Inco has $10-million to look at Couchenour

With its Golden Pond East zone in Quebec already up and running, Inco Ltd.’s (TSE) gold exploration arm is attempting to add to its mineable reserve inventory by sinking $10 million into the old Cochenour gold mine here.

Backed by a syndicate called the Wilanour Partnership, Inco Gold is betting that there are hidden reserves to be found on a property which was mothballed back in 1971.

Located about five miles from Placer Dome’s high grade Campbell gold mine, the Cochenour Willans Gold Mines operation was a low tonnage, high grade operation which produced 1.24 million oz of gold ore grading 0.538 oz gold per ton between 1939 and 1971.

Since it was taken out of commission due to low gold prices and a shortage of high grade ore, a number of companies have tried without success to locate sufficient quantities of economic reserves.

From 1980 to 1982 Wilanour Resources (TSE) of Toronto spent $21 million to expand the Cochenour mill from 200 to 400 tons per day and develop a number of mill feed sources in the area.

With financing from Camflo Mines and a number of lenders, Wilanour directed most of its efforts toward the Wilmar claims which are about 4,000 ft southwest and 1,300 ft below the Cochenour mine site. The company pulled 25 ft of grade 0.94 oz in a Wilmar stope which had produced 75,000 oz of 0.40 oz.

A 13,841 ton bulk test on mine site tailings material showed recoveries of 0.03 oz. But the sporadic nature of the Wilmar gold mineralization made the claims hard to evaluate and the joint venture ran out of money before any follow up work was done.

Esso Minerals Canada entered the scene briefly between 1983 and 1985 and had spent $5 million to explore the Wilmar stope and deep extension of Cochenour ore zone before selling its 60% interest to Inco earlier this year.

In contrast to its predecessors, Inco (50%) and partners Wilanour Resources (30%), Pronto Explorations (TSE) (12.5%) and Pronto President Robert Fasken Jr. (7.5%) will look within the mine workings.

To test the theory that a substantial amount of lower grade ore has been ignored, Inco is planning to dewater the 2,754-ft shaft before conducting 63,000 ft of diamond drilling.

If the results from the $4.75-million phase-one program are good enough, Inco will take a bulk sample and do some more drilling.

Available data and previous exploration has suggested to project geologist Hannu Virtanen that there could be one million tons of grade 0.25 oz available to be proven up in the property’s upper levels.

And, when drilling starts in January, he said the partnership will look at the old workings all the way from the first to the 26th level.

“We have three different targets in the existing workings and it’s possible that we can find a different type of ore and some of the material that was disregarded by the previous operator,” said Virtanen.

When The Northern Miner toured the plant recently, it was evident that the mill and headframe could easily be refurbished and according to Virtanen the shaft is in reasonably good shape. The question which Inco will attempt to answer is whether there is big enough tonnage in the orebody to justify a refurbishing program.

With development under way at the Crixas gold mine in Brazil and Jardine depo sit in Montana, the Cochenour project fits into a jigsaw which could make Inco a publicly listed company when all the pieces are fitted together.

As Virtanen sees it, to run a successful gold company the parent company would need to have a number of producers under its wing before shares are floated to the general public.

“There is no point in taking Inco Gold public until it can show a profit,” he said.