LATIN AMERICA SPECIAL — Mill expansion approved — Omai gold

The Omai gold mine of Cambior (TSE) and Golden Star Resources (TSE) in Guyana continues to serve the two companies and the South American country well.

The project, which entered commercial production early in 1993, turned out 250,642 oz. last year, up from 206,537 oz. in 1993.

Cambior (65% interest), Golden Star (30% interest) and their minority shareholder partner, the Guyanese government, maintained a steady milling rate throughout 1994 of about 14,000 tons per day. Three sources of ore have been identified on the property: the Fennel pit (hard rock), the Wenot Lake pits (oxidized rock) and alluvials (oxidized rock).

Omai boasts current reserves of about 62.5 million tons grading 0.041 oz. gold per ton. (The project entered 1994 with “minable” reserves of 55.5 million tons grading 0.045 oz.)

Directors of Cambior recently approved a feasibility study for mill expansion at Omai at a capital cost of US$58 million. Plans call for a capacity enlargement of 50%, to about 20,000 tons per day. Construction is expected to be complete during the first quarter of 1996.

The Omai mine, which sits inland about 100 miles south of Georgetown, the capital, accounts for a major portion of Cambior’s gold production, which totalled 522,077 oz. in 1994.

Golden Star, based in Denver, continues to be active on the exploration scene in the neighboring countries of Suriname and French Guiana. It has ventures with Cambior in both Suriname and French Guiana, and another with Asarco (NYSE) in French Guiana.

A Golden Star subsidiary, Guyanor Ressources (TSE), which only recently became a publicly traded company, is involved in the gold hunt

in French-speaking French Guiana. Its property interests there include Yaou, Dorlin, St-Elie, Paul Isnard, Regina Est and Esperance.

The Yaou and Dorlin properties are being explored under a 50/50 joint-venture option agreement with Cambior; the St-Elie concession is the subject of a similar deal with Asarco.

A subsidiary of Cambior, Cambiex Exploration (ME), is earning a 15% interest in the Yaou project (one of its South American priorities in 1995). Cambior is funding Cambiex’s commitments for Yaou.

In Suriname, Cambior is earning a 50% interest from Golden Star in the 42,000-acre Gross Rosebel gold property, 50 miles south of the capital, Paramaribo, by spending US$6 million on exploration and development work by June 30, 1996. The partners are hoping to be able to define the project’s reserves this year.

Other property interests of Golden Star in Suriname include Headley’s Reef and South Benzdorp.

Franc-Or Resources (ME) reports from French Guiana that it enlisted the aid of a giant Russian MIL-26 helicopter to move materials to its Sophie-Saul gold exploration project situated in the rain forest and without road access. “It is the first time that an MIL-26 is brought on the American continent ever,” writes Jean Demers from the junior’s Cayenne office. He says the helicopter was flown from Russia to France, where it was loaded on a ship and transported to Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, and then flown to French Guiana’s capital city. Delivering all of the equipment to the project site took 20 trips.

Franc-Or says underlying its property is a 30-mile-long shear zone, along which nine bulk-tonnage targets have been identified. A drilling program is planned.

In Guyana, Cathedral Gold (TSE) plans to spend US$2 million this year on its land holdings in the Kaburi district. The junior has been drilling the Hicks zone at its Kaburi-Eldorado gold property. The company also has an option agreement to earn a 90% interest in the Tallman gold property north of Kaburi-Eldorado (and contiguous to its 48,000 acres of prospecting licence applications).

Sutton Resources (VSE) is calculating capital and operating costs for an open-pit mine at its Maraudi gold concession in southern Guyana. The Maraudi Mountain and Mazoa Hill deposits are estimated to contain a combined 9.6 million tons grading 0.07 oz.

In the same area of Guyana, Exall Resources (TSE) and MacMillan Gold (TSE) recently announced plans to explore the 60,000-acre Wakadanawa gold project.