Rainy River Resources--instincts inspire exploration plan.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: TOP JUNIOR MINERS - Rainy River Resources Ltd. uses tool for diamomd mining

To find gold beneath the glacial till of the rolling countryside near Lake of the Woods, Rainy River Resources resorted to diamond-hunting methods to map out one of the biggest gold-in-bedrock anomalies in Eastern Canada.

Rainy River president Nelson Baker compares the farmland and deer country of his junior's Richardson Township property in northwestern Ontario to the clay belt country of New Liskeard and Earlton.

But prospectors in the past just skimmed over the area. The overburden, as much as 25 metres thick, makes geophysics useless. You can't find what you can't see.

Baker said it's the reason competitors stay away, "because it's blind exploration."

Nevertheless, the project was recognized by the Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association as the Discovery of the Year for 2006.

And the Vancouver junior miner is promoting their 26,000 hectare (64,220 acres) property northwest of Emo and Fort Frances as Canada's 'next gold camp.'

Rainy River uses a sophisticated exploration tool known as reverse circulation drilling to follow the trail of mineralization trending northeast across the township.

"We're using diamond technology in looking for gold and base metals," says Baker.

It's a method that collects gravel and bedrock chips, and blows it to the surface with compressed air. The samples are collected in a cyclone and sent off to Overburden Drilling Management, an Ottawa mineral analysis lab.

"Without reverse circulation we wouldn't be where we are now," said Baker.

The company has spent $13 million on their property and this year are planning another massive phase of drilling to expand the resource. In their $12 million exploration budget for this year are plans for a 45,000-metre drill program on more than 100 holes.

"We're not slowing down at all," said Baker.

The junior has identified three parallel gold horizons at Richardson. The central one is the 17 gold trend hosting their 17 and ODM Zones.

In the 17 Zone, Nuinsco once defined a mineral deposit of 10 to 12 million tonnes grading 1-4 grams per tonne gold, 0.01 to 0.30 per cent copper, 0.10 to 0.30 per cent zinc and 2.0 to 5.0 grams per tonne silver.

With four drills working this winter, Baker hopes to extend those zones with more step-out drilling along those three trends to identify as many gold zones as possible.

Sometime in February, Rainy River will release the project's first resource estimate since Nuinsco Resources held the property years before.

Before Baker picked up the...