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Assays are back for the first 21 holes of a 61-hole drill program completed at Monarques Gold Corp.’s (TSX: MQR; US-OTC: MRQFR) McKenzie Break project and have extended the deposit laterally and at depth.
The best intercept from the project, 35 km north of Val-d’Or, Quebec, was 61.20 grams gold over 2.6 metres starting from 254.8 metres downhole, including 265 grams gold over 0.6 metres in drill hole MK-18-196.
Other notable intercepts were 24.70 grams gold over 0.6 metres from 52.1 metre below surface in hole MK-18-183; 19.80 grams gold ove 0.4 metres from 89.4metres downhole in MK-18-180; and 9.44 grams gold over 2.0 metres from 193 metres downhole, including 1 metre of 18.50 grams gold.
Monarques Gold acquired a 100% stake in the property from Agnico-Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM) in 2017.
In June 2018, Monarques Gold reported pit-constrained and underground resources for the deposit.
The company has defined a pit-constrained indicated resource of 939,860 tonnes grading 1.59 grams gold for 48,133 ounces of gold. The underground indicated resource stands at 281,739 tonnes averaging 5.90 grams gold for 53,448 oz. gold.
At the time the resource estimate was released last year, Jean-Marc Lacoste, the company’s president and CEO, said the pit-constrained resource “is easily accessible as the average overburden thickness is only 5 metres wide, meaning that we could put the McKenzie Break project into production relatively quickly.”
The McKenzie Break deposit is 20 km north of Monarch Gold’s Beacon mill, which is fully permitted and has a capacity of 750 tonnes per day. The property has surface and underground infrastructure, including a ramp down to a depth of 80 metres below surface.
The property, about 35 km north of Val-d’Or is also about 9 km south of the rail link between Barraute and Senneterre.
McKenzie Break is a multiple-narrow-vein deposit hosted in the dioritic Pascalis batholith and underlain by porphyritic diorite and mafic and felsic volcanic rocks.
This article first appeared in The Northern Miner.
