Island of Newfoundland: An emerging Gold District on the East Coast of Canada

Specimen of gold in quartz undisclosed location in Nl

Exploration and development for gold is gaining momentum on the Island of Newfoundland. Much of the recent and current production of the precious metal is linked to the beginning of modern gold exploration, led by Noranda and a host of juniors. These efforts which peaked in the 1980s, quickly resulted in significant gold discoveries, many of which are associated with major crustal structures across central Newfoundland’s greenstone terranes. Richmont Mines’ Nugget Pond and Hammerdown Mines and BP-Selco‘s Hope Brook Mine were the direct result of these early finds.

Since that time, exploration has been sporadic, carried out by local junior miners and prospectors, supported by government surveys. Nevertheless, key gold discoveries have been made in a wide range of environments prospective for world-class deposit types. These occurrences include well-documented examples of high- and low-sulphidation epithermal deposits, bulk tonnage intrusion and sediment-hosted deposits, and gold-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits.

These highly prospective yet underexplored environments represent opportunities for significant new discoveries, in what is becoming an emerging gold district. The following projects reflect some recent success stories in this region.

• New resource estimates were reported on several advanced gold projects in central and southern Newfoundland; Preliminary Economic Assessments are in progress.
• Rambler Metals & Mining plc is producing from newly defined high-grade copper and gold lenses from a historic Au-rich VMS deposit in the Baie Verte mining district of northeastern Newfoundland.
• Anaconda Mining Inc. is operating the open-pit Pine Cove mine, a mesothermal (orogenic) gold deposit associated with a major structural feature, the Baie Verte Line. The company processed 287,747 dry tonnes of ore, and sold 14,879 ounces of gold in the fiscal year ending May 31, 2013.
• Marathon Gold recently reported total measured and indicated resources at the Leprechaun Deposit of 10.5 million tonnes grading 2.28 g/t gold for 775,000 ounces of gold and 1.5 million tonnes at 2.79 g/t for 140,000 ounces of gold.
• Benton Resources Inc. has assembled a large land package covering the highly prospective Cape Ray Fault Zone. Benton now owns six separate deposits having either 43-101 compliant or historic resources totalling more than 448,000 ounces of gold, with silver and base metals.
• Maritime Resources Corp. is exploring the Hammerdown and Orion orogenic gold deposits, and several other gold zones. An initial Independent NI 43-101 compliant Mineral Resource Estimate released in June 2013 estimates the property to contain more than 400,000 ounces of gold in the measured and indicated category and over 600,000 ounces in the inferred category, both are at a 3 g/t cut-off grade.
• Coastal Gold Corp. is exploring the historic Hope Brook gold mine on the south coast of Newfoundland. An updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate released December 2013 reports 19.9 million tonnes indicated at 1.93 g/t Au for 1,239,000 ounces of gold and 1.3 million tonnes inferred at 3.22 g/t for 138,000 ounces of gold.

Despite the current weakness in financial markets, greenfields gold exploration continues on the Island of Newfoundland, with significant results. Notable amongst these has been the recognition of new areas of widespread epithermal gold mineralization in eastern Newfoundland by Silver Spruce Resources and Puddle Pond Resources. Bonanza-grade, gold-bearing quartz veins were found by a local prospector in a little-explored silicic volcanic terrane on the Baie Verte Peninsula. These claims have since been optioned by Bowmore Exploration.

Newfoundland and Labrador is a highly attractive exploration destination and a globally competitive mining jurisdiction, with world-class deposits of iron, nickel-copper-cobalt and zinc-lead-copper.

The province ranks ninth worldwide in the most attractive jurisdictions for investment in mining, according to an annual global survey of mining executives recently released by the Fraser Institute... Read more at this link