide and 1 kilometre long. High grade gold mines in the area remain open to depth, and show that the gold mineralization can extend to a depth of more than 1.5 kilometres or greater. Ninety per cent of the exposed strike length at Hercules remains untested, and the system remains open in all directions. With many geological similarities to Red Lake and Kirkland Lake, this discovery fits the model for the classic Archean shear-hosted gold deposits that produce 66% of Canada’s gold. Kodiak now has 100% control of more than 380 square kilometers in this underexplored greenstone belt located between the multi-million ounce Red Lake and Timmins gold camps, and the prospects for further discovery appear to be excellent.
THE GOLDEN MILE The Golden Mile is a massive gold-bearing system more than two kilometres long (see video). Forty one per cent of grab samples collected along the Golden Mile to date have returned more than 10 g/t Au. Continuous quartz veining 1 to 3 metres thick has been exposed over a strike length of more than 1000 metres, and visible gold is frequently found on surface and in drill core. Nine channel samples taken at 42 metre intervals over a strike length of 365 metres averaged 20.20 g/t Au over a mean width of 3.8 metres, including channel sample AMX-01 that assayed 32.96 g/t Au over 11.6 metres. Two shallow holes drilled beneath channel AMX-01 showed that gold mineralization extends to a depth of more than 40 metres, with hole HR07-10 intersecting 6.89 g/t Au over 4 metres (see drill section and map). All holes drilled along the Golden Mile to date have been gold bearing, and it remains open along strike and to depth (see drill and channel tables for full results).
THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD The Yellow Brick Road is a parallel gold-mineralized system 1 kilometre northeast of the Golden Mile that has been exposed over a strike length of more than 1.2 kilometres (see video). At the south end it includes the WL gold zone, where a high-grade gold-mineralized shoot has been intersected in four drill holes and three surface channel cuts, including an intersection of 15.9 g/t over a true width of 9.7 metres in Hole HR06-03 (see drill and channel tables for full results). The Penelton gold zone, in the central part of the Yellow Brick Road, has returned assays of 12.46 g/t Au in grab samples, and 8.90 g/t Au over 4.60 in a channel sample. Grab samples up to 5.85 g/t Au and a channel sample assaying 2.60 g/t over 1.51 metres have been obtained from the north end of the Yellow Brick Road.
MARINO Marino is one of a swarm of parallel northwest-trending veins discovered to date in a 3 square kilometer area between the Golden Mile and the Yellow Brick Road (see video). At least nine parallel veins have already been discovered in this area, and many other surface showings remain to be explored. A shallow hole (HR07-16) drilled on the Marino vein intersected 38.47 g/t Au over 1.12 metres and surface channel samples were also gold-mineralized (see drill and channel tables for full results).
SUMMARY At Hercules, massive gold-bearing structures have been uncovered along an aggregate strike length of 5 kilometres, and 90% of the strike length remains untested and open. Although a resource has not yet been established, some of the gold grades encountered to date in drill core, channel and grab samples are comparable to grades encountered in high grade mines such as the Leitch gold mine, 30 kilometres to the southwest, which produced 1 million ounces of gold at an average grade of 0.96 ounces per ton. The Beardmore-Geraldton area is a proven gold camp in a large greenstone belt between Red Lake and Timmins that has remained underexplored until recently due to extensive overburden and forest cover. The area was opened up by logging in the 1990s, and access and infrastructure are excellent. Kodiak is ramping up exploration to explore the Hercules structures along strike and to depth, and given the scale and geometry of the vein systems uncovered to date, Kodiak believes the Hercules project has strong potential to host a major new gold resource.
Photos
Intense sericite alteration in Hole HR-06-02: 10.37 g/t Au over 8.8 metres true thickness in the WL gold zone
Drill core from hole HR-06-03: 15.59 g/t Au over 9.7 metres true thickness, which included 20.85 g/t Au over 7.2 m, including 26.91 g/t Au over 5.6 m, including 51.65 g
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