The New Growth gold property is 100% owned and operated by Northern Superior Resources Inc. (Northern Superior). This property originally represented the northwestern two thirds of the Ti-pa-haa-kaa-ning (TPK) gold property in northwestern Ontario (see press release, November 20th, 2008). However, this area was excluded from the option agreement recently signed with Rainy River Resources Limited (Rainy River) for the TPK property (see press release, September 9th, 2010). Northern Superior did grant Rainy River a right of first refusal on the New Growth area if Northern Superior should receive an acceptable bona fide arm’s length third party offer to purchase the New Growth area. Ten claims are subject to an underlying 1.5% net smelter royalty payable to a third party, to a maximum of $2.5 million, and applies to diamonds only.
Prior to the fall of 2011 exploration program, Northern Superior staked an additional 23 claims (348 units; 5568 hectares). This ground was staked to cover and provide a buffer around a second gold exploration target on the north end of the property (see press release, December 7th, 2011). This new ground (and gold target) is 100% Northern Superior.
Figure 1. Depicts the general region of Northern Superior’s 100% “New Growth gold property,” relative to the “Big Dam” and “TPK” areas which were included in the Option agreement signed with Rainy River Resources Limited in September of 2010. Note, the new block of claims (staked fall of 2011) is not illustrated on this diagram, this diagram is currently being updated.
The Property
The New Growth gold property is located approximately 470 km northeast of Thunder Bay and 190 km northeast of Pickle Lake, Ontario. The property is located in the Traditional Area of the First Nations Community of Neskantaga, which is situated about 30 km southwest of the Property on the southwest corner of Attawapiskat Lake. The property currently consists of 103 claims covering an area of 21,712 hectares.
Figure 2. New Growth gold property claims (depicted in white) and claims associated with the TPK property (depicted in pink). Note, the new block of claims (staked fall of 2011) is not illustrated on this diagram, this diagram is currently being updated.
New Growth Exploration History
There has been very little exploration over the New Growth gold property thus far. Northern Superior did complete a regional overburden sampling program in 2008 over the New Growth area and defined three additional gold exploration targets (see press release, February 26th, 2009).
Although additional overburden sampling is required to refine these targets, the new targets may be associated with the gold-bearing structures identified to the east on the TPK property. This observation is based largely on extrapolating implied geophysical signatures west and northwest onto the New Growth gold property from these gold-bearing structures identified on the TPK property. It is important to note that much exploration is required to substantiate this observation. Nonetheless, this observation implies an extension of the 6- 10 kilometer TPK gold-bearing structures another 12 kilometers northwest onto the New Growth gold property…..suggesting gold-bearing structures up to 22 kilometers in length!
During the 2011 summer exploration season, Northern Superior Resources completed the following:
- Signed an Early Exploration Benefits Agreement with Neskantaga First Nation;
- Completed a 196 sample overburden sampling and mapping program;
- Completed a prospecting program, 74 bedrock and boulder samples;
- Completed an airborne geophysical program.
- Proposed an 8km extension of the gold-bearing shear structures from the Ti-pa-haa-kaa-ning gold property, making the length of these structures at least 13 km long.
- Reported assay results from a sample taken from a mineralized boulder collected from the New Growth property: 12.60 g/t gold, 111 g/t silver, and 4.05% copper.
Photo 1. Mineralized boulder recovered from the New Growth property. A sample taken from this boulder assayed 12.60 g/t gold, 111 g/t silver, and 4.05% copper (see press release, September 13th, 2011).
As data from the 2011 field season was received, it became obvious that there was more to the exploration story than originally thought. As such management delayed the planned drill program and initiated a second round of over burden sampling and prospecting. From this work, two distinct and important gold exploration targets emerged (Figure 3).
First, the Company was able to define the extension of the gold-bearing shear zone from the TPK property west onto the New Growth gold property (see press release, December 6, 2011). Associated with this shear zone are at least 4 distinct gold targets and a fifth to the south (Figure 3). The extension of this shear zone onto the New Growth gold property, and additional gold targets, was determined from three independent data sources. These data sources include: a) the distribution of anomalous gold grains recovered from locally derived tills; b) the distribution of associated anomalous till Arsenic (As) values; and c) interpretation of structure observed from the Company’s proprietary airborne geophysical data flown this summer (see press release, September 14, 2011).
Figure 3. Distribution of anomalous till As values, gold grain data and extension of the TPK gold-bearing shear zone, west onto the New Growth property. Gold targets illustrated by circles. Ice flow direction indicated by arrow.
Second, a distinct gold target was defined associated with a narrow faulted and sheared greenstone belt that measures at least 7 km in length by 2 km in width (see press release, October 25, 2011, Figure 4). This target was defined from three different sources of data. The first source of data involves the distribution of 100 sheared and/or mineralized boulders and outcrop samples. Of these, 83 were anomalous in gold (>0.005 g/t) including 24 samples between 0.1 and 1.0 g/t, and 9 samples over 1g/t (see Table 1). The distribution of these gold-bearing boulders, recovered on the margins, within, and down-ice of the narrow faulted and sheared greenstone belt, alone define the second gold source.
|
Sample Number
|
Type
|
Gold (g/t)
|
Silver (g/t)
|
Copper (%)
|
|
L754014
|
Boulder
|
727
|
48.2
|
<0.01
|
|
L755261
|
Boulder
|
280
|
29.4
|
<0.01
|
|
L754025
|
Boulder
|
133
|
4.9
|
<0.01
|
|
L754034
|
Boulder
|
7.6
|
2.78
|
0.0258
|
|
L755065
|
Boulder
|
5.93
|
53.7
|
1.92
|
|
L755268
|
Boulder
|
3.37
|
46
|
2.35
|
|
L755267
|
Boulder
|
2.13
|
37.7
|
1.455
|
|
L754020
|
Boulder
|
2.02
|
0.2
|
<0.01
|
|
L755105
|
Outcrop
|
1.425
|
0.14
|
0.0196
|
Table 1. Boulder and bedrock material with gold assay values greater than 1g/ t Au.
Of these 83 gold-bearing boulders, of particular interest was the recovery of a boulder bearing visible gold (see press release October 25, 2011, Photo 2). The visible gold is observed in a quartz vein with gold grains up to 2 mm in diameter as measured from this boulder (L754014). The lithology of the boulder is a sheared fine-grained mafic volcanic with quartz veining throughout. The boulder measures approximately 3.0 x 2.5 meters diameter and is angular in shape suggesting that it has not traveled far from source. This gold-bearing boulder was recovered 7.0 kilometres north-northeast from boulder J425410 previously reported to contain 12.6 g/t gold, 111 g/t silver and 4.05% copper (see press release September 14th, 2011, Photo 1).
Photo 2. Gold-bearing boulder (L754014), New Growth property. Coarse visible gold can be observed, front centre of the sample. The boulder is a strongly sheared fine-grained mafic volcanic with quartz veins throughout. The quartz veins are up to 0.25m wide and are generally banded, with a sugary texture, locally vuggy. It has been observed that the coarse visible gold occurs in vugs within the quartz vein, while fine visible gold is observed within the sugary-textured quartz.
The second data source was gold grain data derived from till samples. The distribution and abundance of gold grains defined the Keely Lake gold grain dispersal corridor (see press release, December 7, 2011, Figure 4). The head of this dispersal corridor is clearly defined from geology and the abrupt termination of till samples with gold grains and boulders that are gold-bearing (Figure 4). The total abundance of pristine gold grains and increasing number of total gold grains increases with proximity to the belt. This is a strong dispersal corridor with gold grain-in-till values that are as high as 1302 grains, 1295 of these grains from this associated sample are pristine (Sample number J425349). The corridor is a minimum of 3.5 km wide and the length of the train is at least 10 km long, the western edge of the corridor clearly defined. The eastern edge is not well defined as distally derived overburden materials occur and are thought to mask the gold grain signature (see press release, December 6, 2011).
The third source of data was derived from the Company’s 3,950 line-km Heli-GT, 3-axis helicopter magnetic gradient airborne geophysical survey completed in August of 2011 (see press release, September 14, 2011). This survey coupled with summer prospecting identified a mafic volcanic unit transected by a SW-trending, left-handed wrench fault. There is reasonable expectation that the SW-trending fault zone and accompanying bedding-parallel shear zones splaying from it provided extensional pressure gradients, permitting access through the crust for gold-bearing hydrothermal fluids at the time of deformation. Other shear zones related to this SW-trending fault may be found within or on the margins of this deformation zone.
Much of the recently defined un-explored greenstone belt occurs off the original New Growth property and additional staking was required. As such the company completed a staking program to expand the property to encompass the area believed to host the gold-mineralization. An additional 23 claims (348 units; 5568 hectares) was staked.
Figure 4. Location of gold-bearing boulders, Keely Lake gold grain dispersal corridor, and structural interpretation of the faulted, sheared Keely Lake Greenstone belt plotted on the Airborne Magnetics (CVG) survey. The proposed January 2012 ground geophysical survey is represented by the black rectangle.
Outlook
- Initiate and complete a ground geophysical program to better define diamond drill targets over Target # 2, first quarter, 2012;
- Initiate and complete a diamond drill program over Target # 2, first and second quarters 2012.