Marmion gold lies within Fairmont’s grasp
Fairmont Resources has just completed an airborne geophysical survey of Marmion South, Ontario, an 8,000 hectare project in an area long renowned for successful gold production.
Fugro Airborne Surveys performed the 1,300 line-kilometre geophysical survey, which is aimed at identifying Fairmont’s mineralized targets, namely “shallow dipping, mineralized, fracture-controlled quartz vein stock-works within variably altered granite rocks.” Data is being compiled by a geophysicist and geologist to correlate drill targets.
To build on its efforts, Fairmont Resources has appointed a new chief geologist based in Thunder Bay. Michael Thompson, who recently joined Fairmont’s board of directors, graduated in geology from the University of Toronto in 1997. He subsequently worked for several companies in both gold and base metal exploration and is a founding partner, part owner and president of Fladgate Exploration Consulting Corporation, a full-service mineral exploration consulting firm with over 60 employees and a roster of publicly traded clients.
Thompson possesses key expertise to move Fairmont’s project forward, including advanced structural interpretation of gold deposits and scheduling exploration programs to the resource stage. He is optimistic regarding Marmion South.
"The Marmion South Contact property has two distinct styles of mineralization,” said Thompson. “One is hosted in a green stone belt which encompasses approximately 25 per cent of the property. It is these green stone belts that historically contain up to 80 per cent of all of the gold mineralization in the world.”
Fairmont’s Marmion South Contact property lies approximately 200 kilometres west of Thunder Bay. It is adjacent to the former gold-producing Atiko gold mine and also the Hammond Reef project operated by Osisko Mining, the main player in the area. The Marmion property is accessed via the Trans-Canada highway from Thunder Bay to the town of Atikokan and from there by logging roads. A major railway line and an electrical grid are located just a few kilometers south of the property.
This infrastructure serves the community of Atikokan and the surrounding areas. Skilled and semi-skilled labour is readily available from both Thunder Bay and Atikokan.
Fieldwork this year has comprised mapping and prospecting, as well as the collection of grab, channel and soil samples. In total, 197 grab samples, 185 channel samples and 208 soil samples have been collected from ten different areas.
Indicators from the past
Marmion South is host to several gold showings and prospects, including the Olcott prospect, which was estimated in a 1981 assessment by Placer Development Limited to offer some historical drill holes of 25.4 metres at 0.90 grams per tonne and 10.8 metres at 2.51 grams per tonne of gold. Subsequent exploration, while not verified by Fairmont, has identified other prospects including the Agnico-Eagle prospect, which returned results of up to one ounce per ton of gold over 0.75 metres, and the White Lake prospect, which has returned grab sample results of up to 0.37 ounce per ton of gold. In addition, there is a prospective structure known as the Smokey Shear, approximately two kilometres long, located near the northern boundary of the property.
The property
Marmion South is located contiguous to Osisko Mining Corporation’s 10.52 million ounce gold deposit in the inferred category. It is the largest drill program in North America, with 300,000 metres drilled in over just one year.
The property is underlain by Archean granite-greenstone rocks of the central Wabigoon subprovince within the geological Superior province of the Canadian Shield. The northern half of the property is underlain by granitic rocks of the Marmion batholithic complex, which hosts some of the gold deposits on the adjacent Hammond Reef property belonging to Osisko.
Volcanic and gabbroic rocks dominating the southern half of the property are bound by a major crustal break, the Quetico Fault, and its subsidiary structures. Gold and copper mineralization in the volcanic and gabbroic rocks are structurally controlled by east-northeast to east-striking shear zones, which are possibly related to the Quetico Fault system.
Conclusions
Fairmont Resources views as good news the fact that Marmion South is located in an area that has known gold distribution. The company is looking forward to completing its analysis of the airborne and geophysical work done on the property and commencing its first drill program in 2012.
“Half to three quarters of our property is underlined by the Marmion granitoid suite, which is also geologically part of the Osisko Hammond Reef project that contains 10.52 million ounces of inferred gold,” said Thompson. “We are going to commence an aggressive exploration program on our Marmion South property to commence in the new year."
