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Gold ounces jump at Moneta's Matheson-area project

Exploration results at Golden Highway Project show 217 increase in resources
Moneta Porcupine Mines core shacks
(Moneta Porcupine Mines)

The gold resource estimate at Moneta Porcupine Mines' prospective mine property, near Matheson in northeastern Ontario, has increased by more than 200 per cent.

The Toronto junior miner posted a new mineral resource for its Golden Highway Project based on an exploration drilling program conducted during the first half of this year.

The Golden Highway Project, located 100 kilometres east of Timmins, shows both open pit and underground mine potential.

The posted results show a 217 per cent increase from the last count released in September for a total contained gold to 2,144,200 ounces (both underground and open pit) in the indicated category, and a 141 per cent increase in total contained gold to 3,335,300 ounces in the inferred category.

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The company said the most of these resources come from its Westaway high-grade discovery and from mineralization found near surface with open pit potential.

Moneta holds more than 600 square kilometres of property with Golden Highway, which contain six gold projects on a geological structure historically known for discovering gold, the Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone. Golden Highway is situated 12 kilometres east of Matheson, between McEwen Mining's Black Fox Mine and Kirkland Lake Gold's idled Holt and Holloway mine complex.

This fall, Moneta released a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its South West deposit at Golden Highway, placing an 11-year underground mine life on just that one area of their expansive property.

The company fully expects the resource base to grow as there are several targets near the deposits that show the "same style and tenor" of gold mineralization. Those targets are the focus of a 20,000-metre winter drilling program that's now underway. 

Moneta also posted a maiden inferred underground resource of 661,900 ounces at a grade of 4.71 grams per tonne of gold at the new Westaway/West Block discovery, along with publishing a new open-pit resource of its Windjammer South property, which shows an indicated resource of 1,511,900 ounce at 0.93 grams per tonne and 1,207,200 ounces in the inferred column at 1.10 grams per tonne.

"We are confident of the ability to continue to increase the size of the deposits and targets located within the project," said CEO Gary O'Connor in a statement.

"We have mobilized drill rigs to test regional targets as well as test the extensions of the current resources in our winter 2020/2021 drill program."