Exploration ’88 GRANGES

Granges Exploration has reduced its budget this year, cutting $2.5 million from the $12.5 million spent last year on the search for base and precious metals. Of the current $10-million allocation, 15% is aimed at base metal plays. One of the company’s major pre- development and exploration properties is Windflower, 30 miles southeast of Revelstoke, B.C. Last year, the company spent $2.8 million on Windflower (also known as the Goldfinch property). This year, $3 million has been allotted for exploration. At Alberts Lake, near Flin Flon, Man., metallurgical tests are under way to improve gold recovery from a gold zone 1,500 ft long and five to 15 ft wide. Another Flin Flon area play is Morgan Lake, where Granges spent $1.3 million last year on a high-grade zinc deposit with associated gold and silver. Further drilling is slated for this year. A third Flin Flon property, this one at Bigstone Lake, has reserves of 1.4 million tons grading 2.9% copper and 372,000 tons grading 11.2% zinc. Engineering studies and additional deep drilling are planned in 1988.

At Mishibishu Lake, 55 miles southeast of Hemlo, drilling has indicated a broad gold-bearing zone with reserves of 550,000 tons of 0.16 oz gold per ton (uncut). About 70 miles southwest of the town of Vanderhoof, in central British Columbia, Granges is exploring a large tonnage silver gold deposit containing 31.2 million tonnes averaging 1.05 oz. silver per ton and 0.009 gold. Metallurgical test work is being considered for 1988.

In the U.S., Granges has spent $2.7 million(us) to define 11 million tons averaging 0.032 oz gold per ton on the Hayden Hill property, 115 miles north of Reno, Nev. The company has granted Silver State Mining an option to acquire a 50% interest in the property by spending $2.7 million over the next three years.

In total, Granges operates 80 exploration properties covering 825,000 acres in Canada and the U.S. The company’s U.S. exploration is conducted through subsidiary Hycroft Resources & Development. North American field offices are in Flin Flon; Timmins, Ont.; Halifax, N.S.; and Reno. Granges employs 12 full-time exploration people.