Exploration firm Kodiak Exploration Ltd. tries to mitigate the riskiness of exploration “by having a team with depth of experience in the areas we explore,” President William Chornobay says. “Currently, mining companies are searching for deposits with higher grades, in close proximity to infrastructure, to help offset ballooning energy costs.” Pictured here is prospector Ray Koivisto examining a gold-bearing quartz vein at the Penelton zone.

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Exploration is a risky business,” says Kodiak Exploration Ltd.’s President William Chornobay. “We try to mitigate [this] risk by having a team with depth of experience in the areas we explore. Canada is a good place to conduct business in comparison to other places in the world. Currently, mining companies are searching for deposits with higher grades and in close proximity to infrastructure to help offset ballooning energy costs. These companies are looking to mitigate their investment risks as significant capital expenditures are required for both exploration and mine construction, and are therefore seeking to invest in a stable political environment.”

According to Chornobay, the strategy has paid off “handsomely.” The Vancouver, British Columbia-based company has discovered an extensive gold-mineralized system coined the Golden Mile, which forms part of its Hercules Gold property in the Beardmore-Geraldton Gold Camp near Thunder Bay, Ontario.

The Golden Mile is a large quartz vein system with visible gold and sulfides exposed on surface along a two-kilometer strike that remains open. Continuous gold mineralization has been traced on surface for more than 400 meters, and channel samples taken every 20 meters along this zone averaged 20.2 g/t over an average width of 3.8 meters.
    
‘Prospects are Excellent’
Kodiak’s ongoing 60,000-meter drill program at Hercules is currently one of the largest new gold discoveries in Canada, it asserts. On January 29, it announced that its first two deep drill holes on the Golden Mile had confirmed continuity of gold mineralization to a downhole depth of almost 300 meters. “The gold-bearing structure at the Golden Mile has confirmed high-grade gold mineralization over a strike length equivalent of more than 18 football fields, and this system remains open at depth and along strike,” the company reports.

“Quartz-carbonate veins, frequently containing visible gold and sulfides, have been uncovered by trenching over an aggregate strike length of more than five kilometers, with strong individual veins up to 12 meters wide and one kilometer long and drill intercepts up to 515.98 grams per tonne (15.05 ounces per ton) gold over 2.5 meters.”

As well as the Golden Mile, these veins include the parallel Marino, Yellow Brick Road and WL veins, where previously reported drilling intersected 1.6 meters grading over 38 grams per tonne gold on the Marino vein, and 9.7 meters true width grading 15.59 grams per tonne gold on the WL vein.

“Many drill holes indicate that the vein intensity is increasing at depth,” Kodiak adds.

“These additional veins have a collective strike length of more than three kilometers, and remain open, and other newly discovered veins remain to be drill tested for their economic potential. These veins have been found within the 30-square kilometer Elmhirst Lake intrusion, which has strong potential to host additional new discoveries.”

In addition to the Hercules project area, Kodiak controls more than 1,400 square kilometers in this underexplored greenstone belt, located between the prolific Red Lake (19.7 million ounce) and Timmins (65 million ounce) gold camps, so “the prospects for additional discoveries are excellent,” the company states.

Full Speed Ahead
The ongoing 2008 drill program at Hercules remains unchanged, the company says. Kodiak will continue to explore extensions to the Golden Mile and Marino vein systems, among others, while drilling even deeper holes in the central part of the Golden Mile to expand upon its resource potential. “We continue to intersect gold mineralization in virtually every hole,” Chornobay adds. “That is a very strong indication of the intensity of the gold mineralization within this large system. We look forward to the ongoing results from this 60,000-meter drill program with much anticipation.”

With the success of the Hercules project, Chornobay believes mining companies are watching Kodiak very closely as the drilling continues. “We have barely scratched the surface, but the results from the Golden Mile have already captured the imaginations of miners and investors alike,” he says. “If the exploration continues to produce positive results, there should be several parties interested in acquiring the asset.”

Looking ahead, Kodiak intends to continue to strengthen each of its three divisions: precious metals, base metals and energy. “We are focused on our efforts to grow these divisions into three prosperous, stand-alone companies,” Chornobay says. “We have now generated multiple additional targets across our vast land holdings that remain to be tested.”