Reserves Calculated for Willa Project

A $1-million exploration program was recently completed on the Willa property in southwestern British Columbia by operator, Northair Mines (TSE). The company now has a 77% interest in the gold project, while partners BP Canada and Rio Algom (TSE) share 23%.

Since then, Northair has calculated mining reserves for the West zone and geological reserves for the Main, East and Southern Extension of the West zone, and retained Cominco Engineering Services to provide engineering advice and to design a mining layout for the West zone.

Using the Cominco design and a cut-off grade of 0.1 oz gold per ton, Northair’s engineering staff calculated a diluted, weighted drill proven mineable reserve of 456,727 tons grading on average 0.176 oz gold and 0.92% copper for the West zone. In addition, they estimated that the adjacent Main and East zones and the Southern Extension of the West zone contain total probable and possible geological reserves of 242,000 tons of ore of similar grade.

Northair reports that the sum of the drill proven, probable and possible categories in these four zones now totals 698,727 tons of 0.176 oz gold and 0.92% copper.

The company says, however, that in view of current precious metals prices and exchange rates, “it is important to develop additional reserves in order to support an economically viable operation.”

To that aim, it is evaluating the geological potential of the property for the development of additional reserves. A wide spaced, five hole underground drill program is planned to begin shortly to determine if there may be another zone similar to the West zone accessible from current underground workings.