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MacDonald Mines 2018 Drilling Program Identifies Gold-Bearing Structure Under the Oxide Sands

MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd. announces the results of its Winter 2018 drilling program at its Wawa-Holdsworth Project. Thirteen short exploration holes, totalling 1,093 metres, were drilled to test the bedrock that underlies the Oxide Sands that is believed to be their source.

Quentin Yarie, President and Chief Executive Officer of MacDonald Mines stated, “Our drilling program shows that the deformed iron formation, located below the Oxide Sands, is mineralized with precious metals. Although the grades were below the Company’s expectations, these results indicate a large-scale gold-bearing structure crosses the Wawa-Holdsworth Project. A surface mapping and mechanized stripping program will enable us to better understand the distribution of gold in the mineralized structures of the property, and define if potential zones of high-grade mineralization exist in that structural corridor.”

Table 1. Highlights of the 2017-2018 drilling results in the Wawa Gold Corridor

Hole From (m) To (m) Length (m)* Gold (g/t) Ag (g/t) AuEq (g/t)
HW-18-001 27.8 37.6 9.8 0.47 5.14 0.52
HW-18-002 61.3 72.1 10.8 0.35 4.79 0.44
HW-18-003 30.9 38.1 7.2 0.37 5.29 0.44
HW-18-004 68.8 79.1 10.3 0.30 2.56 0.33
HW-18-005 30.4 44.7 14.3 0.13 6.5 0.21
HW-18-007 37.4 38.6 1.2 0.38
HW-18-012 68.7 73.7 5.0 0.23 3.29 0.27

2018 Drilling Program – Wawa-Holdsworth Project
The Winter 2018 drilling program was targeting the deformed iron formation located below the Oxide Sands following encouraging precious metal results in the bedrock tagged during the sonic drilling program. Thirteen exploration holes were drilled to test the iron formation over a strike length of 1.3 km. All the holes drilled in the iron formation detected anomalous gold values and show that the structure has potential for precious metal mineralization over its 1.3 km strike length. Mechanized stripping and surface mapping are currently underway on the property to locate potential centers of higher-grade gold mineralization in the multiple gold-bearing structures present on the Wawa-Holdsworth Project.

Overview of the Wawa-Holdsworth Project
The Wawa-Holdsworth Project, located 20 km northeast of Wawa, Ontario, has all the attributes to host a gold system with several gold showings occurring in a 500m-wide deformation corridor.  There are three gold targets on the property:

  1. Gold-bearing Oxide Sands developed from the weathering of the auriferous pyrite zones;
  2. Gold-bearing pyrite zones in an Algoma-type iron formation; and
  3. Greenstone-hosted quartz-carbonate vein deposits.

To date, the Company’s exploration program has uncovered the following:

  • The Oxide Sands extend at least 1.5 km and remain open to west;
  • High-grade precious metals zones discovered within the Oxide Sands with assays up to 7.46 g/t gold equivalent (“AuEq”) over 3.23 m (Dec. 5, 2017 News release);
  • A new oxide sand zone was discovered 250 metres west of the currently defined trend; and
  • Grades of 5.71 g/t AuEq over 3.05 m including 9.31 g/t AuEq over 1.83 m was sampled in the newly discovered zone (Jan 31, 2018 News release).

MacDonald Mines has focused its near-term exploration program on the Oxide Sands. The soft and relatively unconsolidated material can be extracted like an aggregate. As announced on June 6, 2018, the Company is working with Northern Sun Mining Corp., and its plant in Timmins, Ontario, to develop a process that will maximize precious metals recoveries from the Oxide Sands in preparation for their potential extraction.

About MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd.
MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd. is a mineral exploration company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario focused on gold exploration in Canada.  The Company has built a portfolio of safe-jurisdiction, infrastructure-rich projects that demonstrate the greatest market potential for return. The Company is aggressively advancing its highly prospective Wawa-Holdsworth Gold Project.

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