Junior aims to produce gold in 2021

The Mon gold project, currently the only fully permitted gold mining project in Northwest Territories, is advancing toward new production later this year.

The project is located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Yellowknife in the South MacKenzie Mining District. A high-grade quartz vein was discovered on the Mon property in 1937 by prospectors working for Cominco Ltd. during an aerial reconnaissance flight north of Yellowknife.

In 1988 the property was optioned by Cominco to David Webb, who operated the historic Mon Mine between 1991 and 1997 on a summer-only basis, producing 15,000 ounces of gold from 15,000 metric tons of ore. Mined at a depth of about 15 meters below surface, the earlier operation was forced to close by low gold prices.

Now, the same team that operated the mine in the 1990s has returned to take another crack at developing its full potential Mon, which includes 11 contiguous mining leases and three mineral claims covering 622 hectares (1,537 acres).

"We believe the best way to capitalize on today's gold prices is to bring the mine back into production," Sixty North Gold Mining Ltd. President and CEO Dave Webb told investors this spring.

"Our plan is to bring the mine back at the same rate (100 metric tons per day), using the same team that did it before in the 1990s," Webb said.

2021 startup targeted

Having confirmed mineralization below the mined-out stopes at the Mon Mine in 2016, the company has worked toward restarting the mine since.

This year, crews set up equipment and materials trucked to the property via winter road in March and began work in June on reopening the existing North Ramp and extending its decline another 200 meters to access 30,000 to 40,000 metric tons of vein material about 20 meters beneath the historic stopes.

In April, Sixty North Gold also hired a new mine manager, Rod McKay, who has worked on projects around the globe, including in Northwest Territories for Tyhee Gold Corp. and in Saskatchewan for Claude Resources' SeaBee underground gold mine.

Gerry Hess, president of New Discovery Mining Ltd., and former mine manager at the Mon Mine during its operation in the 1990s, will continue to advise McKay and Sixty North Gold.

Sixty North Gold is earning an 80% interest in the Mon Gold project from owner New Discovery Mining, a private company owned by Webb, by spending C$6 million on the project. Sixty North Gold can then purchase the remaining 20% carried interest in the project with 25% of its outstanding common shares.

Through July 12, about C$4.4 million has been invested into the project to purchase mining equipment, camp, and supplies needed for mine development, drilling below old stopes, geophysics, and conducting surface exploration of gold mineralization.

Sixty North Gold raised nearly C$1.43 million in new financing that closed in early July, the net proceeds of which will be used for further exploration and development of the property and for working capital, the company said.

Working in gold country

Webb said the Mon property's past production has similarities to the high-grade output of the historic Discovery Mine, which produced 1 million oz of gold also at a rate of 1 oz/t. Like Mon, the Discovery Mine – located another 50 kilometers (31 miles) to the north – is situated in the Yellowknife Gold District, where several juniors have re-focused their attention recently.

Webb said his team believes the Mon property has the potential to become a large gold producer like the Discovery Mine. Recent metallurgical testing of a quarter-metric-ton sample yielded recoveries averaging 98.8% at a grade of 158 grams per metric ton gold. High-grade samples up to 688 g/t gold over 0.5 meter also have been recovered from the crown pillar.

Mineralization identified in the property's A-Zone appears to be a viable exploration target for a "Discovery Mine" type of deposit, according to the company.

"We have a good analogy that we are following up on," Webb said. "We believe our project is of that type."

With permits in place to mine and mill at a rate of 100 metric tons per day, the company plans to extract a bulk sample of 4,000 to 6,000 metric tons this summer to confirm previous mined grades from the mine.

Other targets on the property include recently discovered silver- and gold-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide targets, as well as shear zone-hosted gold mineralization. The shear zones are similar in nature to, and hosted in the same rocks as, the world-class deposits at the Con and Giant Mines in Yellowknife, which produced 14 million oz gold.

More potential next door

Sixty North Gold also optioned the highly prospective 2,394-hectare (5,916 acres) Hangstone property, which adjoins the Mon property to the east and south, from an independent prospector.

The company July 26 reported identifying a prospective bulk-minable gold target on the Hangstone claims during initial field investigations during the month. Crews in camp during startup of underground mining at Mon's A-zone examined targets identified on the Hangstone claims at Narrow Lake.

Sixty North Gold said the newly discovered zone has significant similarities to the Clan Lake zone, which is located on adjacent claims held by GoldMining Inc.

The company said the Narrow Lake zone is a poorly exposed trend of gold showings in gabbros near a mixed pelitic and felsic volcanic rock contact within Yellowknife Supergroup rocks. Irregular quartz veining and silicification of the altered gabbros include an exposure 24 meters long by 14 meters wide, containing 5% quartz in narrow irregularly branching and reconnecting veins with associated carbonate, arsenopyrite, pyrite, and galena. Sixty grab and chip samples collected along a 2,300-meter strike length (open to the north) average 5.7 g/t gold, with 22 samples greater than 1 g/t gold and as high as 210 g/t gold. Additional samples have been collected.

Webb, who examined the Narrow Lake zone, said, "The exposure at the north end is very similar geologically to an exposure at Clan Lake, where GoldMining Inc. reported 2.77 million metric tons grading 2.23 g/t gold, containing 198,600 oz of gold in an inferred mineral resource (GoldMining Inc., 2019).

"The similarity is not unexpected as our claims are contiguous with the Clan Lake property of GoldMining Inc. They also report 12.27 million metric tons of measured and indicated mineral resource, grading 2.29 g/t gold containing 902,000 oz and 2.8 Mt of inferred mineral resource containing 271,000 oz of gold in their similarly mineralized Ormsby Zone (located) 34 kilometers (21 miles) to the northeast," Webb said.

Webb and his team are credited with the discovery and development of both the Ormsby and Clan Lake zones.

"We anticipate more of these "Ormsby-style" gold deposits to be located in the Yellowknife Gold Belt," he said. He also praised Sixty North's prospecting crew members for their diligence."

The Mon property shear zone and VMS targets can be projected onto the Hangstone property, according to the company. Geochemical samples have been collected and are being shipped for analysis.