NioGold has more assays from its 2008 drill programme on the Marban Block project in northwestern Quebec. The latest assays cover nine holes completed on four sections testing the western extension of the former Marban mine zones. Drilling at 50-metre to 100-metre centres continues to show good potential to define new lenses of possible economic interest within the Marban West Extension region. There have been at least seven sub-parallel, east-west-striking and moderately northerly-dipping structures of gold mineralisation noted in this area.
Hole MB-08-061 yielded 6.01 grams of gold per tonne over a 1.4-metre interval, within a 7.7-metre zone averaging 2.08 grams of gold per tonne in the Mine zone. Hole MB-08-063 yielded 10.24 grams of gold over 2.5 metres, within an 18.0-metre zone averaging 2.20 grams of gold per tonne in the Footwall zone. Hole MB-08-062 produced an assay of 5.53 grams of gold per tonne over 1.2 metres and a 0.9-metre intersection averaging 5.02 grams of gold per tonne in the Mine zone.
NioGold encountered 13.90 grams of gold per tonne across a 1.2-metre interval in hole MB-08-065 in the Mine zone. A second interval in that hole produced 6.45 grams of gold per tonne over 2.3 metres, also in the Mine zone. A 1.2-metre intersection in hole MB-08-076 yielded 28.8 grams of gold per tonne and a second 1.2-metre interval contained 6.98 grams of gold per tonne, both occurring within the Mine zone. Three of the remaining four holes produced lesser amounts of gold over comparable intervals.
Objective's view:
NioGold's assays from the 2008 drill programme continue to demonstrate the potential for the Marban Block property to host high-grade gold mineralisation, potentially of economic interest. We view the latest results as continuing to support our base-case valuation of the project, and of NioGold, in these clearly pessimistic times.
