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KITIKMEOT
Junior exploration company North Country Gold Corp. has come across a rare discovery of emerald mineralization on the greenstone belt where the company is developing its Three Bluffs gold project.

Geologists exploring the Committee Bay Greenstone Belt where North Country Gold Corporation is currently advancing its Three Bluffs gold project in the Kitikmeot region have suspected there was also emerald mineralization along the belt since 2008. - photo courtesy North Country Gold Corporation

The surprise emerald find at the Committee Bay Greenstone Belt, in the largely underexplored Kitikmeot region, is currently being looked into by a University of British Columbia emeralds expert and is only the fourth occurrence of emeralds discovered in the North to date, according to the NWT Geoscience Office.

"We ran a multi-element geochem analysis and noticed extremely high berrylium values on the drill core. We basically analyzed it for a whole suite of elements," said Peter Kleespies, North Country's vice-president of exploration, recalling the drilling program on North Country's Anuri gold prospect that led to the discovery of the emeralds.

"When we checked up on the high berrylium, we noted some emerald green crystals in the core. They were the colour of emeralds and we had predicted there would be some just based on the chemistry.

"It's extremely interesting and pretty exciting from a geological point of view," Kleespies added. "It's early days whether or not we will ever have commercial production from them. But that rarity certainly makes it something that is worthy of additional work."

The emerald crystals discovered on the property to date have been no more than about a centimetre long, Kleespies said.

While good quality gemstones could fetch hundreds of dollars on the market, North Country's focus is still on gold.

"Gold is our primary business for sure," Kleespies said, adding that advancing North Country's Three Bluffs gold project, located about 80 km northeast of Anuri on the 300-km long greenstone belt, remains the Edmonton-based company's main focus.

"That's what our main focus is right now, absolutely," he said.

A $10 million 2012 exploration program was conducted on North Country Gold's Three Bluffs property on the Committee Bay Greenstone Belt, which is located 180 km northeast of Nunavut's only mine, the Meadowbank Gold Mine.

John Williamson, president and CEO of North Country, stated that the company is "intrigued by the implications of further exploration and the potential for more discoveries of economic deposits," as North Country awaits the conclusions of the UBC research on the emerald occurrence.

Kleespies supervised the preparation, shipping, and checking of all core samples from the property, and is qualified as a geologist for disclosure of mineral projects.

Tom Hoefer, executive director of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, said the recent emeralds discoveries is a reminder of how much the North's resource is underexplored and undermapped.

"I think it reminds us of all the untapped potential that's in the North," he said.

Geoscience mapping has determined the occurrence of emeralds in the Northwest Territories twice in the past, and once in Yukon.

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