Financial position healthy as Ronrico drills Louvicourt bet

Now in a much healthier financial position and with revenues of more than $600,000(us) annually still flowing from its U.S. oil and gas interests, Ronrico Explorations is turning strongly to gold. The company will be concentrating in northwestern Quebec, where it is launching a 20,000-30,000-ft program of exploratory drilling on its extensive holdings there.

But its major project, of course, remains reopening the Louvicourt mine near Val d’Or (N.M., Sept 14/87), which it hopes to have back in production by the end of next year, President Donald Kemp told shareholders at the annual meeting. This calls for an expenditure of $7 million to earn a 50% interest.

Ronrico, which locked-in $3.2 million of flow-through financing at $1.80 per share just prior to Black Monday, now has three diamond drills at work within the bustling Abitibi greenstone belt where it holds more than 700 claims. These include five separate and well-positioned groups in the Detour-Matagami Lake sector that will be financed by Heenan Senlac Resources under a joint venture agreement in which that company can earn a 40% interest. Consulting geologist Nelson Baker’s hopes are especially high for a key group in Gaudet Twp. where drilling is scheduled to get started this week, the meeting was told.

Installation of a hoist and headframe is under way at the Louvicourt project, where the previous operators put down a 4-compartment shaft to a depth of 975 ft. Actual underground work is expected to get started in January, with the first objective to confirm the presence of the 1.2 million tons of ore reported by the former mine manager.

There are several targets to be investigated in the renewed underground work, especially what is known as the East zone, which was discovered in surface drilling after the mine had closed. Present underground workings are within 600 ft of this.

Also, early consideration will be given to deepening the shaft and drive to the area of the west boundary where there are some excellent drill intersections.

Diamond drilling is scheduled for next spring on the company’s two large permit areas in the Schefferville area of northern Quebec. The plan is to follow up on platinum and copper-nickel findings turned up in preliminary surface work carried out this past season.

Shareholders approved an increase in the company’s authorized capitalization to 20,000,000 shares. There are now 6,338,38l shares outstanding. Approval was also given to the granting of long-term stock options to directors and certain employees on 474,000 treasury shares at $2.06 per share, good until Aug 10, 1992.