Name: Springpole mine.

Location: The Springpole mine project is located about 110 km north-east of Red Lake, in north-west Ontario, Canada.

Controlling Company: Gold Canyon Resources.

Brief History: Gold exploration on the Springpole property was conducted during two main periods, from the 1920s to the 1940s and from 1985 to the present day.

From the 1920s to the 1940s, prospecting was undertaken by Burwash, Northern Aerial Minerals, Tom Dunkin, Windigokan Sturgeon Mining and Springpole Mining.

In 1968, Springpole Mining merged with five other companies to form Milestone Explorations.

In the 1980s, Gold Fields Canadian Mining (GFCM) acquired several unpatented claims and carried out an extensive exploration programme. GFCM formed a 50:50 joint venture (JV) with Noranda and Akiko-Lori Gold Resources.

Noranda divested its interest in the JV in 1992, leaving Akiko-Lori with a 50% interest.

From 1994 to 1995, Akiko Gold completed 20 diamond-drill holes and reorganised itself into a new entity, Gold Canyon Resources, and GFCM’s 50% interest was acquired by Santa Fe Pacific Gold.

Newmont acquired Santa Fe Pacific Gold’s interest in 1997 and project participation was subsequently abandoned, with Gold Canyon retaining 100% interest in the property.

Brief Description: The Springpole gold mine project encompasses an estimated area of 32 375 ha.

Mining Method: Openpit.

Products: Gold and silver.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: A 121-million-tonne waste rock facility is planned for construction adjacent to the final pit limits for the Springpole deposit.

About 72-million tonnes of tailings (20 000 t/d) will be produced throughout the 11-year mine life. In addition to tailings, the tailings facility will contain soft lake bed sediments excavated from the dewatering dike foundations and pit area which will be an estimated 2.1-million cubic metres.

The tailings dam is expected to be a run-of-quarry (Type A material) rockfill dam, with a bituminous liner system on the upstream side.

Tailings will be thickened and pumped to the tailings management facility 5.6 km away. The tailings will be discharged through a single spigot, located in a tower at the centre of the facility. This spigot point will con- tinuously be raised and rotated as deposition advances. A 150-mm-diameter heat-traced and insulated HDPE return water pipeline will lead back to the plant.

Hydraulically placed subaerial thickened tailings require the construction of retaining structures, including earth-fill dams, lined rockfill dams, or in-pit deposition (mined-out openpit).

Geology/Mineralisation: The Springpole area is underlain by a polyphase alkali, trachyte intrusive displaying autolithic breccia. The intrusive comprises a system of multiple phases of trachyte that is believed to be part of the roof zone of a larger syenite intrusive.

Early intrusive phases consist of megacrystic feldspar phenocrysts of albite and orthoclase feldspar in an aphanitic groundmass.

Successive phases show progressively finer-grained porphyritic texture, while the final intrusive phases are aphanitic. Within the country rocks to the north and east are trachyte and lamprophyre dikes and sills that spring from the trachyte- or syenite-porphyry intrusive system.

The main intrusive complex appears to contain many of the characteristics of alkaline porphyry-style mineralisation associated with diatreme breccias.

This style of mineralisation is characterised by the Portage zone and portions of the East Extension zone where mineralisation is hosted by diatreme breccia in aphanitic trachyte. It is suspected that the ductile shearing and brittle faulting have played a significant role in redistributing the structurally controlled blocks of the mineralised rock.

Diamond drilling in 2010 revealed a more complex alteration, with broader intense zones of potassic alteration replacing the original rock mass with biotite and pyrite. In the core area of the deposit, where fine-grained disseminated gold mineralisation occurs with biotite, the primary potassic alteration mineral, gold displays a good correlation with potassium/rubidium.

Resources: Total indicated resources as October 17, 2012, were 128.2-million tons, grading 1.07 g/t gold and 5.7 g/t silver. Inferred resources were 25.7-million tonnes, grading 0.83 g/t gold and 3.2 g/t silver.

Prospects: A preliminary economic assessment on the Springpole mine project was filed in May.

Contact Person: VP: corporate communications Richard Moritz.

Contact Details:
Gold Canyon Resources, tel + 1 604 682 3234, fax +1 604 682 0537, email rmoritz@goldcanyon.ca, and
website http://goldcanyon.ca

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