THE GLOBAL SEARCH FOR GOLD SPECIAL — Franco plans drilling from Williams

Toronto-based Franco-Nevada Mining (FN-T) will explore a property in the Hemlo camp of north-central Ontario.

The 2.5-sq.-km property was explored by Noranda and Teck (TEK-T) in the 1980s under an option from Interlake Development, which acquired the property at the time of the Hemlo staking rush. By 1987, Noranda had outlined a drill-indicated resource of 1.8 million tonnes grading 9.3 grams gold but dropped its option two years later. Franco-Nevada bought the property from Interlake in 1990 and now estimates a resource of 1.8 million oz. gold.

An access agreement with Teck and Homestake Canada, the Canadian unit of Homestake Mining (HM-N), will allow Franco-Nevada to drill targets on the property from underground workings at the Williams mine, immediately to the south. At lower levels of the Williams mine, Teck and Homestake have been following the orebody’s northeastern dip. Drilling to block out reserves has come to within 50 metres of the property boundary.