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Overview | Background | History | Geology | 2004-05 Exploration | 2005-2007 Exploration | 2010 Program Property Overview
Background In 2004, Queenston signed a formal joint venture with Newmont Mining Corporation of Canada Limited (“Newmont”) to earn a 50% interest in the 18 claim Kirkland Lake West property (“KLW”) located in Teck Township. The property lies west and adjacent to the Macassa Mine and covers 1.8 km of the western projection of the Kirkland Lake Main Break (“KLMB”) and subsidiary gold structures that are currently being mined and explored by Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. Under the terms of the option agreement with Newmont, Queenston has the right to earn a 50% interest in the KLW property by incurring exploration expenditures of $2.5 M prior to June 30, 2008.  In September 2005, Queenston formed a 50-50 joint venture with Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. to jointly explore the property from the adjacent Macassa mine. In January 2008, the Queenston and KL Gold JV purchased a 100% interest in the property from Newmont for a cash payment of $1 million. Newmont retains a 2-3% NSR royalty on the claims and the back-in right to purchase a 49% interest in the property by paying the JV 300% of the exploration expenditures required to outline a NI 43-101 mineral resource.
During the 1930’s geological mapping and shallow drilling on KLW identified a gold structure believed to be the KLMB returning low gold values over narrow widths including 5.5 g/t over 0.6 m. Further mapping, stripping and drilling in the mid 1980’s led to the discovery of a second parallel structure, the “Hanging Wall Break”, located 40 m south of the KLMB assaying up to 13.0 g/t over .3 m on surface and 7.5 g/t Au over 0.7 m in drilling. From 1988 to 1991, Lac Minerals, then owner of the Macassa Mine, drifted from the No. 3 Shaft onto the KLW property on four levels: 4750’, 5875’, 6450’ and 7050’. This development encountered the “04 Break”, a major producing structure at Macassa, on all levels, however, economic reserves were not established. The best drilling results from the 4750’ level included 24 g/t over 0.9 m and 9.3 g/t Au over 6.7 m. In 1991, prior to terminating exploration on the KLW, Lac mined 156 t from the 4750’ level averaging 17.5 g/t. In 1993-94, Cyprus Canada Inc. completed five drill holes including one which intersected a broad structural zone containing anomalous gold mineralization at 600 m below surface. Within this zone a 1.5 m interval assayed 2.9 g/t Au.
The northern portion of the property is underlain by sediments of the Timiskaming Group comprising primarily conglomerate and greywacke. On the southern portion of the property Timiskaming tuffs are intruded by an east-west trending body of basic syenite. A steeply south dipping WSW-ENE trending fault structure traverses the northern portion of the property. This fault is interpreted to represent the KLMB, an important gold bearing structure in the camp along which some 24 million ounces of gold has been produced from seven mines all located east of KLW. Along the eastern boundary of the property is the Amikougami Fault, a north-south trending structure along which rocks to the west are interpreted to have been displaced 120 m to the south and 130 m up. The southern portion of the property remains largely unexplored and hold potential to host the new South Mine Complex being explored and defined on the Macassa property further to the east.
In 2004-05 Queenston completed surface exploration consisting of linecutting, mechanical stripping-power washing, sampling, IP geophysics and diamond drilling. The objective of the program was to explore for ore grade gold mineralization along the camp’s main productive structural trend west of the Amikougami Fault. A total of 7 diamond drill holes (3,555 m) were completed testing targets outlined by the surface stripping and deep IP geophysics. Three holes were completed along the “04 Break” intersecting strong fault zones and quartz-carbonate veining. The best gold values were intersected in hole KW05-06 where three separate breaks assayed 1.1 g/t Au over 1.4 m, 3.1 g/t Au over 0.6 m and 1.1 g/t Au over 0.85 m. Three holes tested the “North-South Quartz Vein Zone” returning no significant values and hole KW-05-05 tested an Insight IP Array anomaly explained by faulting and veining with no significant gold values. Although the “04 Break” on the property remains largely untested by surface drilling, no further surface exploration was warranted on the property. It was however, strongly recommended to continue the underground exploration initiated by Lac Minerals in 1988 that encountered encouraging results on the 4750’ level of the property. The majority of production from the Kirkland Lake Camp was derived from the Main Break and “04 Break” east of the Amikougami cross-fault. A number of stopes were mined up to and cut off by the fault. In addition, a second break (“05 Break”) located north of the “04 Break” was mined to where it is also cut-off by the fault. In a recent study completed for Kirkland Lake Gold the offset on the Amikougami Fault has been determined as being 105-135 m (350-450 ft) west side up and 90-120 m (300-400 ft) west side south displacement. This interpretation encourages added potential for discovering ore along the “04 Break” west of the Amikougami Fault.
To the end of June 2007, the joint venture completed three exploration programs on the property, one surface and two underground, representing an expenditure of CDN $1.7 million. This work included 735 feet (225 m) of drifting and crosscutting, 2,500 feet (790 m) of drift rehabilitation and 20 diamond drill holes (7 surface, 13 underground) totaling 11,608 feet (3,538 m). The underground exploration was carried out on the 4750’ level confirming the presence of the Main–04 Break extending 3,000 feet (915 m) westward into the property and best assay result from the drilling was 0.33 oz/ton over a core length of 2.2 feet (11.3 g/t over 0.7 m). The northern, 05 Break was also tested in the program returning a best assay of 0.096 oz/ton over 1.3 feet (3.3 g/t over 0.4 m).
Over the past two years o exploration has been completed on the property as the JV is focusing on exploration efforts on the South Claims property located to the east. In 2010 the JV is planning no work on the Kirkland Lake West property.
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