Britannica Resources Corp recently issued a 60% interest in the McKenzie Break property to Northern Star Mining (TSX.V-NSM). Britannica and Northern Star entered into a joint venture for the further exploration and development of the McKenzie Break Property with Northern Star as the initial operator. The initial interests of the parties will be Northern Star 60% and Britannica 40% with Northern Star agreeing to fund the first $1,500,000 in exploration expenses on behalf of the joint venture.

The property consists of 10 contiguous claims comprising 366 hectares, located in Fiedmont and Courville Townships, about 35 kilometers north of Val d’Or, Quebec.

In October 2009, construction of a decline for underground bulk sampling was underway. Initial site clearing and installation has begun. The Certificate of Authorization was received for the planned underground exploration and development program at McKenzie Break. Capital equipment purchase and site installation is well underway. Blasting and excavation of the decline entrance (Portal) has also begun.  Initial bulk sampling will test the near surface mineralization of the Murray Zone, beginning at a vertical depth of 20 meters and dipping to approximately 90 meters from surface. Pre-planning and engineering has estimated 300 meters of decline to reach the beginning of the Murray Zone.

The McKenzie Break property was previously explored by Placer Dome Canada, Western Quebec Mines Inc. and Wesdome Gold Mines. At least five known, flat-lying gold zones have been identified. One of these structures, the No 4 Zone, was drilled at 30-metre centres to a 120-metre depth displaying good continuity of gold values (usually above average gold grade for the region). Placer Dome Canada Ltd. prepared an historical resource estimate in 1991 on two zones, the Green Zone and the lower Orange Zone on the McKenzie Break Property. The Green Zone is a series of four “en echelon” diorite hosted, discrete shear zones (lenses No. 1 to No. 4) with 643,633 tons grading 0.22 oz/t Au of inferred resources. The Orange Zone underlies the diorite, which hosts the Green Zone and consists of a broad quartz–carbonate–sericite schist shear zone, which hosts two gold enriched sub-zones called the Orange and the Sulphide zones. These sub-zones are lower grade and cumulatively indicated a mineral inventory of 170,562 tons grading 0.132 oz/t Au with a lower cut off grade of 0.08 oz/t Au and minimum width of seven (7) feet. These resources used estimation practice guidelines prior to May 30th, 2003 (CIMM current and adopted guidelines). All zones are subparallel, striking and dipping 10° to 15° northeast.

Decline Construction November 2009

In 1994, Western Quebec Mines Inc. completed 67 drill holes totaling 5,259.2 meters at 30 meters spacing on a staggered grid pattern, designed to provide a reasonable indication of the internal continuity of targeted zones. The work was focused exclusively on the Green Zone, where cost-effective exploration had the best potential. Based on this work, George Mannard, Geol., M.Sc. of Western Quebec Mines Inc. calculated drill indicated resources in April 1994 of 161,348 tons grading 10.86 g/t Au for the Green Zone, employing a cut off grade of 3.5 g/t Au, a minimum width of 1.83 meters and a statistically determined upper cutting factor of 50 g/t Au.
Britannica believes minimal additional work would be required to expand these gold bearing structures, at depth. Britannica recently completed an updated Technical Report that complies with current NI 43-101 standards. Highlights from the NI 43-101 technical Report include:

Table 1: Historical Resource and Reserve Estimates

These historical resource estimates (1991) were appropriate for detailed work completed at the time, before enactment of NI-43-101. Inferred resources based on the work completed by Placer Dome are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is no certainty that the preliminary assessment will be realized. Further detailed diamond drilling by Western Quebec Mines within the higher-grade section of the Placer Dome “mineral inventory”, confirmed the continuity of the mineralized structures on a 30-meter drilling pattern. Drill indicated probable reserves of 161,348 tonnes grading 10.86 g/t Au, compiled by G. Mannard in 1994, can be classified as current undiluted and in-situ Indicated Resources because even if this resource used estimation practice guidelines prior to May 30th, 2003 (CIMM current and adopted guidelines), he followed parameters similar to current standards for quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) procedures.

Table 2: Better intersections from the 2004-2005 diamond drilling program completed by Wesdome Gold Mines, after the estimate of resources completed by Western Quebec Mine.

Britannica completed its initial reconnaissance and geological compilation on the McKenzie Break property, locating and plotting several drill targets for the initial 2007-2008 drill programs. Britannica has completed 9,959.4 linear metres (41 holes) of diamond drilling to date on the McKenzie Break property. The purpose of the diamond drill programs was to better understand and possibly expand the known gold bearing zones.