Noble Mineral Exploration Inc. is advancing its Lucas Gold Project near Timmins, Ontario, with a planned diamond drill program of approximately 2,500 to 3,000 meters. The company announced that a $215,000 Ontario Junior Exploration Program (OJEP) grant has been awarded by the Ontario Government to support the project. A recent site visit determined that a winter road must be established to access the drill site, requiring time for a stable, deep frozen base to support heavy equipment. The Lucas Gold Project is drill-ready and sits about 30 km north of Timmins, a region famous for over 75 million ounces of gold production. It is also 20 km northeast of the Kidd Creek Mine, which is celebrating its 58th year of continuous production with more than 150 million tonnes of ore, and about 20 km east of the Crawford Nickel Resource being developed by Canada Nickel. Full industry services, supplies, and infrastructure are available in Timmins, with access via paved Highway 655. A memorandum of understanding is in place with local First Nations.
In 2018, Noble completed 15 NQ diamond drill holes totaling 3,184 meters over approximately 650 meters of strike length of a 1,700-meter gold mineralized structure identified from 2012 and 2018 airborne electromagnetic and differential magnetic surveys. The company located 37 historical drill-hole collars and twinned three of them. No further work has been done since 2018. The project hosts six discrete untested induced polarization (IP) anomalous trends, of which only one has been investigated by diamond drilling. Gold mineralization is interpreted as structurally controlled and occurs as discrete lenses stacked within a pyrite-plus-gold mineralized tuffaceous unit. For a visual overview, see the General Location Map with Local Infrastructure and the Drill Holes and Trend of Mineralized Zone on Magnetic Background.
The development plan is divided into three phases: Phase 1 aims to establish gold grade and extend the mineralized strike length to approximately 1,700 meters; Phase 2 will test the additional parallel IP anomalies; and Phase 3 involves geological modeling and NI 43-101 resource definition. Future work will focus on drilling IP Anomaly A to further define gold mineralization and testing the other five undrilled IP anomalies for similar mineralization. The 2018 Drilling Plan with Outline of Mineralized Zone Projected to Surface and the Plan of Induced Polarization Zones Projected to Surface provide context for the upcoming program. Historical gold intersections from the 2018 drill program are detailed in Part 1 of Table 1 and Part 2 of Table 1. The technical content of the release was reviewed and approved by Wayne Holmstead, P.Geo., an independent Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
The drill program matters because it represents the first significant exploration at Lucas since 2018, and it will test not only the known gold trend but also five untested IP anomalies that could host additional gold mineralization. Success could extend the known strike length and lead to a resource definition, enhancing the project's attractiveness for joint ventures or further development. The OJEP grant and First Nation MoU reduce financial and social risks, while the proximity to major mining infrastructure in Timmins provides logistical advantages. For more details, view the original release on www.newmediawire.com.
