Vancouver — With dozens of projects on the go, Virginia Gold Mines (VIA-T) expects a total of $6.5 million to be spent on its properties in 2001.
The company holds numerous properties in Quebec, including joint ventures focused on gold-bearing and polymetallic targets in the James Bay region. Virginia has already launched field programs over the La Grande Sud, Poste Lemoyne, Apple, Caniapiscau and LG 3.5 projects.
The junior is in partnership with Cambior (CBJ-T) at La Grande Sud, where a 2,500-metre drill program is under way. A follow-up program is expected this spring.
At Poste Lemoyne, Virginia and TGW (GWC-M), formerly Boreal Exploration, plan a stripping program. This will be followed by drilling. Last year, the companies uncovered two new showings, which returned values of up to 21 grams gold per tonne over 3 metres.
Virginia aims at following up on encouraging surface values hit last year at the LG 3.5 project. Samples returned 11.8% Cu over 3.7 metres, 4.37% Cu over 3.6 metres and 5.7% Cu over 2 metres. More drilling is planned for this summer.
In Northern Quebec, partner Billiton will fund a $1.4-million geological and geophysical program over the Lac Gayot belt.
The junior is also involved is several other project in northern and southern Quebec.
Most recently, Virginia inked a strategic alliance with Noranda (NOR-T) to jointly conduct geoscientific work on ground covering 3,600 sq. km. in the province’s central or northern region.
Noranda has already completed a private placement of 633,333 Virginia shares priced at $1.50 each, for gross proceeds of just less than $1 million. The proceeds will be used to complete the first phase of exploration work, budgeted at $1.9 million. The major can acquire a 55% interest in any target generated by the work programs.
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