The Superior East Region of Ontario has seen exploration and mining activity since the turn of the century. However, compared to other mining camps in Canada, it’s generally underexplored. But there are three companies set to make the most of their respective properties in the area.
Trillium Mining Corp.
This early-stage, Toronto-based exploration company headed by CEO Mike Timmins is focused on its high-grade gold assets in the Wawa Gold Camp. The property covers about 6,000 hectares of the Goudreau Lake Deformation Zone and is contiguous to east of Alamos’ Island Gold Mine. Their activities cover over eight kilometres of mineralized horizons. Trillium is private and a relatively young company, having been established in 2017.
“We have three principal assets – the past-producing Edwards and Cline Mines and our regional land position, which has been named Highland,” Timmins explains, adding that all three mines comprise the Trillium Gold Project.
The Edwards Mines, acquired by Trillium in 2017, operated in two different eras. It first operated in the late 1930s and was closed just before the Second World War. River Gold then operated the mine from 1996 to 2001.
“It produced around 144,000 ounces at 13 to 15 grams per tonne,” Timmins says. “Key features at Edwards are the relatively 4.5-by-4.5-metre mine portal and decline down to about 300 metres vertical. Also, all of the electrical infrastructure is in place and in great shape.”
The Cline Mine was acquired by Trillium in 2016 and was a small mine producing about 60,000 ounces at six to seven grams per tonne. Like Edwards, it operated in the late 1930s and shut down in 1939. Over the years, Cline has been the focus of many exploration companies and, most notably, Noranda, which made the Lake Zone discovery.
Filling out the development pipeline at Trillium is Highland, their regional land position.
“There are over 18 historical gold targets regionally and the two most advanced have had large bulk samples taken. The Markes and Vega Zones will be the focus of our investigations in the next several months,” Timmins says. “These satellites give some sense that we are seeing the scale required for a modern, tier-one mining operation.
“We are excited because this is the first time one company has had the opportunity to advance all three of these assets with a strategy and supportive shareholders.”
Timmins adds the company’s goals are to 1) establish themselves in the community, 2) compile all of the historical and new 2019 data and information and 3) begin to plan how to approach the project and expand its current a gold resource.
“The key to success here is to build a significant, high-quality resource in an area of the country where communities support our activities, this is what our team works on everyday,” Timmins explains.
Wesdome Gold Mines
Production is also coming from Wesdome Gold Mines, says Michael Michaud, vice-president of exploration. Wesdome is a junior gold producer with one producing mine called the Eagle River Mine in northwest Ontario, outside of Wawa as well.
“Our goal with this mine is incremental increases in gold production year over year,” Michaud says. “The goal is to increase the underground mining rate where reserves stand at just over 12 grams per tonne; however, our average head grade for the first half of 2019 has been 20.9 grams per tonne, due to a new high-grade zone called the 303. The increased production rate from the higher-grade underground mine would replace the lower grade Mishi open pit, which is only 2.0 grams per tonne, both feeding a central mill. In order to ramp that production up, we need to explore around the Eagle River Mine, and that’s really what we’ve been doing over the last several years.”
Michaud says Wesdome has ramped up its diamond-drilling program from somewhere around 25,000 metres per year to over 100,000 metres per year.
“We’re aggressively exploring and increasing the production rate from underground,” he adds.
Red Pine Exploration
Red Pine Exploration’s flagship project is the Wawa Gold Project located in Wawa, Ont. The property comprises 6,500 hectares, just two kilometres southeast of the town of Wawa. It encompasses eight past producing mines from the late 1800s to the early 1900s.
“When we started working on this property in late 2014, there was already an identified resource called the Surluga Deposit,” Mia Boiridy, head of investor relations and corporate development, says. “This area was the site of the first gold rush in Ontario and the region was known for its high-grade gold mines.”
For the past four years, the Surluga Deposit has been the company’s focus. They reissued a resource for Surluga in June of 2019, bringing it up to over 500,000 ounces at a grade of over five grams per tonne.
“We made another discovery, the Minto Mine South Deposit. We issued resource for it in November of last year,” Boiridy says. “That’s 100,000 ounces at 6.8 grams per tonne on average.
“We recently started drilling the Cooper Structure, one kilometre northeast of Surluga, and we think Cooper is similar to Minto,” she adds.
Red Pine Exploration’s overall goals with the Wawa Gold Project is to prove up over one million ounces of gold near-surface on the property package, and show that Surluga extends at depth in terms of mineralization.
“What’s interesting is there is historical infrastructure there with these old mines. We could have access by using existing infrastructure, if it’s in good standing,” Boiridy says. “We have two identified resources, but there are six additional exploration targets. We could have potentially eight deposits on our land package.
“We’ve worked, for the past four years, on proving that there was high-grade mineralization at Surluga and Minto. Now it’s going to be proving that there’s more than just the two. We feel confident that there will eventually be an operating mine on our land package.”
