Santa Fe finds more gold at Duquesne W.

Drilling by Santa Fe Canadian Mining has identified a new gold zone on the Duquesne West property of Globex Mining (GMX-T), 30 km northwest of Rouyn-Noranda, Que.

Santa Fe, a wholly owned subsidiary of Santa Fe Pacific Gold (GLD-N), can earn a half interest in the property by spending $3.8 million on exploration and providing a bankable feasibility study. To date, the company has spent nearly $2 million.

The new zone, known as Stinger East, represents an alteration package and underlying mineralization with a coincident induced-polarization (IP) anomaly.

Results from the discovery hole include 6.25 metres of 5.49 grams gold per tonne. An undercut hole returned 4.21 metres of 4.46 grams within a 35.91-metre-long, heavily altered zone averaging 1.37 grams.

A wedge off this hole returned 6.86 grams over 1.58 metres, 4.11 grams over 6.49 metres and 7.54 grams over 1.43 metres. An additional undercut hole intersected 72.54 metres of 0.86 gram. That intersection also returned 4.63 grams over 3.29 metres, 8.23 grams over 1.52 metres and 1.71 grams over 10.39 metres.

Other zones were also intersected, including 28.8 grams over 2.77 metres in the Kerr zone. Santa Fe continues to test this zone, as well as other areas on the property, through diamond drilling.

Santa Fe has drilled more than 23,000 metres on the Dusquesne West property in this latest round of drilling. Previous work there focused on the Fox and Shaft zones, outlining geological resources of 466,291 tonnes grading 13.03 grams and 116,119 tonnes grading 7.89 grams, respectively.

Meanwhile, on Globex’s Bell Mountain property in Nevada, ECU Gold Mining (ECU-M) has completed a first phase of drilling as part of an agreement to earn a half interest. The agreement calls for ECU to spend US$3 million in exploration, make cash payments totalling $500,000 and issue to Globex 500,000 shares.

The program is testing the east-west-trending Spurr-Varga gold zone and the north-south-trending Sphinx gold structure. The easternmost hole drilled at Spurr-Varga returned 24.99 metres of 1.71 grams. The zone lies within a larger zone, measuring 57.61 metres wide and grading 0.86 gram.

The intersection is significant in that surface samples taken 3 km east of the hole returned up to 21.26 grams. No holes have been drilled between the two areas.

At the Victoria gold property in Quebec, Maude Lake Explorations (MAUD-C) can earn up to a 60% interest from Globex by issuing 310,000 shares, paying $190,000, and spending $5 million on exploration over five years. The company has begun an IP survey, with diamond drilling to follow.