Aug 17 2016
Midland Exploration Inc. ("Midland") is pleased to report the beginning of an exploration program on its 100% owned James Bay Éléonore Gold project located in James Bay, Québec. This phase of the exploration program includes prospecting in new sectors of the Éléonore Centre property.
This important project, which encompasses the Éléonore Centre and West properties, is constituted of a total of 239 claims covering about 125 square kilometres, and is located approximately 30 kilometres southwest from and in a geological environment similar to Goldcorp Inc.'s Éléonore deposit. This world-class gold deposit contains proven reserves of 4.17 million tonnes at a grade of 6.49 g/t Au (0.87 Moz Au) and probable reserves of 24.15 million tonnes at a grade of 5.76 g/t Au (4.48 Moz Au). The deposit also contains a measured resource of 0.94 million tonnes at a grade of 6.84 g/t Au (0.21 Moz Au), an indicated resource of 3.65 million tonnes at a grade of 5.14 g/t Au (0.60 Moz Au) and an inferred resource of 9.97 million tonnes at a grade of 7.11 g/t Au (2.28 Moz Au).
Prospecting conducted by Midland during the past years on the Éléonore Centre property identified the presence of several gold showings associated with quartz-tourmaline pyrite bearing veinlets occurring in sheared metasediments, as well as mafic and felsic metavolcanics which returned up to 18.8 g/t Au. These results strongly suggest that an auriferous hydrothermal system is present on the property by a strong abundance of quartz-tourmaline veins over a plurimetric area. In addition, the 2013 and 2015 ground induced polarisation ("IP") surveys detected many north-south and southwest-northeast trending IP anomalies and several remain unexplained. The 2011 soil geochemistry survey permitted to delineate a series of As-Cu-Sb anomalies clustered along a north-south-trending axis. The 2014 airborne high definition magnetic survey also identified the presence of an important north-south oriented structure associated with several gold showings and soil geochemical anomalies. Finally, a series of parallel northeast trending AeroTEM II electromagnetic ("EM") conductors were outlined by the 2010 airborne geophysical survey which targeted sulfide bearing Éléonore-type sediments on the northern part of the Éléonore Centre property. Some of these conductors coincide with uncovered gold-bearing disseminated to semi-massive sulfides zones identified by Midland and several EM anomalies still remain unexplained.
The 2016 prospection and geological mapping program will mainly focus on the centre-south portion of the Eleonore Centre property where the major north-south structure is interpreted to shift and change its trend to southwest-northeast. This area has received little prospection and exploration recently. Prospection will also occur in the Golden Gun area (up to 18.8 g/t Au in grab samples) and also in the northwestern part of the property where several strong EM conductors are present and unexplained.