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Empress Project, Ontario
Highlights
- Located in the prolific Hemlo-Schreiber Greenstone Belt
- Previous drilling obtained up to 44.2 g/g gold across 0.61 m
- Property is drill ready and accessible year-round
Location and Access
- Syine Township, approximately 100 km west of Hemlo and 15 km east of Terrace Bay, north of Jackfish Lake, near the north shore of Lake Superior.
- Trans-Canada Highway number 17 passes through the south part of the property and old logging and mining roads which are now reduced to ATV trails provide further access to the claims.
Geology
- Archean age Hemlo-Schreiber Greenstone Belt in the Wawa sub-province, including mafic volcanic rocks with interflow meta-sediments and mafic to felsic intrusive rocks
- Alteration of sheared rocks includes silica, sericite, carbonate, chlorite, biotite, pyrite, and minor chalcopyrite
- Gold is associated with sulphide-bearing quartz veins that occur within the Empress Shear Zone, a structure that was traced for over 1.6 km
Size
Ownership
History
Gold exploration in the vicinity of the Empress project dates back to the development of the Empress Mine at the turn of the century. Between 1895 and 1900, the Empress Gold Mining Company sunk various test shafts, adits and pits on a series of gold-bearing veins. A 10-stamp mill was erected, and 112 ounces of gold were produced from 1100 tons of ore (calculated aver. of 0.1 oz/t or 3.5 g/t Au). Operations were eventually shut down due to lack of funds.
From 1896 to 1901 the Ursa Major gold prospect, also referred to as the "Siville" property, was discovered and explored less than 4 km north of the Empress Mine. Some massive quartz veins up to 15 ft wide are reported and are said to carry high-grade gold values. In 1938 the old mill and other structures at the Empress Mine were disassembled and the metal sold as scrap.
From 1982 to 1987 Micham Exploration Inc completed ground and airborne EM and magnetometer surveys followed by geological mapping, trenching, rock and soil sampling (B-horizon), and IP surveys over selected areas. The work was carried-out under the supervision of David R. Bell Geological Services Inc. Fourteen holes totaling 2,157 m were drilled on the current Empress Property returning anomalous gold including 44.2 g/t gold across 0.61 m associated with quartz veins within the Empress Shear Zone.
Between 1995 and 1997 the current Empress claims were staked by prospectors George Daniels, and Audrey and Jon Ferguson and optioned to the Landis Mining Corporation and McArthur Minerals Inc. joint venture in 1997. Approximately 20 km of line cutting, ground magnetics and VLF-EM surveys were completed in 1997. This was followed by a humus soil survey and by geological mapping and prospecting.
Cameco Gold Inc. (a subsidiary of Cameco Corporation (Cameco) acquired the property in 1998 and started work in 1999. Cameco held the ground to 2005 and its programs included 34 km of new grid, geological mapping and mechanical stripping along the Empress Structure. The Cameco work has confirmed the Empress Structure for 1.4 km along strike.
Alto Ventures Limited purchased the property from Cameco in 2005 and completed mapping and prospecting programs, extending the structure to 1.6 km along strike and defining targets for drilling.
2008 Exploration Programs
Because of other priorities, there are no plans to explore this property at this time.
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