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Holt

Summary

The Holt property is located at the eastern end of St Andrew's extensive land package in the Timmins Mining District. The Holt property sits on the south side of the Ontario Provincial Highway 101 East for about 40 kilometres beginning east of Matheson and extending almost to the Québec border. The combined Holloway-Holt land package comprises 48 separate property elements totaling 838 claims distributed as 341 mineral claims, 219 leased claims and 278 patented claims. The aggregate area is 15,172 hectares (approximately 37,000 acres).

History

Holt-McDermott History: In 1922, P.A. McDermott discovered gold in northwestern Holloway Township and McDermott Gold Mines Ltd., was incorporated. In 1985 a 420 metre exploration shaft was developed and production began at 1,400 tpd beginning in1988. The Holt-McDermott Mill was expanded in 1988 and 2001 and increased the throughput to 2,500 tpd and 3,000 tpd respectively. In October 2004, Newmont acquired the Holt-McDermott Mill and mine assets from Barrick Gold Corporation. In September 2004 the mine was shut down, having produced 1.32 million ounces of gold from 7.3 Mt of ore grading 5.8 g/t Au (average recovered grade of 5.5g/t Au).

In November 2006, SAS acquired from Newmont all of the shares of its wholly owned subsidiary Holloway Mining Company, which owned the Holloway-Holt gold mines. On January 1, 2007 St Andrew amalgamated with Holloway Mining Ltd. (formerly Holloway Mining Company) to retain 100% interest in the Holloway and Holt properties.

Geology and Mineralization

The defining structural characteristic of the property package and the most important feature is the Procupine-Destor Fault Zone ("PDFZ"), an east-west trending belt of deformed and interleaved clastic sedimentary rocks with several bands of mafic and ultramafic volcanic rocks, all of which are separated by multiple fault strands. There are at least two segments of age-dated Porcupine-type turbidites and one of Timiskaming conglomerate and sandstone within the deformation zone. The generally south facing nature of these sedimentary units splayed into the older Blake River assemblage to the south, and the intercalation of slivers of the older volcanic assemblages within the sedimentary units require the presence of dramatic fault displacements at or near contacts within the PDFZ to allow the structural imbrication of these lithologies (Rhys, 2005a).

At the Holt Mine, mineralized zones are hosted by the McDermott shear zone, a 10 m to 50 m thick, south-southeast dipping carbonate-chlorite ± albite ± sericite altered ductile D3-D4 shear zone, which, in turn, is hosted by otherwise massive, low strain mafic volcanic rocks. Mineralization typically occurs in its hanging-wall (south) side as areas of fine-grained, massive to crudely banded grey replacement quartz-carbonate-albitepyrite that contain diffuse quartz veinlet networks with fine-grained breccia fragments. Deformed, often mineralized, pink syenite dykes are present within the McDermott shear zone, and are spatially associated with mineralized zones. Mineralized zones at the Holt Mine display dual plunges: a) moderate to steeply east and b) alignment along shallow west plunging axes, parallel to the plunge line of dip changes in the McDermott shear zone. Several of the largest mineralized zones are developed adjacent to areas of graphitic mudstone, where it occurs in the footwall of the McDermott shear zones. Mineralized zones at the Holt Mine are cut and offset by late, east-northeast trending brittle faults, notably the McKenna and Ghostmount Faults.

Although once interpreted as mineralization controlling structures, they offset mineralization and are in fact the youngest structural elements in the region.

Holt Deposit

At the Holt Mine, mineralized zones that have been historically mined are hosted by the McDermott shear zone, a 10 m to 50 m wide south-southeast dipping carbonate-sericite-chlorite ± albite altered ductile D3-D4 shear zone, which is hosted by otherwise massive, generally low strain mafic volcanic rocks. The McDermott shear zone has been traced laterally for approximately 10 km along strike, joining the Destor-Porcupine corridor to the northeast. It has been traced by drilling at least eight kilometres west of the Holt Mine headframe. The shear zone may be localized along an older D2 thrust plane that has structurally emplaced lenses of fine-grained clastic sedimentary units along it. Principal mineralized zones that have been mined to date along the structure include the South, C-104, McDermott, Worvest/Three Star, Mattawasaga, and C-97 zones, which occur over a strike length of three kilometres and have been mined to depths of over one kilometre below surface. More recently, the C103, Zone 4 and Zone 6 gold mineralization has been identified along these geologic structures and are host to the bulk of the existing gold mineralization. All but the South Zone and Zone 4 occur in steeply south dipping sections of the shear zone. The South Zone and Zone 4 occur where the shear zone rolls to moderate to shallow southerly dips.

Mineral Reserves and Resources



Holt Project - Mineral Reserves Estimate, December 31, 2010

  Proven Probable
 
Tonnes
('000 t)		 Grams Au
per tonne
("g/t")		 Ounces
Au
('000 oz)
Tonnes
('000 t)

g/t Au
Ounces Au
('000 oz)
Holt Mine 944 4.3 131 2,191 5.4 379
Holt Project -- Mineral Resource Estimate, December 31, 2010

  Measured Indicated Inferred
 
Tonnes
('000 t)		 Grams Au
per tonne
("g/t")		 Ounces
Au
('000 oz)
Tonnes
('000 t)

g/t Au
Ounces Au
('000 oz)
Tonnes
('000)

g/t Au
Ounces Au
('000 oz)
Holt Mine 2,272 5.4 393 2,459 6.1 478 1,197 6.5 249
Notes:

  • Mineral Resources are inclusive of Mineral Reserves;
  • Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves were estimated according to CIM Definition Standards - 2010;
  • Mineral Reserves and Resources for Holloway were estimated using an average long-term gold price of US$1,100 per ounce and an exchange rate of $1.00 = US$0.98.
  • Mineral Resources for Holloway were estimated at a cut-off grade of 3.0 g/t Au;


    Development and Mining

    The Holt Mine is accessed by a timbered rectangular three compartment shaft to a depth of 350 metres and four compartments downward to a depth of 1 195 metres. The ore zones are accessed by track drifts from the shaft, and all access within the zones are trackless ramps and sublevels.

    Preproduction activities at the Holt Mine include the completion of the ramp and sublevel development within the C-103 zone, located just below the 1,075 metre level, the advancement of a footwall ramp, and the completion of a ventilation raise to facilitate production within the flat lying Zone 4.

    Prior to commencing development work, infrastructure improvements at Holt entailed track replacement on 925 metre and 1,075 metre levels, mobile equipment fleet repair and upgrade, ventilation system enhancements, sheave wheel replacement, and additions to the electrical and communications infrastructure.




    At the end of 2010, there were 54 full time employees at the Holt Mine. The C-103 Zone is 66% developed and the Company began to extract ore from this zone in December 2010. Production from Zone 4 is expected to commence during the second quarter of 2011, and the mine is expected to reach commercial production at the beginning of Q2/2011. The Holt Mine is expected to produce betweeen 45,000 - 50,000 ounces of gold for 2011.

    In July 2009, the Company received a favourable decision from the Superior Court of Justice (Ontario) on the Holt Royalty. Newmont Canada Limited has appealed the Court's decision on the Holt Royalty and a hearing is set to be heard on March 28, 2011. (see press press release dated February 22, 2011, for more information on the Holt Royalty.

    Exploration

    Given the exploration success in this region, and in particular, on the Holloway-Holt project, this area is considered highly prospective for gold mineralization, particularly given the thick glacial overburden that can often mask the gold mineralization. The exploration potential on the Holloway-Holt project can be divided into two equally prospective areas, first, within and immediately adjacent to the gold mineralization previously discovered, namely the Newmex property segment, and 42 E zones; and second, in new areas where conceptual exploration targets have been generated based on both past and recent theories that predict the controls on the location of gold mineralization.

    Based on aeromagnetic patterns, and the locations of known alteration-high strain zones, examination of property geological and geophysical maps, in combination with known drill hole data, suggests that several east-northeast trending shear zones are developed across the area, including at least three structures developed in the mafic volcanic sequence to the northwest of the McDermott shear zone.

    In addition, there remains excellent potential to add to the current mineral resource base immediately adjacent to the Holloway and Holt deposits that can be accessed from the present underground workings. This includes, but is not limited, to the following areas:

    • Down plunge extension of Zone 4 and Zone 2;
    • Westwards along the hinge line formed by the known deposits within the Holt mine where additional zones of mineralization may exist;

    For further information on all of SAS' exploration targets, please refer to the Exploration section of the website.

     
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