MINING IN CANADA — Goldcorp finds new gold zone at Red Lake mine

Underground drilling at the Red Lake mine in northwestern Ontario has expanded one gold zone and led to the discovery of another, Goldcorp (G-T) reports.

The company recently completed 135 diamond drill holes and a program of exploration drifting at the mine. Work was concentrated in the mine’s high-grade Deep Exploration area (below 30 level), in the Upper Level area (above 30 level) and in the Eastern area.

The best results from the PLM high-grade zones were:

* 6.07 oz. gold per ton over 20.4 ft in a pipe structure in hole 34L354; * 1.88 oz. gold over 23.6 ft. in hole 30L1095;

* 2.16 oz. gold over 27.2 ft. in hole 30L1209;

* 40.35 oz. gold over 8.8 ft in hole 34L353; and

* 11.20 oz. gold over 12.8 ft. in hole 34L356.

The best results from the Sulphide zone were 0.32 oz. gold over 32 ft. and 0.32 oz. over 12 ft.

Recent exploration drilling from the 30 level, west of the known PLM high-grade zones, has confirmed the western extension of some of the high-grade structures and has revealed a new zone, named Hanging Wall 6. The most significant results here are 1.66 oz. gold over 6 ft. in hole 30L1151 and 2.77 oz. gold over 5.7 ft. in hole 30L1154. The HW6 zone occurs at least 120 ft. into the hangingwall of the HW5 zone, and represents the downdip extension of intersections previously reported from exploration on the 26 and 28 levels. With the new HW6 structure, the PLM high-grade zones now extend from the 42 level up to the 27 level, for a total vertical extent of 2,300 ft.

Widely spaced holes from the 16 and 19 levels have traced the extension of the sulphide E zone up to the 16 level. The E and F zones remain open both updip and downdip, and extend over 1,500 ft. vertically from the 26 level to the 16 level. Some of the best results reported here were 1.07 oz. gold over 17.6 ft. in hole 16L1122; 0.97 oz. gold over 14.7 ft. in hole 19L535; and 2.17 oz. gold over 3 ft. in hole 19L533.

Goldcorp is in the process of re-evaluating its development plans at Red Lake, with the objective of reducing the capital required, shortening the payback period and maintaining its production target of 200,000 oz. gold per year.

Reserves at the Red Lake mine are estimated at 2.5 million tons grading 0.74 oz. gold.

Workers at the mine have been on strike since June 1996. The mine produced no gold in 1997, 24,178 oz. gold in 1996 (until the beginning of the strike) at a cash production cost of US$359 per oz. and 53,462 oz. gold at US$339 per oz. in 1995.