Mr. Brian Maher reports
PRODIGY EXPANDS MAGINO INDICATED GOLD RESOURCE TO 2,176,000 OUNCES AND INFERRED GOLD RESOURCE TO 1,721,000 OUNCES
Prodigy Gold Inc. has released an
updated NI 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate for its flagship
Magino mine gold project in Northern Ontario. During 2011, Prodigy Gold
has more than doubled the gold resource at Magino. Using a 0.35-gram-per-tonne gold
cut-off, the Magino deposit contains indicated gold resources of
2,176,000 ounces grading 1.00 g/t gold (67.6 million tonnes) and 1,721,000
ounces of inferred gold resources grading 0.99 g/t gold (54.2 million tonnes).
The resource estimate was completed by Snowden Mining Industry
Consultants Inc. of Vancouver, B.C., and is
constrained by geologic domains and a conceptual pit shell. The updated
mineral resource estimate includes the results from almost 38,000 metres
of core drilling completed at the project since January, 2011, in
addition to 155,800 metres of previous core drilling. A complete
technical report will be filed on SEDAR within 45 days. The resource
estimate is set out in the attached table and reported at a series of cut-off grades (note: minor inconsistencies are due to rounding).
PRODIGY MAGINO PROJECT RESOURCE ESTIMATION NOVEMBER, 2011
Indicated Inferred
Cut-off Tonnes Grade Grams Au Ounces Au Tonnes Grade Grams Au Ounces Au
(g/t Au) (g/t Au) (g/t Au)
2.00 5,562,000 3.36 18,705,000 601,000 4,273,000 3.47 14,836,000 477,000
1.50 10,345,000 2.60 26,928,000 866,000 7,345,000 2.73 20,096,000 646,000
1.00 20,779,000 1.91 39,605,000 1,273,000 15,897,000 1.91 30,411,000 978,000
0.75 31,730,000 1.55 49,086,000 1,578,000 25,072,000 1.53 38,335,000 1,233,000
0.50 50,056,000 1.21 60,368,000 1,941,000 40,464,000 1.18 47,748,000 1,535,000
0.35 67,555,000 1.00 67,690,000 2,176,000 54,242,000 0.99 53,537,000 1,721,000
0.10 99,205,000 0.76 74,297,000 2,421,000 73,087,000 0.80 58,250,000 1,873,000
Prodigy believes that the revised Magino resource estimate is
significant for several reasons.
Using a slightly higher cut-off grade of 0.50 g/t gold generates an
indicated resource of 1,941,00 ounces grading 1.21 g/t gold (50.1 million tonnes) and an inferred resource of 1,535,000 ounces grading 1.18 g/t
gold (40.5 million tonnes). The grade-tonnage distribution suggests that
optimizing the grade of the proposed open pit may produce a higher-grade operation with a larger production profile than that envisioned
in the previous preliminary economic assessment.
The new resource estimate will be incorporated into an update to the
Magino mine gold project preliminary economic assessment (PEA)
expected later this year. The increase in gold resources will enable
Prodigy to evaluate an expansion of the proposed open-pit mining
project modelled in the previous PEA. An expected increase in gold
production may have an important positive impact on the project's
economics.
A detailed statistical analysis and comparison between pre-2011 drill
hole data and new data from the 2011 drilling program shows that older
drill hole data are statistically valid and can be used in the resource
estimate (except for short (less than 50 metres) underground drill holes, which
were eliminated from the estimate).
Inspection of the Magino gold resource block model identified multiple
areas where additional drilling may further increase the Magino gold
resource, such as under the north-central portion of the conceptual open pit,
along the southeast contact of the Webb Lake granodiorite stock, and a
southwest extension of gold mineralization where potentially
significant gold resources lie under the southwest highwall of the
conceptual pit.
Drilling in the Lovell Lake area, 400 metres west of the Magino gold
deposit, intercepted a zone of gold mineralization similar in grade
and geologic setting to the main Magino gold deposit. Although not
included in the current Magino gold resource estimate, Prodigy
believes further exploration in this area can augment the Magino gold
deposit and potentially become a source for additional minable
resources for the project.
The block model will be utilized by Prodigy to design a drilling
program with the goal of converting mineral resource to minable
reserves as part of the planned full feasibility study.
Mineral resource estimate
Information in this news release that relates to mineral resource
estimate has been reviewed and approved by Andrew F. Ross, PGeo, FAusIMM,
CPGeo, who is a qualified person under the definitions established by
National Instrument 43-101. He is independent of Prodigy Gold and an
associate of Snowden Mining Industry Consultants, Vancouver,
B.C.
As previously reported, Prodigy Gold has focused its geological program
on assessment of the wide zones of quartz-pyrite-sericite-altered
granodiorite that host the former underground mine workings at Magino.
During 2010, Prodigy relogged existing core, collected samples of
previously intact core to provide fuller coverage of sampling throughout
the alteration zones, and updated the drill hole and sample database
accordingly to ensure consistency. The latest drilling commenced by
Prodigy in 2011 has been included in the current mineral resource
estimate.
The area of interest covers 1,350 metres of the 075-degree-trending Webb
Lake granodiorite stock and alteration zones that aggregate up to 300
metres in width and dip steeply to depths of at least 600 metres. At
Magino, the Webb Lake stock is covered by up to 30 metres of
fluvio-glacial material. The felsic and mafic volcanic country rock
surrounding the stock contain areas of low-grade gold mineralization
encountered by drilling, however the main focus remains the broad
low-grade alteration zones hosted by granodiorite. A late-stage diabase
dike transects the Webb Lake stock.
The database used by Snowden contains 550 surface diamond drill holes
(total of 104,941 metres, average length 190 metres) and 484 underground
diamond drill holes (total of 48,896 metres, average length 100 metres).
One hundred twenty-seven surface drill holes were completed in the
period from January, 2011, to September, 2011, and comprise HQ- and NQ-diameter core. All underground drill holes were completed in the period
1984 to 1991 and are dominated by AQ-diameter core with some BQ-diameter
core, clearly clustered around the underground workings and, in some
cases, subsequently mined out. Since the sample volumes of many of the
underground drill cores are markedly less than the surface drill cores,
and because of potential bias contained within some samples, Snowden
elected to use only the assays from the surface drill holes and those
underground drill holes relatively unbiased for the grade estimates.
Geological information from all drill cores was used to develop the
geological interpretation.
A Vulcan block model with cell dimensions of 10 metres (X), 10 metres
(Y) and five metres (Z) was coded to reflect the surface topography, base of
overburden, Webb Lake granodiorite contacts, domain solids and the late-stage diabase dike. A three-dimensional wireframe model of the
underground development, stopes and unmineralized diabase dike was
stored as per cent volumes in the block model to ensure that the reported
mineral resource estimates are depleted for prior mining and
unmineralized zones are excluded from estimation. The geologists at
Prodigy have interpreted 17 structural domains to identify the zones of
mineralization in the drill cores. These 17 domains within the Webb Lake
granodiorite define the mineralized zones.
Gold grades were estimated from five-metre, length-weighted uncut
composites into the interpreted mineralized blocks by ordinary kriging
using parameters established from analysis of the variography within
each domain. The impact of clustered high gold grades was controlled by
using a combination of sample-per-hole restrictions, octant search and
maximum distance extrapolation restrictions for grades above 22 g/t
gold. Minimum and maximum numbers of composites used for estimation were
set to three and 14 per block respectively. Discretisation was set to two by two
by one. Density factor of 2.72 grams per cubic centimetre was assigned to mineralized zones
based on approximately 500 measurements of specific gravity performed by
Prodigy.
In order to identify mineralized blocks that can be reported as a
mineral resource, a conceptual pit shell was developed using Whittle
software to identify those parts of the block model that have reasonable
prospects for eventual economic extraction. Parameters used were 52-degree overall pit slope, $1.25-per-tonne mining cost, $1,500-per-ounce gold
price, 95-per-cent process recovery and $7-per-tonne process cost. A detailed pit
model using more selective criteria and lower gold price will be used
for the update to the PEA. Mineralized blocks that lie within the
conceptual pit shell have been classified as either indicated or
inferred mineral resource estimates. Geostatistical parameters from the
kriging system were used to identify regions of better confidence
estimates.
Snowden has applied an inferred classification to blocks in the mineral
resource that lie within low-confidence regions and between a depth from
the surface of 150 metres and within the limit of the conceptual pit
shell.
Above a depth from the surface of 150 metres, resource blocks that have
been estimated by at least 14 samples have been classified as indicated
resource blocks. Snowden has not classified any measured blocks after
considering the uncertainty in geological interpretation and extent of
the underground workings, the high nugget environment, short ranges of
gold grade continuity, use of assigned densities, and the current drill
spacing. Snowden notes that Prodigy Gold has a continuing drill program to
infill the existing drill pattern.
Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated
economic viability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the
mineral resource will be converted into mineral reserves. In the attached mineral resource table, there may be inconsistencies due to rounding.
Estimates are rounded since the figures are not precise calculations.
All scientific and technical information for the Magino project, except
the section labelled "mineral resource estimate," has been reviewed and
approved by Tom Pollock, PGeo, Prodigy Gold's vice president of
exploration, who is a qualified person under the definitions established
by National Instrument 43-101. Drill core at Magino is boxed, covered
and sealed at the drill rig, and moved to the Prodigy logging and sample
preparation facilities by Prodigy Gold personnel. The core is then split
down the centre using a typical table-fed circular rock saw normally at
one-metre intervals. One-half of the core is sent for assay to ALS
Chemex, 2090 Riverside Dr., Timmins, Ont., P4R 0A2, while the other half
is returned to the core box and stored at Prodigy's sampling facility in
a secure, fenced-off area. Prodigy quality assurance/quality control procedures include the regular
use of blanks, standards and duplicate samples in addition to sending
10 per cent of the samples off to a second lab for check assays. Samples
assaying greater than 3.0 g/t gold are automatically reassayed by the metallic
screen method. Gold assays greater than 40 g/t are capped at 40 g/t when
calculating composite intervals in drill holes. Drill holes are directed
as much as possible perpendicular to the strike and dip of the
mineralization at Magino. As a rough estimate, the true thickness of the
above intercepts is approximately 76 per cent.
We seek Safe Harbor.
© 2026 Canjex Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.