Conquest Resources Limited has reported that five of the ten drill holes completed on its 100% owned Smith Lake Gold Project located adjacent to the former Renabie Gold Mine in northern Ontario intersected gold mineralization ranging from 0.25 to 63 grams of gold per tonne over 0.22 to 1.5 metre widths.
A total of 1,109 metres of exploration drilling was completed at Smith Lake during August and September 2011. The most significant gold intersection was located in the first drill hole of the program grading 63.3 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold over 0.28 metres within a mineralized quartz vein in hole CSL-11-001 as previously reported.
All remaining outstanding assays have been received from sampling in holes CSL-11-001 through CSL-11-010 which further demonstrate that many of the quartz veins and intrusive hosted shear zones contain significant anomalous gold mineralization. Of a total 318 samples collected from the core, 30 samples returned anomalous assays ranging from 0.25 g/t to 63.3 g/t gold over 0.22 to 1.50 metres in core length thickness.
Holes CSL-11-002, CSL-11-003, and CSL-11-005 were found to contain seven independent gold occurrences with grades greater than 1.0 g/t gold up to 17.5 g/t gold from within quartz veins hosted in a strongly altered Trondhjemite host rock. These holes were drilled within 300 metres of CSL-11-001 in similar northeasterly directions at dips of -45 degrees. Gold intersections from these holes include:
- CSL-11-002 2.46 g/t Au over 1.00m from 100.20m to 101.45m hole depth
- CSL-11-003 17.53 g/t Au over 0.22m from 42.56 to 42.78m hole depth
- CSL-11-003 1.68 g/t Au over 1.07m from 82.60m to 83.67m hole depth
- CSL-11-003 1.35g/t Au over 0.53m from 93.72m to 94.25m hole depth
- CSL-11-003 1.15g/t Au over 0.80m from 95.00m to 95.80m hole depth
- CSL-11-003 4.76 g/t Au over 1.00m from 107.50m to 108.50m hole depth
- CSL-11-005 1.04g/t Au over 0.30m from 21.28m to 21.58m hole depth
Gold mineralization in the Renabie area is the result of repetitive hydraulic fracturing and shear zone inflation within Archean-aged granitoid intrusives. The repetitive nature of veining results in ribbon textured veining that is strongly controlled by two main structural trends oriented east-west and northwest-southeast, both of which are present on Conquest's patented mining claim group at Smith Lake.
Drilling in the recently completed program tested several near surface structural targets resulting from geophysical data collected in a ground magnetic survey conducted earlier this year, as well as several coincident structural and Mobile Metal Ion ("MMI") surface geochemical targets determined from a detailed compilation of local geology.
Conquest plans to resume drilling under freezing conditions this winter at Smith Lake with the objective of following up the high grade 63.3 grams per tonne (g/t) gold showing and testing remaining targets identified from the Company's exploration activities on the project.
Conquest's Smith Lake Property consists of six patented mining claims and 28 mining claims along the Missanabie-Goudreau Greenstone Belt in Leeson and Rennie Townships in northern Ontario. The property is 100% owned by Conquest and is contiguous with the former Barrick/Homestake Renabie Gold Mine which closed in 1991 having produced more than 1,000,000 ounces of gold since 1941 from reported reserves of approximately 6 million tonnes at an average grade of 6.6 grams per tonne and 2 grams per tonne silver.
During the first part of 2011, Conquest recorded approximately 50 square-kilometres of staked ground surrounding the six mining patents. Additional ground was also acquired by staking contiguous claims to the mine structure in areas believed to be prospective for structurally hosted gold and volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) hosted mineralization based on a preliminary compilation of the mine sequence and Missanabie-Goudreau Greenstone Belt.