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Overview - The Red Lake Gold Camp

Red Lake Ontario Claims Map

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The Red Lake gold camp is one of the most prolific gold regions in the world. The area hosts several gold mines, where the combined production and remaining proven resources are more than 30 million ounces of gold. Initial gold production occurred at the Howey mine in 1930, and two mines (Campbell and Red Lake) remain in operation today. The largest gold mines historically were Placer Dome's Campbell Mine (cumulative production and remaining resources of 13 million ounces), Goldcorp's Red Lake (10 million ounces) and Madsen gold mines (2.5 million ounces).

MPH Ventures Corp. was among the first juniors to recognize the high-grade gold potential of the Red Lake mining camp in northwestern Ontario and has been a significant landholder there since 1994. The company expanded its holdings along the trend that hosts Goldcorp's Red Lake Gold Mine, the highest-grade gold mining operation of its size anywhere in the world.

Today more than ever gold mining companies are emphasizing cash production costs in an effort to maximize profits and become more attractive to large investment funds. Not surprisingly, the Red Lake camp, with its high-grade gold deposits, is unique and has attracted world-wide attention. In its size category, Goldcorp ranks among the highest grade mines in the world with mill feed averaging 2.0 ounces gold per ton and reported cash costs of approximately $100 per ounce. With this cost structure, it's not surprising that Goldcorp has become a core investment in most of the world's leading gold funds.

Adjoining Goldcorp's Red Lake Gold Mine is Goldcorp's Campbell Gold Mine (formerly owned & operated by Placer Dome), which historically has also been a relatively high-grade, low cost gld producer. Given the reputation of the Red Lake gold camp, it's understandable why so many companies want to duplicate Goldcorp's operating performance by exploiting the high-grade gold exploration potential in the region. In recent months, market interest in companies with exploration assets in the camp (including MPH Ventures) has reached unprecedented levels and will likely grow exponentially with the anticipated improvement in bullion prices over the next few years. And it's easy to understand why! Goldcorp's high-grade discovery has grown to 4.6 million ounces, more than two times larger than the reserves at Campbell and its grade is 4.5 times higher.

Goldcorp is forecast to produce 555,000 ounces of gold for the twelve months ended December 31st, 2005 at a cash cost of less than $100 per ounce.
Read The Goldcorp Story


Classic Greenstone Gold Belt


The Red Lake gold district is situated in a classic Achaean greenstone belt within a series of metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks. Most of the gold production in this district has come from structurally controlled vein-type gold deposits hosted in sequences of ultramafic mafic to felsic volcanics and sediments. Regionally, the belt exhibits a system of five northeast and northwest-trending deformation zones with associated hydrothermal alteration. All of the key producers in the district are located close to a regional mafic volcanic-sediment contact or 'break' - which for years may have been overlooked as an important control on gold mineralization.

Gold deposits in the district have been classified in three categories: mafic volcanic-hosted; felsic intrusive-hosted; and, stratabound. The majority of the productive zones in the Red Lake camp are of the mafic volcanic-hosted type and occur as vein systems within a lower mafic to komatiitic and ultramafic volcanic sequence. Goldcorp's Red Lake Mine lies in the eastern section of the Red Lake Precambrian Greenstone Belt, an older assemblage of mafic and felsic volcanic rocks within a sedimentary sequence.

Major gold camps in the Timmins and Kirkland Lake areas of northeastern Ontario also show a close association with similar breaks. The most prolific gold producers in the Red Lake district are hosted by the northwest-trending Cochenour-Gullrock Deformation Zone and are situated within the well-established "mine trend" of the Red Lake gold district.

Picture of Goldcorp's
Red Lake Gold Mine


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Picture of Goldcorp's
Campbell Gold Mine


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Gold Pictures from Goldcorp's
Red Lake Mine


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Gold Pictures from Goldcorp's
Red Lake Mine


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Gold Pictures from Goldcorp's
Red Lake Mine


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Heyson Red Lake Gold Property (7,000 acres)



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MPH Ventures Corp. owns 50% of the 7,000 acres Heyson property with Skyharbour Resources Ltd. as operator owning the other 50% interest. The property lies to the south of the former Howey and Hasaga gold mines in the southern portion of the central Red Lake gold belt, 5 km southwest of the operating Goldcorp Red Lake and Campbell gold mines in NW Ontario. Prior to Skyharbour optioning the property, there was very little reliable historical information available on the property. Whatever was available was difficult to substantiate. It was decided that a property scale till sampling survey should be undertaken to identify areas on the property that might host significant gold deposits. The Company identified a large, well-defined "gold-in-till" anomaly (Sully Creek Till Anomaly) on the property. The width of the anomaly covers 350 metres along a strike length of 1.5 kilometres. Sampling indicates the source of the gold-in-till anomaly is on the property. The probable source area is low ground covered by tills and capped by lacustrine clays rendering most conventional surface exploration techniques ineffective. Drilling in 2003 tested the Sully Creek Till Anomaly and identified gold values within a distinct hematite-epidote alteration system with the most significant intercept grading 59.4 grams per tonne over 0.4 metres.



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A 17-hole (approx. 3,000 metres) reconnaissance drill program has been completed on the Heyson Property. This drill program was to test the Sully Creek Till Anomaly by identifying structural controls and geology that may be attributable to the source of the anomaly. This drill program proved to be very successful.

MPH Ventures and Skyharbour Resources intersected zones of gold mineralization while drilling the eastern half of the till anomaly. Hole #3 encountered a high-grade gold intercept (visible gold) of 59.4 g/t over 0.4 metres. This intercept occurs in veining in a highly altered zone of fracturing and brecciation in the upper part of a shallow dipping diorite body. The alteration is approximately 15 metres thick. Hole #4 intersected 45 metres of 3% disseminated sulphides in felsic volcanics with elevated gold values throughout. Holes #3 and #4 are on strike and 700 metres apart.

Although this discovery was found in an alteration not typically associated with deposits in the Red Lake gold camp, the alteration assemblage is typical of a number of gold mines in the Canadian Achaean. This discovery is the result of the rigorous application, by MPH Ventures & Skyharbour Resources, of an exploration model as opposed to a geologic model. Not only has MPH Ventures & Skyharbour Resources found a new system in the region, but we now know there is gold in the system.

As a result of the 2004 drill program conducted on the property and data compilation of these results, a significant budget of continued exploration is recommended on the Heyson Gold Project. A budget consisting of primarily diamond drilling would be undertaken to explore the full extent of the newly discovered distinct hematite-epidote alteration system that contains a very large "gold-in-till" anomaly on the property. The scale of this alteration has only been partially defined but is believed sufficient in size and character to have the potential to host significant deposit scale gold mineralization. This alteration is now known to extend along a strike length of a least 1 kilometre and affect a section of rock of up to 100 metres thick. This system is characterized by intense hematite-epidote alteration, brecciation and fracturing associated with intrusive porphyries. The magnetic data has also been useful in identifying structural and lithological trends across the property. Only a small part of the Heyson property has been explored to date. MPH Ventures remains optimistic that a 2,500 - 3,000 metres drill program could greatly enhance the value of the Heyson property in Red Lake, Northwestern Ontario.

 

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