EP Zone

The EP Zone is not just a small, low-tonnage deposit occuring at surface without any connection to a subcrop. The EP Zone is a broken-off portion of a subcrop known to exist some several hundred meters away.

At first, it was postulated that the EP Zone had something to do with the Komis deposit, as it was very proximate to it, only a couple of hundred meters by pure co-incidence. The geology of the EP zone differs radically from all the other deposits in the La Ronge Gold Belt.

Its source is a flat-lying deposit which dips ~10̂ degrees to the NE. Normally flat-lying deposits are referred to as reefs. This style of deposit is mostly known to occur in the Witwatersand in South Africa, and the New South Wales in Australia. The closest comparable in Canada is the Hammond Reef, which has been known at least since 1895.

Reef-style deposits were commonly found ~100+ years ago due to alluvial deposits leading to the discovery of the outcrop, which then led to major discoveries and a gold rush. Nowadays, discoveries of a reef-style gold deposit is more or less unknown, especially in Canada. And yet, with the EP Zone discovery in the 1980's and delineation in 2002, this is exactly what we may be looking at.

In Saskatchewan, the alluvial gold drained through the South Saskatchewan river with the recession of Lake Agassiz. What was left was muskeg-covered terrain. Prospecting really got under way in the 1980's in La Ronge, and it was not until the mid -80's that the EP Zone was discovered with its subcrop. The 'EP style' referred to by the company is actually a known geological feature of gold reefs. The exception with the EP Zone is that it never outcropped due to glacial till and overburden.

"The very high-grade gold mineralization is associated with subcropping gently dipping, chloritic shear zones that preferentially follow flat lying felsic dykes within andesitic host rocks. This clearly explains the strength of the accompanying gold-in-till dispersion train. The presence of supergene effects, including minerals such as native copper and the presence of at least two types of primary gold mineralization will require that most of the core from the program be split and assayed. The mineralized zone remains open on strike to the north and south. Gold mineralization associated with flat lying chloritic shears is referred to as the EP style. The second type of primary gold mineralization present which is referred to as Komis type mineralization, consists of disseminated pyrite within and adjacent to quartz veins that occur near a granodiorite - andesite contact. The main Komis deposit largely of this style is located 200 meters to the southwest."

source: http://www.goldenbandresources.com/html/news/press_releases/index.cfm?ReportID=80477

http://info.goldavenue.com/info_site/in_mine/in_min_sa_geol.htm

A common feature of these types of gold-bearing reefs is the higher content of the accompanying mineral, usually copper or tin.

Another unusual aspect is that you don't expect to find this type of deposit at all in Canada. It might have something to do with the deposit situated in the Trans-Hudson Orogen, and not the Superior Province.

From the Nov. 28, 2003 New Release:

"The very high-grade gold values and source of the Riddle till begins at the till subcrop interface and extends from a few meters to up to tens of meters into bedrock. The mineralized structure strikes at north 20 degrees east and dips at approximately 10 degrees to the east.The mineral assemblage includes coarse gold, native copper, sooty chalcocite and galena and is suggestive of a supergene enrichment zone, not usually to be expected in a glaciated terrain in Northern Canada. At depth, these high-grade values give way to lower grade mineralization, which is hosted by multiple, sub-parallel flat lying structures."

http://www.goldenbandresources.com/html/news/press_releases/index.cfm?ReportID=80480

What I find bothersome is the lack of a technical report, since the company had drilled off, or added to previous drilling. You can't make head nor tail of just what the company gesticulating about. None of this information is available, and the published size and numbers of the EP Zone are wildly out of whack with historical values:

31 December 2002 573,300 t grading 0.39 oz/ton Au.         Golden Band Res.

http://www.ir.gov.sk.ca/dbsearch/MinDepositQuery/default.aspx?ID=0425b

http://www.goldenbandresources.com/html/projects/exploration/EP_Deposit/index.cfm