TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Project generator Transition Metals has expanded the exploration programme on the Itchen Lake gold property, located 365 km north-east of Yellowknife, in Nunavut, along the Nunavut/Northwest Territories border.

The company, which recently completed its business combination with fellow project developer HTX Minerals, on Thursday said its now fully owned subsidiary HTX had completed a number of exploration activities on the property, the results of which were expected in the fall.

These exploration activities comprised an airborne versatile time domain electromagnetic (VTEM) surveying programme and magnetic survey, starting a remote predictive mapping (RPM) research project, compiling past exploration and drilling results, and following this up with a field mapping, ground verification and sampling programme during August.

The Itchen Lake property is located about 60 km west of the past-producing Lupin gold deposit, which produced 3.36-million ounces at a grade of 9.3 g/t.

Transition’s president and CEO, Scott McLean, noted that the large number of high-grade gold occurrences in a favourable geological environment, in relatively close proximity to a major past producer, made this an attractive property.

"With new geophysical data, and detailed geological and structural mapping, we expect to be able to identify new targets for drilling. The prospect of future road access through the property further adds to its attractiveness,” he said in a statement.

Despite being remote, access to the Itchen Lake property could improve significantly, should MMG Resources move ahead with its Izok Corridor base metals project. MMG is currently completing a definitive feasibility study that includes the construction of a 325 km all-weather road to connect the proposed Izok lead/zinc/copper mine to a new port at Grays Bay, along the Coronation Gulf.

The currently proposed route passes through the Itchen property and could significantly improve the economics of any future resource development at Itchen, provided that an agreement could be reached to allow third-party access.

The VTEM survey had found 60 moderate- to high-conductivity anomalies in May, and a number of these were located along the same geologic trends as known gold occurrences. The company had also completed compiling historic data on the project obtained from about 80 historic holes drilled between 1963 and 1995, with the aim of identifying prospective targets for a subsequent drill programme.

RESEARCH PROJECT

Meanwhile, in cooperation with its strategic alliance partner, the Nunavut Resources Corporation (NRC), HTX had started a one-year RPM research project in an effort to better understand the vast mineralogy of the territory.

Transition said the territory’s size and the relative lack of good, detailed geoscientific information across much of the area had prompted the project, which would entail compiling and interpreting data from a variety of sources, including satellites, and geophysical and geochemical surveys, to produce predictive maps containing structural, lithologic, geophysical and surficial information for geologists, in support of field activities.

The resulting maps could also serve as a first-order geologic map in areas where field mapping had not been previously completed and was not readily feasible or economically viable.

"If we're able to develop a consistent RPM methodology, it could dramatically accelerate our interpretation process and allow us to more efficiently and effectively identify areas for more detailed follow-up, as part of our project generation efforts." Transition geophysicist Kevin Stevens said.

RPM techniques developed by geoscientists for other regions have been demonstrated to be highly effective at mapping to scales as large as 1:50 000.

This research project would evaluate to what extent the RPM approach could be used to achieve more detailed mapping. In the process, various data sources, combinations and processes would be considered with the goal to define workflows that could be reproduced in other areas as the strategic alliance continued exploration efforts across Nunavut.

The NRC/HTX strategic alliance and LookNorth, a national centre of excellence and research for commercialisation, hosted by C‐Core, in St John's, Newfoundland, jointly fund the project.

LookNorth, or Leading Operational Observations and Knowledge for the North, in collaboration with a broad network of industry, northern, business and research partners, validates and drives commercialisation of monitoring technologies to support safe and sustainable development of Canada's northern natural resources.