As the second-largest country in the world in terms of geographic size, Canada unsurprisingly has extensive resources for lucrative mining operations. More importantly, Canada’s fertile geological history affords the country numerous mineral-rich and high-grade gold mining opportunities across several provinces.
In particular, the provinces of Ontario and Quebec are exceptionally fertile for a wide range of mined minerals and have contributed significantly to the development of Canada’s mining industry.
The lands of Eastern Canada are calm and serene, but in past geological epochs, they were awash in violent volcanic eruptions and tempestuous geothermal activity. These violent geological forces scarred the landscape — their lasting legacy is an abundance of high-grade deposits of minerals such as gold, silver, copper, zinc, and nickel.
With geological resources like these, Canada developed a sophisticated, innovative, and lucrative mining industry that is the envy of the world. Mining is one of Canada’s top industries, and Canadian mining companies are global leaders in the development of mining technology and international mining finance.
Canada’s current status as a global mining leader would not be possible without its high-grade mining operations or its ability to locate and implement high-grade mines where such deposits exist. The good news for investors is that new exploration projects show tremendous promise in identifying new high-grade gold deposits.
Among these high-grade deposits is Delta Resources (TSX-V: DLTA) (OTC: DTARF) and its Delta-1 gold project which is showing immense promise for the Canadian mining industry and achieving a new standard in high-grade gold.
High-grade vs. Low-grade Mines
The Economic Advantages of High-grade Mines
In gold mining, the grade of a mine is important. Low-grade mines can be profitable if designed as large-scale open pit projects since they require fewer resources and expenditures to extract gold deposits.
However, higher-grade mining projects maintain a strong economic advantage over lower-grade mines because, on average, they produce much higher quantities of gold. Plus, areas with high-grade gold deposits tend to be much more mineral rich than areas with low-grade deposits. This means that high-grade mining projects will likely produce a much greater return on investments if properly explored and engineered.
New mining technologies further add to the economic advantage of high-grade gold mines. Companies can more easily identify high-grade gold deposits during a mining project’s exploratory phase, removing potentially costly drilling and excavation.
A History of High-grade Gold Mining in Canada
Thanks to its abundance of high-grade mineral deposits, Canada’s history with mining has included finding new, cost-effective ways to retrieve high-grade mineral deposits from the surrounding ore. In the early days of Canada’s mining industry, mining minerals like gold used traditional, labor-intensive techniques. These included manual pick-and-shovel and water separation techniques.
Canada’s history of high-grade mining has centered around mineral-rich areas in geological deposits known as “greenstone belts.” Greenstone belts are areas with large quantities of volcanic rock that are often rich in minerals like gold, silver, copper, and zinc.
Two areas in particular — the areas around Thunder Bay, Ontario Chibougamau, Quebec — are especially promising for future high-grade gold mining operations.
High-grade Mining in the Thunder Bay Region
The city of Thunder Bay, Ontario, lies within a greenstone belt known as the Shebandowan greenstone belt.
Despite the mineral richness of the Shebandowan belt, many areas around Thunder Bay specifically have not seen extensive exploration or mining operations. For this reason, the Thunder Bay area offers promising prospects for future high-grade mining.
Delta Resources: The Delta-1 Project
Delta Resources (TSX-V: DLTA) (OTC: DTARF) is currently aggressively exploring the Delta-1 project. Having recently closed at $10M bought deal financing, Delta has over $11M in the till to advance this project to the next level.
Having already identified high-grade gold in the area of underexplored Thunder Bay in Ontario, the Delta-1 project may revitalize of the mining industry in Northern Ontario.
The Delta-1 property has previously intersected high-grade intercepts including 130.0 g/t Au over 1.0 metre, 30.66 g/t Au over 1.0 metre (within a broader interval of 5.32 g/t Au over 8.0 metres) and 16.42 g/t Au over 1.5 metres. The best grades to date from Delta-1 include drill intercepts of 14.8 g/t AU over 11.9m, 4.92 g/t Au over 31m, 2.06 g/t AU over 65.8m, 4.23 g/t Au over 26.2m and Bonanza grades of 1.6 kg/t over 1m and 697 g/t over 1m, which they announced in May.
CEO of Delta Resources, Andre Tessier states “The results from drill holes 18, 24 and 25 are showing continuous high-grade gold mineralization over a strike of at least 100 metres in addition to broader gold intercepts. Delta is now drilling the projected eastern extension of this new, never drill tested, high-grade zone with an initial 3,000 metre follow-up program. With its recently signed exclusive exploration agreements, Delta now controls over four kilometres of strike length where the gold zone can be projected, leaving a huge area for expansion.”
In July, Delta further expanded its land package on their Delta-1 property in Thunder Bay, Ontario by doubling its land holdings. In its recent update, Delta acquired exclusive rights to four additional exploration properties, which would add more than 130 claims on strike to the Eureka gold deposit. One of the exploration properties spans 59 hectares that is contiguous to Delta-1 and is on strike to Eureka, and early grab samples reported 10 g/t Au.
Delta’s new expansion of the Delta-1 property will now span over 107 square kilometres straddling the Shebandowan Structural Zone within the Shebandowan Green Stone Belt.
Shares of DLTA have cooled down a bit after rallying 577% in early May, however Delta has consolidated very nicely during the summer months and looks to be coiling for some more upside. It is also worth repeating that Delta has recently raised $10 million dollars at a price of $.45 per unit. Shares of DLTA continue to consolidate around the .30 cent mark, marking 47% upside to reach its previous financing price. Delta and the Delta 1 Gold project are certainly worthy of your immediate attention.
