Mining News: Northern Neighbors: TerraX adds Southbelt to Yellowknife gold property

TerraX Minerals Inc. Sept. 23 reported that it has staked an eight-kilometer (five miles) extension of the Yellowknife Greenstone Belt, immediately south of the historic Con Mine. This newest addition to TerraX’s Yellowknife City Gold project consists of five claims totaling 16.7 square kilometers (6.4 square miles). During a two-day reconnaissance program on the northeastern third of the Southbelt property prior to staking, 12 structures were noted and 44 grab samples were collected. Six of these structures returned gold values greater than 0.5 grams per metric ton gold, with a high value of 94.9 g/t gold. Several of the structures have anomalous copper and zinc, with high values of 0.78 percent copper and 0.36 percent zinc. The Southbelt property adjoins the southern boundary of the Con property, which is owned by Miramar Northern Mining Ltd. A number of structures on the Con property strike onto the Southbelt property. These structures vary in orientation from north-northwest to east-northeast and are sub-vertical. As in TerraX’s ground north of Yellowknife, the structures typically consist of a one- to five-meter-wide shear zone with strong iron carbonate alteration, cored by one or more quartz veins containing variable amounts of arsenopyrite, pyrite and base metal sulfides. TerraX reports that one east-northeast trending structure that was traced for more than 200 meters contained up to 94.9 g/t gold and 0.12 percent zinc. Together, TerraX’s Southbelt and Northbelt properties cover 23 kilometers (14 miles) of strike length on the southern and northern extensions of the shear system that hosts the high-grade Con and Giant gold mines. TerraX President Joe Campbell said, “With the acquisition of the Southbelt property, TerraX now controls more than half of the prolific Yellowknife Greenstone Belt, from which millions of ounces of gold have been produced. This new property has similar geology and structures to the Con and Giant properties, and exploration by TerraX has already demonstrated its ability to host significant gold grades.”

- Shane Lasley