Tiriganiaq

Tiriganiaq


Phase: Operation
Mine Type: Pit

Tags: archean gabbro greenstone belt proterozoic quartzite sill tonalite

Gold Map

The Meliadine gold project (including the Discovery deposit) is located in the Kivalliq District of Nunavut in northern Canada, approximately 25 km northwest of Rankin Inlet on the west coast of Hudson Bay. A private all-weather access road constructed by Agnico Eagle connects Rankin Inlet to the Meliadine project. The current Meliadine exploration camp is located on the shore of Meliadine Lake, approximately 2.3 km east of the Tiriganiaq deposit.

The physical features of the Meliadine region have largely been determined by glaciation. The terrain consists predominantly of broadly rolling uplands and lowlands with little topographical relief (very few hills). Rankin Inlet is located on the shore of Hudson Bay with a mean elevation of 28 m above sea level. Strung out across the landscape are long, sinuous eskers. This undulating landscape is studded with innumerable lakes, ponds, and wetlands. Cryosols are the dominant soils, and are underlain by continuous permafrost with active layers that are usually moist or wet throughout the summer.

History:

1987. Asamera Minerals Inc. (Asamera) investigated the gold occurrence at Tonic Lake reported by the Rankin Nickel Syndicate in 1972 and obtained a sample of quartz vein carrying arsenopyrite that yielded 5.0 g/t Au.

1989. Asamera and Comaplex Minerals Corp. (Comaplex) followed up the 5.0 g/t Au sample collected in 1987 by prospecting along the strike of the iron formation. They found a gold occurrence that eventually became part of the Discovery gold deposit, with chip sample grades of up to 4.4 g/t Au over 4.0 m. That year Asamera and Comaplex acquired 405,000 hectares in claims and permits under a 50%-50% joint venture.

1990. Asamera and Comaplex completed 14 drill holes (1,115 m) to evaluate the gold potential in the Discovery deposit area.

1991. Rio Algom Inc. signed a joint venture agreement to earn 60% of the western portion of the property (Meliadine West). Rio Algom drilled six drill holes totalling 728 m on Meliadine West. A detailed airborne survey over the Meliadine West property and extensive boulder sampling was carried out. The Wesmeg boulder field was discovered; 710 of the boulders were sampled of which 75 had assays greater than 34 g/t Au.

1992. Asamera and Comaplex completed 5,148 m of diamond drilling on the Meliadine East Joint Venture. The same year, Rio Algom relinquished its option on Meliadine West, which reverted back to a 50%-50% joint venture between Comaplex and Asamera.

1993 - 1994. Comaplex drilled 85 short drill holes (6,869 m) on Meliadine West. Hole 93-38 intersected 17.2 g/t gold over 1.1 m in mineralized Upper Oxide Iron Formation, thereby discovering the Tiriganiaq gold deposit. F zone and Pump gold deposits were also discovered in that period of exploration. Asamera sold its interest in the Meliadine Property to Cumberland Resources Ltd. (Cumberland), and control of the whole Meliadine Property reverted to a 50%-50% joint venture between Comaplex and Cumberland.

1995. WMC optioned the Meliadine West property and drilled 7,171 m in 33 drill holes including the Tiriganiaq gold deposit. Comaplex and Cumberland conducted prospecting and sampling on Meliadine East claims NAT 51 and NAT 53-56. A total of 44 samples were collected; eight of them had gold values greater than 0.5 g/t, with a high of 29.0 g/t.

1996. WMC drilled 18,196 m in 77 drill holes on the Meliadine West property. The company performed geochemical and geophysical exploration on the NAT 16-19 and NAT 40 claims.

1997. WMC conducted mapping, geochemical exploration and geophysical exploration over the entire Meliadine West property. It drilled 33,000 m in 123 drill holes, mostly at Pump and Wolf. A Bombardier-mounted ground magnetic survey and an IP survey was performed over claims NAT 9, 10, 11, 12, 32, 33 and 34 in Meliadine West.

1998. WMC drilled 36,268 m in 147 drill holes, mostly at Pump, Wolf and Tiriganiaq. A Bombardier-mounted ground magnetic survey was completed over NAT 8, 13, 14, 15, 31, 34, 35, and 41. The company drilled 4,417 m in 20 drill holes in the Peter Lake to Meliadine Lake portion of the Meliadine West property.

1999. WMC drilled 21,000 m in 128 drill holes at Tiriganiaq (123 holes) and F zone (five holes).

2000. WMC drilled a total of 10,753 m in 49 drill holes, with 6,360 m (31 holes) on Tiriganiaq and 4,393 m (18 widely spaced holes) on other exploration targets.

2001. WMC completed an aeromagnetic survey over concessions held on Inuit-owned and federal lands in both the Meliadine West and East properties. The survey identified several prospective gold areas and a number of small magnetic anomalies thought to be potential kimberlites. Additional airborne electromagnetic surveys were completed in 2002 to help define possible gold- and base-metal-bearing targets.

2003. Comaplex and WMC completed a diamond drill program (17 holes for 4,650 m) at Tiriganiaq. In a deal finalized in October, Comaplex agreed to buy WMC’s 56% interest in the Meliadine West property.

2004. Comaplex completed 21 drill holes totalling 9,297 m in Meliadine West. Results as high as 166 g/t gold over 16.1 m were reported from the western parts of the Tiriganiaq deposit. Regional assessment work was completed on outlying concessions.

2005. Comaplex completed 48 drill holes totalling 15,851 m on the property. Surface assessment work on the outlying claims/concessions returned high grade gold values (greater than 30 g/t Au) in the east half of the CWM claims. Strathcona (2005) prepared the first mineral resource estimates reported in compliance with CIM Definition Standards (CIM, 2005) for the Tiriganiaq deposit that same year.

2006. Comaplex completed 75 drill holes totalling 18,043 m on the property. Of this amount, 16,124 m (62 holes) was at Tiriganiaq, with the rest completed on the reconnaissance Aklak and Aqpik targets on the CWM claim block. A total of 249 till samples and tightly spaced magnetic geophysical surveys were taken on the eastern end of the CWM claims for diamond exploration. Snowden (2006) prepared a new mineral resource estimate for the Tiriganiaq deposit.

2007. Comaplex completed 85 drill holes totalling 21,528 m at Tiriganiaq. Limited surface prospecting for gold and diamonds was also completed. In August, Comaplex obtained the final approvals and began to excavate a portal. This would give access to a decline for underground exploration and a bulk sampling program at Tiriganiaq. Snowden (2007) prepared Mineral resource estimates for Tiriganiaq.

2008. Comaplex completed 79 drill holes totalling 23,527 m on the Meliadine West property, of which 90% was completed into the Tiriganiaq zone, 8.5% completed in the F zone, and 1.5% on reconnaissance targets. The underground exploration and bulk sampling program was completed at the end of August with a total of 1,044 m of ramp development, 404 m of drifting on the 1000 and 1100 lodes, 97 m of crosscuts, and 80 m of raises. Bulk samples were collected from the 1000 and 1100 lodes. In July, Agnico-Eagle obtained an 11% interest in the Meliadine project by purchasing an equity interest in Comaplex from Troy Resources. Also in 2008, Resource Capital Fund completed 22 drill holes for 3,879 m in the area of the Discovery deposit and prepared a mineral resource estimate for the Discovery deposit (Pincock, Allen & Holt, 2008), and Snowden (2008) prepared a mineral resource estimate for the Tiriganiaq deposit.

2009. Comaplex completed 106 drill holes totalling 23,607 m on the Meliadine West property, of which 71% was completed in the Tiriganiaq zone, 11% completed in the F zone, 13% on reconnaissance targets and 5% on geotechnical drilling. Golder completed geotechnical studies of the proposed open pit deposits. In February, Comaplex engaged Micon International Ltd. to prepare a Preliminary Economic Assessment (Micon, 2009), which recommended that the Meliadine project be advanced to the stage of a prefeasibility or feasibility level study. The gold price assumption was $650 per ounce. Snowden (2009) prepared a new mineral resource estimates for Tiriganiaq. Snowden also prepared a mineral resource estimate at F zone (Micon, 2009). Also in 2009, Resource Capital Fund completed 25 holes (3,066 m) of diamond drilling on the Discovery deposit.

2010. Snowden (2010) prepared a mineral resource estimate for Meliadine that included the Tiriganiaq, Discovery, F zone, Pump and Wolf deposits. Agnico-Eagle acquired 100% interest in the Meliadine property from Comaplex. During the year, 187 holes (33,104 m) were drilled on the Meliadine property of which 15,447 m was drilled by Comaplex before July 7 and the rest drilled by Agnico-Eagle after this date. Of the total, Tiriganiaq received 63% of the drilling, F zone 19%, Wolf 11% and Wesmeg 4%. The other 3% of drilling was geotechnical and twinned holes. A regional prospecting program collected 209 grab samples from several historical gold occurrences on ANT 1, ANT 3, TAN 1, Felsic 1 and FAY 2, plus 34 channel samples totalling 33.6 m. Eight 10-kg till samples and 149 250-g soil samples were also collected.

Summary of exploration drilling at the Meliadine project as a whole, from pre-1995 through the end of 2010: 330147 m.

Regional geology: Rankin Inlet Greenstone Belt

Located in the Northwest Hearne Sub-domain of the Churchill Structural Province that forms part of the northern Canadian Shield. Supracrustal rocks of this belt consist of mafic volcanic rocks, felsic pyroclastic rocks, sedimentary rocks and gabbro sills of about 2.7 billion years old that have been polydeformed and metamorphosed (Bannatyne, 1958; Laporte, 1983; Tella et al., 1986; Tella, 1994).These rocks were deformed in both the Archean and Proterozoic eras.

Meliadine area regional geology:

Meliadine area regional geology

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Local geology:

Structural deformation in the project area originated with the development of an east-southeast-dipping fold and extensive thrust faults. The Archean rock layers in the Rankin Inlet area were refolded due to northeast-southwest crustal shortening in the early to mid-second deformation event. This resulted in a regionally pervasive, penetrative shear foliation striking east-southeast and dipping 53° northeast as well as tight southeast-trending second generation folds.

The Pyke Fault was generated by the mid-second generation deformation event, at a slightly oblique angle to the regional stratigraphy and well-developed Z-shape folds across the entire length of the property. Individual folds range from centimetre to kilometre scale and are well developed north of the Pyke Fault.

Subsequent north-south shortening during a third deformation event resulted in shears trending roughly east-west as splays off the main southeast shear trend. Gold mineralization is interpreted to have been introduced during this event, and is postulated to be Proterozoic in age (Miller et al., 1995; Carpenter et al., 2005).

The weaker mica-bearing and argillite units show late-stage crenulation of the penetrative shear fabric locally. The crenulation is thought to post-date the gold mineralization.

Local geology map showing the Tiriganiaq, Normeg, Wesmeg, F-Zone, Pump and Wolf deposits. The black lines indicate cross sections.

Local geology map showing the Tiriganiaq, Normeg, Wesmeg, F-Zone, Pump and Wolf deposits.

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