Lake Shore to head underground at Timmins West, Vogel

As part of its pre-feasibility study on the Timmins West gold project, Lake Shore Gold (LSG-T) plans to do underground exploration on both Timmins West and the Vogel-Schumacher project.

Lake Shore has been drilling Timmins West to develop a data base for a revised resource estimate, scheduled to be out this summer. A 2004 calculation put the indicated size of the deposit at 1.4 million tonnes grading 11 grams gold per tonne, in six zones. Another 200,000 tonnes of inferred material grded 8.7 grams gold per tonne. Uncut grades for both the indicated and the inferred resource were about 50% higher.

Vogel, which has been through the hands of several Timmins-area operators over the last decade, has a historic resource figure, predating National Instrument 43-101, of about 1.5 million tonnes grading 12.7 grams gold per tonne, about two-thirds of it inferred. Glencairn Gold (GGG-T, GLE-X), the most recent vendor, holds a net smelter return royalty on Vogel that tops out at 3%.

The adjoining property, which belonged to the estate of the legendary Timmins mining man Frederick Schumacher, has a small pre-National Instrument resource as well.

Lake Shore said it expected to have permits for underground operations at Timmins West in about four to six months, and that permits for Vogel-Schumacher would take about two to four months longer than that.