Amaruq: The early days of a significant gold discovery

Guy Gosselin, Vice-President Exploration, Agnico Eagle

Note that the talk will be followed by networking at Mirto (25 Toronto Street), generously sponsored by Agnico Eagle. 

In April 2013, Agnico Eagle Mines of Toronto acquired 100% interest in the 40,800-ha Amaruq property. Amaruq is on Inuit-owned land in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut Territory, northern Canada, 50 km northwest of Agnico Eagle’s Meadowbank mine.

The property is underlain by Archean supracrustal rocks of the Woodburn Lake Group, the same sequence as at Meadowbank. These rocks were possibly deposited in a continental rift setting and comprise mafic to ultramafic volcanics interlayered with carbon-rich turbiditic greywackes, siltstones, mudstones, cherts and banded iron formations. The rock sequence has since been intruded by granitoid rocks and common lamprophyres, and suffered multiple deformation events along with metamorphism to the upper greenschist facies.

Four zones of gold-bearing quartz-pyrrhotite-arsenopyrite veining/flooding have been discovered to date, within the volcano-sedimentary rocks. The I, V, R and Whale Tail zones appear to be offset mineralized corridors striking northeast and dipping steeply southeast. The Whale Tail zone is the largest discovery so far, including up to five horizons. It has been traced from near surface to 350 m depth along a strike length of 1,200 m, and remains open along strike and at depth.

Drilling in 2013-2014 totalled 158 holes (33,955 m). A 10,000-ha airborne survey in early 2014 outlined a 2-km-wide corridor of mag-EM conductors at least 10 km long. Field work near geophysical anomalies has outlined several targets including a 600-m-long train of quartz-arsenopyrite-galena-bearing large blocky boulders with local coarse free gold, 3 km west of Whale Tail.

The company is now evaluating how to incorporate Amaruq into the Meadowbank mine operational plan starting with an initial Amaruq resource estimate, expected in early 2015, and preliminary metallurgical testing. Drilling and field work in 2015 including ground geophysics will focus on the Whale Tail zone, with additional investigation of the other deposits and targets.

Working for Agnico Eagle since 2000, Guy Gosselin has been the Vice President of exploration for Agnico Eagle Mines Limited since 2011. His accountabilities include overseeing all grassroots exploration activities of the corporation. Prior to his role as Vice President of Exploration, he served as the Exploration Manager Canada for Agnico Eagle from 2005 to 2010. Mr. Gosselin also served as Exploration Geologist & Chief Geologist at the world-class LaRonde Mine in Quebec from 2000 to 2005.

Mr. Gosselin is a graduate of the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi with a Bachelors degree in Engineering Geology (1994) and a Masters degree in Earth Sciences (1998).