Noble Mineral Exploration Inc. (TSX-V:NOB, FRANKFURT: NB7, OTCQB:NLPXF) has announced preparations for a drill program on its Lucas Gold Project in the Timmins area of Ontario, expected to total approximately 2,500 to 3,000 meters. The program is supported by a $215,000 Ontario Junior Exploration Program (OJEP) grant from the Ontario Government. However, a recent site visit determined that a winter road must be established to access the drills, requiring time to build a stable, deep frozen base for heavy equipment. This logistical step, while routine in northern Ontario, underscores the seasonal constraints that can affect exploration timelines and costs.
The Lucas Gold Project is located about 30 km north of Timmins, a region famous for over 75 million ounces of gold production. It lies 20 km northeast of the world-class Kidd Creek Mine, which is celebrating its 58th year of continuous production with more than 150 million tonnes of ore, and about 20 km east of the Crawford Nickel Resource currently being developed by Canada Nickel. Timmins offers full industry services, supplies, and infrastructure, with access via paved Highway 655, ample power and water, and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with local First Nations. A general location map with local infrastructure is available here.
In 2018, Noble completed 15 NQ size diamond drill holes totaling 3,184 meters, covering approximately 650 meters of strike length of the 1,700-meter gold mineralized structure identified from 2012 and 2018 airborne electromagnetic and differential magnetic surveys. The company located 37 historical drill-hole collars and twinned three of them. No further work has been done since 2018. The project hosts six discrete untested induced polarization (IP) anomalous trends, of which only one has been investigated by diamond drilling. Gold mineralization is interpreted as structurally controlled, occurring as discrete lenses stacked within a pyrite-plus-gold mineralized tuffaceous unit. A plan of IP zones projected to surface with collars of 2018 drilling and magnetic background is available here.
The development of the Lucas Gold Project is divided into three phases. Phase 1 aims to establish gold grade and extend the gold mineralized strike length to approximately 1,700 meters. Phase 2 will establish and verify gold mineralization in additional parallel IP anomalies. Phase 3 involves geological modeling and NI43-101 resource definition. Future work will include drilling on IP Anomaly A to further define gold mineralization, as well as testing the other five undrilled IP anomalies for similar mineralization. A plan of 2018 drilling with outline of mineralized zone projected to surface is available here.
The technical content of the release has been reviewed and approved by Wayne Holmstead, P.Geo., an independent Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Noble Mineral Exploration is a Canadian-based junior exploration company with holdings of securities in Canada Nickel Company Inc., Homeland Nickel Inc., East Timmins Nickel Inc. (20%), and an interest in the Holdsworth gold exploration property in the Wawa area. Noble holds mineral and/or exploration rights in approximately 70,000 hectares in Northern Ontario and 14,000 hectares elsewhere in Quebec and Newfoundland. Its common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "NOB". The original release can be viewed on www.newmediawire.com.
