RESOURCE ZONES
Historical:
Photos Hells Gate Area 1914
- The area has been producing gold since 1909.
- Today artisanal miners enjoy the fruits of their labour in relatively small numbers but over a widespread area where surface small-scale mining activities are taking place. They have only scratched the surface in very few of the gold producing areas.
- Previous mining and exploration identified resources of:
- Lakekamu field 1918 – 1936 – historical production of 38,000 ounces
- Below an abandoned bucket wheel dredge forgotten to history but fund within ML 509 boundaries reported to have produced 3800 ounces of gold 1938
- 1989 estimate 85,170,000m3 @ 0.15g/m3 or 412,000 ounces at average depths of 6m
- 2013 HGEL determined a gold resource of over 184,000m3 @ 0.52g/m3 at average depths of 2m at area 400 gravel (3500 ounces indicated resource)
- 2018 MBK Geo Services gave an inferred resource of nearly 2, 000, 000 ounces contained in 41, 000, 000m3 without the benefit of bulk testing covering all ML509 identified zones.
- It is highly likely the potential for larger resources will be identified as exploration activities are expanded.