HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Aug 31, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Brigus Gold Corp. (“Brigus Gold” or the “Company”) (CA:BRD 1.32, +0.06, +4.76%) (BRD 1.25, +0.05, +4.18%) has expanded its planned exploration drill program at the Black Fox Complex in the Timmins Gold District, Ontario to include a minimum of 15,000 metres (“m”) of surface drilling. The Black Fox Complex comprises the Black Fox Mine and Mill, and the Grey Fox-Pike River property, adjoining the mine and along strike of the Black Fox gold deposit.
Surface Drilling Program
Approximately 5,000 m of drilling will be focused on step-out drilling which is intended to expand the Black Fox gold deposit along strike and down-dip. The Black Fox area drill program will also offset the 2004 high-grade gold result in surface drill hole #04BF-389, which returned 20.9 grams of gold per tonne (“g/t”) over a true width of 4.98 m located near the Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone (“DPFZ”) and the cross-cutting Base Metal Zone (“BMZ”) mineralized structure.
An additional 10,000 m of drilling will be focused in and around the Contact Zone within the Grey-Fox Pike River property, including four exploration targets. There are currently two core drill rigs operating at the Contact Zone. Other targets, located within a two kilometre (“km”) area of the Contact Zone, that will be targeted with this program included the Historic Gibson Deposit, Gibson-Fault Zone, School House Zone and Hislop North Zone. To date, the Company has completed 27 holes totalling 11,440 m targeting the Contact Zone and first phase drilling on the Gibson Deposit, Gibson-Fault Zone, School House Zone and Hislop North Zone. Assay results are pending for most of these holes.
Brigus Gold plans to add a third core drill rig in the first week of September which is intended to further delineate the mineralization trend of the Black Fox deposit with a fourth core drill rig being added in approximately six weeks.
Underground Drilling Program
Brigus Gold also plans to extend the underground 235 m level drift to target resource additions from underground drill stations at Black Fox. Underground drilling will initially target mineralization to the southeast following up on positive results from previous drilling in 2004 and 2005. The 235 m level drift, which is currently approximately one km in length, will be initially advanced 200 m to facilitate fan-pattern drilling at 12.5 m centers. In the previous underground drill program, completed in 2004 and 2005, the last southeast drill station, located at the end of the drift, returned significant gold grades at depth and over attractive widths from underground fan drilling holes #235-296 and #235-295, as well from surface drill hole #04BF364. Highlights of the three drill holes are shown below:
Hole # From To Interval True Width Gold Grade
——- —— —— ——– ———- ———–
metres metres metres metres grams/tonne
—— —— ——– ———- ———–
235-296 288.6 295.4 6.8 6.25 31.16
——- —— —— ——– ———- ———–
235-295 278.8 282.4 3.6 3.49 7.48
——- —— —— ——– ———- ———–
and 278.7 288.6 0.9 0.87 2.59
——- —— —— ——– ———- ———–
04BF364 500.4 503.8 3.4 3.07 12.65
——- —— —— ——– ———- ———–
The Black Fox Mine and Grey Fox-Pike River properties cover 17 square km and extend 6.5 km along the strike and at depth of the well-known Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone (“DPFZ”), which hosts the Black Fox deposit and several other gold deposits in the Timmins Gold District.
Howard Bird, Vice President of Exploration for Brigus Gold, said, “There is exciting potential for further gold discoveries and additions to gold resources at our wholly owned Black Fox Complex. We believe there is potential for further gold mineral discoveries to augment the mine life at Black Fox and, for that reason, we have significantly expanded our drill program with plans to have four surface rigs operating at year end and continuing into 2011.
Brigus Gold is focusing on identifying new gold targets with an in-house reinterpretation of the geological characteristics of the property area using the latest methods and techniques. A high-resolution magnetic airborne geophysical survey will be conducted over all of the properties and the Grey Fox-Pike River property will also be surveyed using the advanced Quantec Titan 24 (“Titan”) geophysical system. The Titan Induced Polarization and Resistivity survey system defines high-resolution results to depths of approximately 700 m, which are unachievable with conventional geophysics or airborne geophysics. The system detects conductive mineralization, disseminated mineralization, alteration, structure and geology resulting in the identification of prospective drill targets. The Titan survey was completed over the Black Fox Mine in 2004 and successfully defined the mine deposit and was instrumental in the discovery on the base metal zone. The airborne and Titan surveys are expected to commence in mid-September 2010.
During Q-4 2010, Brigus Gold expects to announce an initial National Instrument 43-101-compliant estimate of resources of gold for the Contact Zone, based on limited drilling of 65 core holes completed in 2009 and 2008. The Company is using the latest drill results to confirm and update the geological interpretation in the resource estimate. Most of the 2009 and 2008 drilling was relatively shallow, concentrated within 120 m of bedrock. The deepest Grey Fox drill hole # GF09-58 intersected the main mineralized Contact Zone lens at 222 m below surface and graded a weighted average of 10.58 g/t over a true horizontal width of 3.7 m. Drilling is continuing at the Contact Zone which remains open along strike and down-dip.
Management Change Announcement
The Company also announces that Richard F. Nanna, Senior Vice President of Exploration, and a co-founder of the predecessor companies of Brigus Gold, will be leaving the company, effective September 30, 2010. Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Wade K. Dawe, said, “We thank Dick Nanna for his contributions to the Company, especially in having the geologist’s foresight to identify the Black Fox Complex in the early days. We wish Dick the very best for the future.”
The Qualified Person who reviewed the technical exploration information in this news release is Senior Exploration Project Manager John A. Dixon.
About Brigus Gold
Brigus Gold is a growing gold producer committed to maximizing shareholder value through a strategy of efficient production, targeted exploration and select acquisitions. The Company operates the wholly owned Black Fox Mine in the Timmins Gold District of Ontario, Canada. The Black Fox Complex encompasses the Black Fox Mine and Mill, and the Grey Fox-Pike River property, adjoining the mine. All these properties are located in the Township of Black River-Matheson, Ontario, Canada. Brigus Gold is also advancing the Goldfields Project located near Uranium City, Saskatchewan, Canada, which hosts the Box and Athona gold deposits. In Mexico, Brigus Gold holds a 100 percent interest in the Ixhuatan Property located in the state of Chiapas, and an 80 percent interest in the Huizopa Joint Venture, an early stage, gold-silver exploration joint venture located in the State of Chihuahua. In the Dominican Republic, Brigus Gold and Everton Resources have a joint venture for the APV and Loma El Mate gold exploration projects.
Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors Concerning Estimates of Mineral Resources
This news release uses the term mineral “resources”. The Company advises U.S. investors that while these terms are defined in and required by Canadian regulations, these terms are not defined terms under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Industry Guide 7 and are generally not permitted to be used in reports and registration statements filed with the SEC. The SEC generally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute SEC Industry Guide 7 compliant “reserves” as in-place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into reserves.
Cautionary and Forward-Looking Statements
This news release includes “Forward-Looking Statements” within the meaning of section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements regarding the expansion of the Company’s surface and underground exploration drilling programs for 2010 and 2011, the amount of surface drilling, the addition of drill rigs operating at Black Fox Complex and the timing associated therewith, ability of the Company to extend the underground drift at the 235 m level and timing associated therewith, increase of Black Fox resources, matters relating to the geophysical survey of the Black Fox Complex and the timing thereof, release date of a National Instrument 43-101-compliant estimate for the Contact Zone, and additions to resources in 2011 are forward-looking statements and estimates that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include environmental risks and other factors disclosed under the heading “Risk Factors” in Brigus Gold’s and its predecessor companies’ most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and elsewhere in Apollo’s documents filed from time to time with the Toronto Stock Exchange, The NYSE Amex, The United States Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities. All forward-looking statements included in this news release are based on information available to the Company on the date hereof. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities laws.
SOURCE: Brigus Gold
Brigus Gold
Wendy Yang, 720-886-9656 Ext. 217
Vice President of Investor Relations
Toll Free: 1-877-465-3484
or
Sean Tufford, 902-422-1421
Director of Investor Relations
Toll Free: 1-866-785-0456
Copyright Business Wire 2010
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