Oct 18 2019
Beauce Gold Fields (Champs D’Or en Beauce) (BGF) reported the completion of its 2019 Geological Survey and Mapping summer work program in St-Simon-les-Mines situated in the Beauce region of Quebec. The program involved channel sampling of rock outcrops and trenches with a full mapping of the neighboring geology.
Beauce Gold Fields Trenching. (Image credit: Beauce Gold Fields)
First to complete a geological mapping of the historical placer gold district
Geological mapping encompassed an area of about 30 km2 centered on the St-Simon-les-Mines historical placer gold district. Special focus has been given to precisely document the geology of rock outcrops near the Gilbert River and former 19th and 20th century placer gold mines.
First large systematic sampling of rock outcrops
Although the St-Simon-les-Mines region is recognized for its many placer gold mines, data on bedrock geology was scarce and unfinished. Quebec’s MERN geo-information system (SIGEOM) database revealed that minor geological mapping and rock sampling (and geochemistry) has been carried out in the past.
Work performed over the last century was typically focused on placer gold mining or exploration drilling (reverse circulation (RC) and Sonic drilling) in the Quaternary overburden. Drill surveys were used to evaluate the placer gold deposits.
Beauce Gold Fields is thus the first company to have finished a thorough geological mapping and a systematic sampling of the core lithological unit rock outcrops found in the Gilbert River and Giroux Creek watersheds. Given the presence of a number of generations of quartz veins in studied outcrops, and its potential association in relation to gold, special attention was given to the geochemical and structural aspects of the work finished in 2019.
We are the first exploration company to combine the use of modern geophysical surveys with a systematic sampling of sedimentary and volcanic rocks in the St-Simon-les-Mines area. In addition, it is important to point out that Beauce Gold Fields is also the first mineral exploration company dedicated to searching for the source of the Beauce’s historic placer gold deposits.
Patrick Levasseur, President and CEO, Beauce Gold Fields
More than 200 rock samples taken for analysis
The exploration team, under the guidance of Dr. Marc Richer-LaFlèche, Ph.D. Geo of INRS, methodically prospected, sampled, and mapped the central outcrops, situated on both sides of Giroux Creek and Gilbert River, more precisely between Rang St-Charles and Rang VI roads. The geological mapping and structural geology effort was aimed at recording and to gather a proper understanding of the geochemistry of the area's volcanic and sedimentary rocks.
Exclusive attention was paid to sampling the various generations of quartz veins in that location. Over 200 samples were gathered and will be assayed for gold and other trace elements of gold mineralization.
Geological mapping to verify geophysical surveys
Since 2017, the company (formerly Uragold Bay Resources), has deployed a multidisciplinary exploration approach including geological studies, with focus on structural geology and field prospecting.
Simultaneously, geophysical surveys (geoelectrical tomography, audiomagnetotellurisme, gravimetry, magnetism, and TDEM electromagnetism of a new Russian technology) together with petrophysical studies were done to specify; the local geology, to validate the presence of deep faults and to find potentially geophysical anomalies associated with gold mineralized zones.
This new data attained via geological mapping of rock outcrops and trenching will be applied to verify geophysical surveys. This will be vital for the corroboration of geological and geophysical models that will be used to plan further exploration programs and to identify mineralized zones with the prospect to in due course trace the hard rock source of placer gold.