THUNDER BAY - Gold was discovered and first mined in the Moss Lake area, about 100 km west of Thunder Bay, in the 1870s.
Nearly 150 years later, Wesdome Gold Mines has been exploring its claims in the same area, southwest of Burchell Lake.
On Wednesday it reported what it described as early encouraging results, but simultaneously announced the suspension of the drill program.
Moss Lake Gold Mines is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wesdome, which also operates the Eagle River gold mine in the Wawa area.
The company said the purpose of the drilling program was to significantly extend mineralization beyond the already-known 2.5 km strike length of a conceptual open pit operation.
Strike length is the length and direction of a vein or rock formation measured on a horizontal surface.
in a news release, Wesdome said drilling has now extended the known mineralization over a strike length of nearly five kilometres.
Drilling was conducted on 200-metre spacing, it said, "to rapidly delineate the potential scale of the Moss Lake gold deposit."
President and CEO Duncan Middlemiss commented that the results "confirm our thesis...that the structure is potentially larger than previously recognized."
Despite that finding, the company is suspending the drill program and focusing current exploration efforts at its properties at Eagle River and Val D'Or, Quebec.
