Mining News: Kivalliq explores new Nunavut gold project

Kivalliq Energy Corp. July 25 reported the start of a summer exploration program at the Baffin Gold property in Nunavut. This C$775,000 program will include ground-truthing, geological mapping, prospecting, and rock and till sampling. In May, Kivalliq announced that it had signed agreements with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., a group that oversees Inuit land claims in Nunavut, and Commander Resources Ltd. to acquire the Baffin Gold property, a 408,982-hectare (1 million acres) land package that blankets the Foxe Fold greenstone belt on Baffin Island. BHP-Billiton, Falconbridge, Commander Resources and AngloGold Ashanti completed more than C$25 million of exploration on this property over a decade starting in 2001. This work includes drilling 158 holes at four prospects on the property. Highlights from include 4.2 meters of 21.3 grams per metric ton gold; 4.5 meters of 10.2 g/t gold and 6 meters of 9.2 g/t gold. Kivalliq said there is excellent potential to make new discoveries and demonstrate continuity of mineralization at unexplained gold occurrences along strike of favorable geology and structural settings on this expansive property and this summer's program will focus on multiple geological and structural settings hosting significant gold mineralization primarily on Inuit owned land parcels. This work will include the exploration of gold anomalies along at least 100 kilometers (62 miles) of strike which were not followed up by resampling or drilling by earlier explorers; prospect, infill and characterize broad till and geochemical gold anomalies; geochemical sampling in areas of cover where existing geophysical data suggests extensions to known gold zones and favorable geology; review and resample historic drill core; drone surveys over Kanosak and Central belt areas to produce high resolution photos and digital elevation models; and collect roughly 1,000 rock and till samples to evaluate known occurrences and evaluate areas of anomalous geochemistry. The company said future drilling will further assess known prospects, new structural targets, untested areas of outcropping mineralization and blind targets in covered areas based on till geochemistry and geophysics.

–SHANE LASLEY