TerraX Minerals Inc. is preparing for the first drilling campaign at its Stewart gold-copper property on the Burin Peninsula this summer.

TerraX Minerals Inc. is preparing for the first drilling campaign at its Stewart gold-copper property on the Burin Peninsula this summer.

Following up on work completed last fall that showed strong results for gold anomalies at the site, located just north of Marystown, TerraX president Joseph Campbell indicated a soil survey is currently underway over the largest part of the area of interest.

“Most of that work has been completed. It’s been a bit of a slog with the weather that’s been over there, but our best target areas have already been covered.

“We don’t have any results back from that yet, but it should be coming to us in the next few weeks.”

Mr. Campbell noted the company has also contracted Quantec Geosciences. Quantec will carry out a Titan geophysical survey, which has begun and will continue for several more weeks, at the property that will allow for a fairly deep look inside the rock.

“You have to actually punch an electrical current down into the ground. That’s why it called an ‘induced polarization’.

“So you push some current into the ground and they read the response that comes back.”

Mr. Campbell said residents in the area might spot a helicopter flying over the region in mid-March or April.

TerraX has hired Geo Data Solutions Inc. to fly an airborne magnetic survey over the Stewart property as well.

“What we’ve seen so far on the ground has encouraged us and we’ve gotten some good results from some of our mapping and prospecting. So we’re looking forward to continuing that into this year.” – – TerraX president Joseph Campbell

“They’ll be towing a magnetometer from a helicopter. You fly fairly tight spaced lines across the property and it picks up the magnetic signature from the rocks underneath. That’ll give us a really good picture of the geological structure of the area.”

Mr. Campbell acknowledged the company is hopeful a significant find could be made at the location.

“When we optioned the property, we had gone in there with a bit of a different idea of what the potential was, than most people that had explored it in the past. That’s why we’re doing these geophysical surveys, because the type of target we’re looking for, these systems are better at showing them up.

“What we’ve seen so far on the ground has encouraged us, and we’ve gotten some good results from some of our mapping and prospecting. So we’re looking forward to continuing that into this year.”

So far, he admitted the economic benefits to the region have been minimal, with use of some accommodations, food, supplies and services from peninsula businesses, but he said that should pick up.

“Once we get into the drilling program in the summer, that’ll be a little bit more of an involved program and we’ll have a bit more people on the ground and a little bit more requirement for services.”

pherridge@southerngazette.ca