North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

TerraX Minerals Inc. may have crafted the perfect gold exploration program to carry out during a capital-scarce down cycle.

The Vancouver-based junior won a competitive bid in January to explore the gold-rich Northbelt claims, which consists of 121 leases totaling 3,562 hectares (8,802 acres) covering about 13 kilometers of strike along the prolific Yellowknife Belt, 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of the city of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

The property was offered for sale by Samson Belair/Deloitte & Touche Inc., acting as receiver of the assets of Century Mining Corp., which had acquired the ground in 2005 and was subsequently put into receivership in 2012 by its secured lender. Century Mining encountered financial difficulties mostly due to production losses at another property. TerraX agreed to pay C$211,000 to acquire 100 percent ownership of Northbelt with no retained interest by any outside parties.

The Northbelt property abuts the Giant Mine property (historical production of 7.6 million ounces gold, "Guide to Mineral Deposits, Northwest territories, 2007"), and is directly north of the mine along the known mineralized trend. Many of the geological characteristics of Northbelt are reported to be similar to the Con Mine (historical production of 5.5 million oz gold, "Guide to Mineral Deposits, Northwest territories, 2007"), which was the second-largest gold producer on the belt.

"TerraX has been looking for an opportunity to acquire a property with historical resources in a major mining camp," TerraX President Joe Campbell said in January.

"The Northbelt property meets this criteria, and has the added advantages of being easily accessible to Yellowknife infrastructure; has a clear 100 percent ownership of mine leases with low annual property fees; contains numerous showings with minimal historical exploration; has a maximum drilling depth of only 100 meters on the Crestaurum deposit; is over an established geological extension of the known mineralized trend from the multimillion-ounce producers; and has a geological context similar to the Con Mine which was mined to almost 1,900 meters depth.

Following a positive due diligence study, I believe acquisition of this property will be a turning point for TerraX's future."

Terra X also owns several mineral properties in Ontario and Newfoundland.

Campbell, a professional geologist with 33 years of experience in the exploration and mining business, discovered a 5-million-ounce resource at the Meliadine deposit in Nunavut (now owned by Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.) in a project he managed for seven years through to feasibility. Having worked for majors such as Noranda and Western Mining Corp. for much of his career, Campbell also was chief geologist during the definition of the 250-million-metric-ton Nickel laterite deposit in Cuba (Pinares).

Historic gold potential

The Northbelt property is host to multiple shears that are the recognized hosts for gold deposits in the Yellowknife camp, and it contains innumerable gold showings and several known occurrences, including the Crestaurum deposit, which has an historic resource of 290,000 metric tons averaging 7.52 grams per metric ton gold ("Treminco Annual Report, 1990").

Historical reports indicate that at least 463 drill holes have been drilled on the Northbelt property, including some 190 holes on the Crestaurum trend, 95 holes focused on other well defined structures in the southern part of the property, 80 holes on the base metal targets in the northern part of the property, and the remainder spread across the property.

With limited capital, TerraX mounted an aggressive, but low-cost, 2013 exploration program, featuring the re-logging of core from historic exploratory drilling conducted by previous operators, along with some surface exploration and airborne surveys.

In February, TerraX found 187 drill logs for holes drilled between 1945 and 1985 on the Crestaurum deposit at Northbelt. The logs contain hand written assay results (no assay certificates are available) which indicated a significantly gold rich shear zone and were stored at the Giant Mine Site.

Due to its high grade, the Crestaurum deposit received the vast majority of the historical exploration attention by Giant Mines, including in-fill drilling, advanced mine planning and metallurgical testing. Though already well-defined as a potential resource, the Crestaurum is considered a smaller target than several other shears zones on Northbelt, including the much larger Barney Shear system.

In June the company located more than 150 drill collars at Crestaurum and had the locations surveyed. This included almost all of the 74 holes drilled in 1985, making the discovered drill core from these 74 holes a high-priority choice to be re-logged and re-sampled. The core was subjected to a full geological and geotechnical analysis, which included refitting of the core, revealing 100 percent recovery and excellent geotechnical rock quality values, TerraX reported.

Logging and sampling of drill core recovered by the company from the Giant Mine site is ongoing, with core from some 200 holes now stored at a dedicated core storage facility at the Yellowknife airport. A further 10 holes have been sampled and submitted for re-assay from drilling at Northbelt, with results to be released as soon as possible once they have been input into the drill database. This includes drill holes from the Barney Shear, the 20 Shear, the Milner Lake-Crestaurum Shear area north of the Crestaurum deposit, and holes from the Homer Lake base metal target.

Highlights of the assay results from the re-sampled core include:

•Hole NB95-16 returned 3.79 g/t gold over 20.86 meters, including 12.59 g/t gold over 4.00 meters on the Barney Shear;

•Hole 85-118 returned 13.07 g/t gold over 6.87 meters near surface at Northbelt;

•Hole 85-136 returned 67.69 g/t gold over 2.00 meters near surface at Northbelt;

•Hole 85-166 returned 11.96 g/t gold over 6.00 meters near surface at Northbelt;

•Hole 85-150 returned 62.90 g/t gold over 5.00 meters less than 50 meters from surface on the North Extension Shoot at Northbelt; and,

•Hole 85-187 returned 20.66 g/t gold over 5.00 meters near surface at Northbelt.

TerraX believes the assay results it has reported from the re-logged core provide further confirmation of an important zone of mineralization at the Crestaurum deposit, which remains open in all directions and down dip.

Sampling and surveys

TerraX believes the shears that control gold mineralization on the property are thought to have higher magnetic signatures than the surrounding rocks, and detailed magnetics should be an effective targeting tool. In addition, the alteration associated with gold mineralization on Northbelt has been shown to have a potassic component, which can be picked up by the radiometric survey. Together, magnetic and radiometric data should be helpful in targeting the best portions of the mineralized shears, according to TerraX.

The company had electromagnetic and radiometric airborne surveys flown on the property in late May and early June and interpretation of the survey results are ongoing.

In July the company reported the results of initial surface sampling completed on the Northbelt property.

A total of 293 samples were collected, including 165 chip samples from 80 separate locations and 128 grab samples.

The majority of the samples came from structures identified at the Homer Lake area in the northern part of the property, with sampling also conducted on the Pinto structure in the eastern part of the property, the Jed structure in the central part of the property, on the southwestern extension of the Crestaurum deposit, and in several other locations.

Results ranged from below detection to assay values of 49.30 g/t gold and 55.2 g/t silver in one grab sample at Pinto and 529 g/t silver, >20 percent lead and 9.44 percent zinc in one grab sample from Homer Lake.

The company said its first round of surface sampling on Northbelt generated very encouraging results from a number of structures.

As noted by previous operators, the northern part of the property contains more base metals and silver than gold, whereas the southern part is more gold-rich.

However, notable gold values have been obtained in the northern part, and locally high base metals and silver have been observed in the southern part. The initial interpretation is that in spite of the difference in mineralization styles between the northern and southern parts of the property, the overall structural regime is similar throughout Northbelt, with most of the mineralization occurring in north-northeast trending structures.

It may be important that auriferous north-northwest trending structures were noted at both Crestaurum Southwest and Homer Lake; and the intersection of the two structural trends could be very significant.

20 percent lead and 9.44 percent zinc in one grab sample from Homer Lake.

The company said its first round of surface sampling on Northbelt generated very encouraging results from a number of structures.

As noted by previous operators, the northern part of the property contains more base metals and silver than gold, whereas the southern part is more gold-rich.

However, notable gold values have been obtained in the northern part, and locally high base metals and silver have been observed in the southern part. The initial interpretation is that in spite of the difference in mineralization styles between the northern and southern parts of the property, the overall structural regime is similar throughout Northbelt, with most of the mineralization occurring in north-northeast trending structures.

It may be important that auriferous north-northwest trending structures were noted at both Crestaurum Southwest and Homer Lake; and the intersection of the two structural trends could be very significant.

More gold at Northbelt

TerraX reported further assay results Oct. 16 from ongoing re-logging and re-sampling of drill core from Northbelt. Hole NB94-01A was drilled on a third mineralized structure, the 20 Shear located some 700 meters east of the Crestaurum Zone and about 2,000 meters southwest of the drilling reported on the Barney Shear, and intersected a mineralized zone totaling 21.12 meters grading 2.97 g/t gold, inclusive of 3.88 meters grading 8.81 g/t gold.

The company said the assay results from NB94-01A are very encouraging because they indicate another zone of important potential on the Northbelt property. Though the 20 Shear has been delineated by previous workers over a strike length of four kilometers (2.5 miles,) it has had very little drill testing, with sporadic drilling over 200 meters of strike length in 1994.

As continued follow-up on the Barney Shear, TerraX has completed re-logging and re-sampling of drill holes NB96-02, NB96-04, and NB96-24 which, along with previously reported hole NB95-16, cover about 200 meters of strike along this important structure. NB96-24 is the longest hole on the Northbelt property and appears to have intersected multiple mineralized zones within the Barney Shear corridor. Assay results are pending.

More targets at Goodwin

TerraX also acquired additional property in the Yellowknife gold camp through the purchase of the Goodwin gold property from Sonde Resources Corp. The Goodwin property lies eight kilometers (five miles) north-northeast of Yellowknife and consists of 12 mineral claims totaling 619.8 acres (250.82 hectares) situated to the south of, and are contiguous to, the southern boundary of the Northbelt property.

TerraX acquired a 100-percent interest in the claims, which have no underlying royalties and are in good standing until 2058.

The 2.6- kilometers (1.6 miles) long Goodwin property also abuts the Giant mine property, which lies immediately to the west.

Like the Giant and Northbelt properties, the Goodwin property is predominantly underlain by Archean mafic volcanics of the Yellowknife volcanic belt.

The property is known to host one mineral occurrence, the Goodwin showing where government records show a chip sample of unspecified length assayed 6.86 g/t gold. According to historical maps, at least 37 drill holes have been drilled on the property, but TerraX only has logs for 14 of these holes and assays from only three holes. TerraX said it expects to be able to use knowledge gained from the Northbelt property to generate targets on the Goodwin property.

Preparation for drilling

TerraX initiated community engagement meetings within Yellowknife, and within the N'Dilo and Dettah First Nations, drawing positive initial responses to the company's exploration plans.

The company also initiated contact with the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board for preparing applications for drill permits on the Northbelt property. The MVLWB will be responsible for issuing the permits to TerraX for its drilling programs, which are tentatively scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2013 or first quarter of 2014.

The company raised about C$1.7 million in financings during the year and currently has about C$800,000 in working capital.

TerraX said it plans to continue re-logging drill cores from Northbelt into early 2014. In addition, the company plans to continue compiling data, 3-D modeling and interpreting its airborne survey results, while developing plans to drill top priority targets in a winter/spring 2014 program.