NioGold’s Resource Increase And Relentless Drilling

The company is focused on gold discovery in Quebec, and primarily on it’s most advanced property; the Malartic advanced-staged project near Val d’Or. The gold resources on their large land package (115km2) are defined along a three-kilometre segment of a regional gold mineralized fault zone, in and around the former Marban, Norlartic and Kierens gold mines, which collectively produced 600,000 ounces gold. NioGold controls a 20 km segment of this prospective fault zone and plans continued aggressive drilling on these land holdings to expand the current resources and for new discoveries

The Malartic Project
The Malartic Project consists of the contiguous Marban Block, Malartic Hygrade, Malartic H and Camflo West properties, and covers a 13 km stretch of a major gold mineralised structural zone known as the Norbenite-Marbanite. The Marban Block property encompasses six distinct gold deposits, namely the former Norlartic, Kierens (First Canadian) and Marban mines and the North-North, North and Gold Hawk Zones.

Past production from the Norlartic, Kierens and Marban mines amounted to 600,000 ounces of gold. On the Malartic Hygrade and Malartic H properties, the Norbenite-Marbanite structure is host to a partially drill defined 1,000 m by 250 m porphyry-type gold mineralised system known as the H Zone. Further to the northwest, the Camflo West property covers a 7 km under-explored stretch of the Norbenite-Marbanite. Geophysical surveys and geological studies have outlined high priority targets along this trend.

Good News
However, it is the present resource development at Malartic that’s generating news flow and excitement at the moment. A press release issued March 18th 2010 informs us that things are moving along swiftly and successfully, with exploration drilling returning values up to 31 grams per tonne. Paired with an announcement in January that gold resources at Malartic have increased significantly, NioGold is eager to share their story.

“Our resource estimates showed that we have right now around 1 million ounces, both in the indicated and inferred category. We’ll be generating quite a bit of news this year with our drilling.” Niogold President and COO Rock Lefrançois explains.

According to the press release:

“Our initial exploration targeting was markedly accurate in tracing the main strands of the Norbenite-Marbanite away from the known gold deposits despite local structural complexities. These structures remain strong to the east and west and generally enclose zones of alteration, vein stockwork, sulphide mineralization and locally intruded by swarms of porphyry intrusions, characteristic of productive segments along the major deformation corridors in the district. Results to date returned thick sections of anomalous gold mineralization and some higher grade intersections of economic interest.”

Niogold also includes some of their results of economic interest in the release:

“Hole MB-10-101 returned an intersection of 31.2 g/t Au over 1.3 m and 5.2 g/t Au over 1.2 m at the Marban NE target, located one km northeast of the Marban deposit. The hole was drilled as a follow-up to holes MB-07-021 and MB-07-022, drilled in 2007, which returned intersections of 6.2 g/t Au over 1.2 m and 4.4 g/t Au over 1.1 m, and 4.1 g/t Au over 1.0 m and 20.7 g/t Au over 1.0 m, respectively. Gold values of economic interest at Marban NE are found in sheared or fractured mafic volcanics close to altered and mineralized porphyry intrusions. The occurrence is interpreted to represent the east extension of the North shear where limited past drilling was conducted outside the North Zone.”

Drilling On Trend
Apart from the resource areas, which are located within a small 3 km area of NioGold’s land package, the company has been drilling on trend since September.

“Stepping away from the deposits and drilling on trend we recognize 3 major structures shears trending northwest and southeast. We’ve intersected these structures on numerous holes, they’re still very healthy… so we’re going to continue on. We have a huge program of 20,000 meters we’ll drill in 2010,” Rock LeFrancois clarifies.

“Our plan, in the next couple of years, is to drill in excess of about 100,000 meters of drilling. To expand the deposits on trend, and to discover new deposits along the major structural zones and the major shear zones that we recognize.”

NioGold will also continue to drill on the Siscoe East property (8 km further to the east) where a high-grade discovery (1.9 m of 44 g/t Au) was made last summer. This property lines on-trend between two of the highest-grade past producers in the area; the Sullivan and Siscoe mines with total production of nearly 2 million ounces of gold.

NioGold’s Secret To Success
NioGold’s near term objective is to outline resources/reserves of several million ounces of gold through the generation of new geological concept models, focused exploration and definition drilling. The exploration programs are managed by an experienced and highly qualified technical team, who meticulously supervise every aspect of day-to-day operations.

Michael Iverson leads the company as Chairman and CEO. Iverson has been President and Director of Triple K Ventures Ltd from March 1975 to the present. He has also served as President and Director of R.P.F. Custom Wood Fibre Ltd since 1985. Rock Lefrançois, President and COO, is a professional geologist that brings strong technical and management skills to the company. Lefrançois has over 20 years of experience in the search and valuation of various types of precious and base metal deposits across the North and Central American Cordilleras and the Abitibi Greenstone Belt

NioGold’s projects are located in proximity to the full-service mining towns of Val-d’Or and Malartic with access to gold milling facilities, a provincial highway, railroad, power lines, telecommunication systems and experienced labor force, which of course facilitates cost effective exploration and development.

NioGold started 2010 with a substantial resource increase and then released last month’s good drill results. With 20,000 metres of drilling in total planned for the rest of the year, NioGold is looking forward to continuing growth. DISCLOSURE: A fee has been paid to the publisher for the production and distribution of this article, and as such, should be viewed in the context of advertising.

SOURCE: http://www.midasletter.com/news/10040601_Niogolds-resource-increase-and-relentless-drilling.php