EXPLOATION ’89 THE MINES

Of the seven active underground drills, one is probing for ore from the north end of the 575 level Another is on the 725 No 2 sublevel The company has just completed drilling on 1125 (north) and is awaiting start-up on the 1000 level These drills are searching for separate orebodies to the north The holes are up to 1,100 m long At the No 12 mine, drilling from surface and toward the north is looking for thrust-faulted ore lenses Heath Steele/ Stratmat At Brunswick’s Heath Steele/Stratmat property, proven reserves stand at 3,761,900 tonnes Noranda Exploration will spend about $3 6 million this year on Heath/Stratmat exploration Brunswick has a separate $600,000 budget for surface exploration outside the Brunswick No 12 mine, while Heath/Stratmat itself envisages a budget this year of $679,000

Heath/Stratmat exploration will include drilling off the Stratmat pit and Stratmat west and exploring the east lens and N-3 zone All this work will be done from an exploration decline Last year, the E-Zone was defined in preparation for mining The N-5 zone is being defined this year from surface

By presstime, a metallurgical test hole was drilled from surface into the B Zone and the company was awaiting metallurgical results If that turns out to be positive, more drilling will be done Should a feasibility study support such work, underground exploration will attempt to extend the orebody on Levels 10, 11, and 12

The Brunswick No 12 mine and Heath Steel/Stratmat deposits occur in complexly deformed rocks of the Tetagouche Group These rocks are of Ordovician Age and have been deformed by up to five phases of deformation The sequence of rocks is divided into five units: an older metasedimentary unit, a metarhyolitic unit, a felsic porphyritic volcanic unit, a mafic metavolcanic unit and a younger metasedimentary unit The first and second ages of folding control most of the distribution and geometry of the massive sulphide lenses Sigma Mine The Sigma mine, the first in the Val d’Or area of northwestern Quebec, has been operating since 1937 The current mine production rate is 1,500 tons (1,400 tonnes) per day, an increase of 100 tons (90 tonnes) per day from the 1988 level As of Jan 1, 1989, mine reserves stood at 4,568,000 tons (4 2 million tonnes) grading 0 139 oz gold per ton (4 76 g per tonne) (The reserve includes Sigma No 2, a small open pit, and the underground operation ) The mine has produced more than 22 million tons (20 million tonnes) of ore to yield 3,643,000 oz (123 4 million g) of gold

Development has extended to 6,000 ft (1,800 m) below the surface and mining takes place as deep as 5,500 ft (1,700 m, or the 40th level) At that depth, there has been the occasional rock burst, but stress hasn’t caused any serious problems so far, General Manager Andre Carrier told The Northern Miner Magazine Several years ago, the mine’s exploration department drilled 29 holes from the deepest level and hit a few good intersections “We know the continuity is there,” Carrier said However, for the time being Sigma still has the luxury of pursuing new reserves along strike at higher levels in the mine More than 120 miles (140 km) of underground drifts and crosscuts have been excavated and close to 50 stopes are mined at any one time Exploration on the Sigma Extension, which is along strike of existing workings, is at the definition stage The targets are North 75 degrees east-trending shear zones in a corridor 500 to 600 ft wide (150 to 180 m) and 5,000 ft long (1,500 m) This corridor is 2,500 ft (760 m) north of the existing northernmost mine operations Surface and underground drilling (drilled from Levels 14, 18 and 29 and reaching up to 5,000 ft, or 1,500 m, long), will try to intersect the targets More surface holes and underground holes (from Levels 24 and 36) will be drilled

At Sigma No 2, the open pit, surface drilling is taking place 2 km east of the pit to test for continuity The open pit is in the granophyric member of a differentiated (gabbroic to tonalitic) dyke Gold is found within quartz-tourmaline tensional flat veins related to a series of less mineralized shear zones northeast to east-west The total 1989 exploration budget is $500,000 Two drills are active

In the Sigma mine proper, gold- bearing, quartz-tourmaline veins are situated in south-dipping (65 degrees to 70 degrees ) east-west shear zones They are related to tension fractures These are hosted by andesitic lavas intruded by a porphyritic quartz-diorite stock, while later quartz-diorite porphyry dykes host gold-bearing, quartz-tourmaline stringers Ansil Mine The known massive sulphide lens of Minnova Inc ‘s Ansil mine, near Rouyn-Noranda, Que , is well drilled off So the exploration emphasis for this operation lies in finding additional massive sulphide lenses along the same contact This year, combined underground and surface drilling will explore the mineralized horizon up-dip from the known deposit, reports Michel LaBrie, the mine’s senior exploration geologist Exploration efforts will focus on a radius of 1 km from the Ansil deposit

Minor exploration work will also be carried out down-dip from the known deposit, where a low-grade zinc zone is still open The company will spend $816,620 on underground exploration and $200,000 on surface work

Proven and probable reserves have been set at 1 5 million tonnes grading 7 2% copper, 0 8% zinc, 26 g silver and 1 7 g gold per tonne The orebody is a volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit sitting at a rhyolite/andesite contact Lac Shortt Lac Shortt, in the Chibougamau area of northwestern Quebec, is Minnova Inc ‘s pure gold producer At all its other operations, some other metal is produced along with the yellow metal Last year, the decision was made to deepen the existing shaft to explore and develop possible reserves below the 500-m level This year, from that level, the company will explore the down-dip extension to the 1050 level This program is nearly completed and the shaft deepening is in progress, the company says

Along strike, the company will drill from the 500 level to test for deep lateral extensions of the orebody The rest of the exploration program will include the following:

* a search for separate orebodies in the footwall of the main deposit, at the 500 Level and, below that, in conjunction with the down-dip project

* a test of other shear zones from the 500 level within about 1 km of the existing shaft, to the west and south This is in an advanced exploration stage

* a rare earth element project, where drilling will be carried on from surface, the 500 level and the 400 level, 500 m south of the shaft

Total exploration expenditure this year will be $1 7 million, a slight increase from the previous year Current reserves are one million tonnes grading 4 8 g per tonne gold The geological setting of the orebody is a shear zone in syenites and gabbros adjacent to a major fault Opemiska Division The Opemiska Division of Minnova Inc plans to spend $1 6 million on exploration at its three existing mines in the Chapais area of Quebec At the Springer shaft, drills will test the eastern and lateral extensions of Veins 4 and 5 A drill station has been cut at the 11th level for this work, which is still in the early stages The eastern lateral extensions of Veins 6 and 7 will also be the target for exploration from drill stations at several locations on the 12th and 13th levels Proven reserves stand at 384,502 tons (349,547 tonnes) gradin
g 1 73% copper and 0 057 oz gold per ton (1 950 g per tonne), and probable reserves are 115,126 tons (104,660 tonnes) grading 1 8% copper and 0 061 oz (2 090 g) gold At the Perry shaft, Veins A and D-3 will be tested for their extensions from drill stations on the 8th and 10th levels The potential of the P-1 fault will also be probed from a station on the 8th level Reserves are 549,091 tons (499, 176 tonnes) of proven and probable ore grading 2 19% copper and 0 007 oz gold per ton (6 240 g per tonne)

At the Cooke shaft, the eastern and lateral extensions of Vein 7 will be explored from drill stations at Levels 5, 7, 8, and 10 Exploration above the 10th level is in its late stages, while below that level it was only recently started The lateral extensions of Vein 9 will be tested from the 5th, 9th and 10th levels and of Veins 65 and 66 from several locations on the 7th level Reserves stand at 99,271 tons (90, 246 tonnes) grading 0 47% copper and 0 14 oz gold per ton (4 50 g per tonne)

A volcanogenic horizon will be explored for massive sulphides from drill stations on the 9th level This program is still in its infancy

Mine Manager Michel Garon supplied a detailed geological description which goes as follows: The Chapais-Chibougamau district occurs at the eastern extremity of the Chibougamau-Matagami greenstone belt Allard and Gobeil have divided the Archean rocks of the area into two groups: mafic to felsic cycles (Roy Group) overlain by a sedimentary volcanic sequence (Opemiska Group) The Roy Group volcanics are intruded by numerous differentiated gabbroic sills

The first cycle consists of feldspar porphyritic basalts and comagmatic gabbroic sills (Obatogamu Formation), overlain by an iron formation (Waconichi Formation) The second cycle consists of mafic volcanics and gabbroic sills (Gilman Formation) overlain by a volcano-sedimentary assemblage (Blondeau Formation) A small deposit, known as the 8-55 zone and within the Cooke mine, is volcanogenic in origin and hosted by the Blondeau Formation It is estimated to contain 50,000 tons (45,454 tonnes) of ore with 2 97% copper, 3 38% zinc, 1 04 oz silver (35 70 g) and 0 012 oz gold (0 410 g per tonne) The Ventures sill (hosting the Springer, Perry and Robitaille mines) and the Bourbeau sill (hosting the Cooke mine) are emplaced within the Blondeau Formation

The property geology is as follows: The entire stratigraphy has been folded into an antiform-synform pair along an east-trending fold axis that plunges moderately (45 degrees to 65 degrees ) to the east The stratigraphic sequences in the mine area have been completely overturned by the folding The folds are cut by several north-west-trending right-handed faults, in addition to the major regional fault (Guillim) with an apparent lefthanded displacement of at least 3,300 m, which marks the western limit of the Cooke structures

The eastern limit of the Cooke structures are cut by the east-west- trending Chibougamau Copper fault, with an apparent lefthanded displacement in the order of 1,000 ft (350 m) The volcanics of the Blondeau Formation consist of basalts, rhyolites and tuffs, which have been intruded by the Ventures and Bourbeau sills Both sills are differentiated, the Ventures sill from base up (lower green pyroxenite, black pyroxenite, upper green pyroxenite, foliated gabbro and Ventures gabbro) and Bourbeau sill (pyroxenite, epidiorite and quartz gabbro) Campbell Resources Campbell Resources operates the Joe Mann gold mine and three other gold/copper mines in the Chibougamau region of northern Quebec The Joe Mann mine, which had been a producer in the past, was recommissioned in 1987 At the end of that year, the mine had proven and probable reserves of 910,000 tons (827,272 tonnes) grading 0 225 oz gold per ton (7 70 g per tonne) and 0 30% copper That latter figure wasn’t much of an attraction when the mine first opened but, with copper prices poking through the stratosphere, the red metal component gains significance This year, drifting and diamond drilling for strike extension of known ore zones and possible new zones will be conducted This will be done in advance of shaft-sinking

At the Henderson I and the S-3 mines, the company will drill and drive a ramp below the bottom 1,025-ft (312-m) level to explore for the depth extension of the main zone At the Cedar Bay operation, drifting and diamond drilling will be done below the 2,200-ft (670-m) level to explore for depth continuity of known and potential ore zones

Altogether, the company expects to keep eight diamond drills busy this year, two of them on surface and six underground The estimated budget is $4 million The work should add considerably to the reserve, which stands at 1,617,000 tons (1,470,000 tonnes) of proven and probable ore and 5 million tons (4,545,454 million tonnes) of possible ore (as of Jan 1, 1988) The Campbell mineralogy occurs in fracture-filled sulphides within an anorthosite complex Kidd Creek The Kidd Creek orebody, a steeply dipping volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit, was first mined in 1966 It began as an open pit and now consists of underground mines No 1 and No 2 The reserves at the end of 1987 (the latest year for which figures were available at presstime) stood at 50,600,000 tonnes grading 3 55% copper, 5 11% zinc, and 62 g silver per tonne The current production rate is 4 2 million tonnes per year

The company will spend $2 7 million this year (compared with $1 8 million in 1988) on exploration The search for new mineralization will consist of an evaluatinon of the downward extension of the orebody between the 5,000-ft (1,500-m) and 7,000-ft (2,100-m) levels Two drills will be used on this project In addition, two drills will search for ancillary orebodies from the 4,000- to 6,000-ft (1,200- to 1,800-m) levels This summer a surface drill will probe in the mine vicinity at 1,500 ft to 2,000 ft (460 m to 610 m) below surface Minnova Inc ‘s Winston Lake can’t compare in size with its elephant of a northern neighbor Kidd Creek But what it might lack in dimension is at least partially compensated by the richness of the orebody Current reserves stand at 3 077 million tonnes grading 1% copper, 15 6% zinc, 1 g gold and 30 9 g silver per tonne

This, too, is a massive sulphide deposit and exploration plans this year call for an expenditure of $1 3 million on surface and another $300,000 on underground drilling The programs are aimed at expanding the existing orebody along strike and finding separate orebodies Golden Giant Robert Kusins, senior exploration geologist for Hemlo Gold Mines, is looking forward to the year ahead For this is the year that underground exploration at the Golden Giant mine goes beyond the known area of the deposit One of the highly publicized trio of Hemlo mines, the Golden Giant has current proven reserves, as of January, 1989, of 18 million tonnes grading 10 85 g gold per tonne (19 8 million tons grading 0 316 oz gold per ton) This 3,000-tonne-per-day operation will spend slightly more than $3 million on exploration this year

Some of the money will be spent to test from surface the down-dip extension of the orebody at the 3,600-m elevation (1,700 m below the surface) The company will also drill from surface on the Interlake ground (northwest of the mine) to test the possible down-plunge extension of the orebody at the 3,200-m elevation (2,100 m from surface) It will also drill on the Golden Sceptre side (west along strike) to test mine stratigraphy for possible new orebodies

Under Kusins’ direction, an underground exploration program at the eastern end of the mine will gain access to and drill from the 4230 level The drilling will test for the down-dip extensions of the main and lower ore zones “It’ll be interesting to see what happens down below,” says Kusins

The Golden Giant deposit forms a tabular zone averaging 20 m in width striking roughly east-west and dipping 65 degrees to the north The ore horizon is bounded by a calc-silicate-rich metasediment on the hangingwall and quartz-muscovite-feldspar schists on the footwall The zone grades
on strike and down-dip into a weakly mineralized mafic fragmental unit Folding and brittle deformation of the zone is locally evident Dome Mine This venerable producer yielded its first gram of gold in 1910 and, although you couldn’t tell by the reserve estimate, the mine will probably be producing the metal into the next century The reserves of proven and probable ore stand at 5 89 million tons (5 35 million tonnes) grading 0 159 oz gold per ton (5 45 g gold per tonne) Another 2 78 million tons (2 53 million tonnes) of possible ore grade 0 151 oz per ton (5 18 g per tonne)

This year, exploration will try to expand the orebody along strike and down-dip, as well as attempt locating separate orebodies, Mine Manager R J Perry reports About $1 1 million will be spent on the search The exploration project is still in the early stages with geological mapping and sampling having been carried out A short program of drilling has also been conducted The project has been dubbed the North Dome project and will constitute a re-evaluation of the old minesite, which was active in the 1930s

The geology at the mine is complex, with ore occurring in a number of different rock types and in many different structural settings Most of the mineralization is contained in quartz veins that surround four main structures: the Greenstone nose, porphyry highly altered zone, sedimentary trough and the dacite flow

The mine operates at 3,350 tons (3,045 tonnes) per day HBM&S Exploration at Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting’s existing Manitoba mines covers three main areas, namely, Flin Flon, Snow Lake and Ruttan The budget has been set at $4 million this year In the Flin Flon area, the Namew Lake mine will be deep-drilled down-dip and along strike from the known deposit The drilling will be done from the ice of Namew Lake

Alastair Walker, Hudson Bay’s vice- president, exploration, says the company hopes to discover additional nickel/copper-bearing ultramafic bodies in an area accessible from the existing shaft In addition, drilling from underground will be conducted to better define and establish the limits of the known orebody, and some drilling along strike to the south will look for additional bodies

At the Trout Lake mine, an extensive underground drilling program is planned This deposit is a typical volcanogenic copper/zinc orebody made up of a number of stacked and/or en echelon massive sulphide lenses distributed between two main zones, the north and the south Lateral development on the 560-m level from the new shaft will provide access for deeper exploration of the Trout Lake favorable horizon, both north and south Drills will also probe from the deeper sections of the main footwall access ramps, which are now approaching the 400-m level All this drilling will try to extend the orebody down-plunge through extensions of partially defined lenses and discovery of new lenses within the overall package of favorable rocks Exploration will generally focus on the area between the 450- and 800-m levels Recent drilling has indicated very good potential in this area Two or three drills will be occupied for most of the year on this program

At the Callinan deposit, north of the Flin Fon mine, exploration drilling will focus on extensions of known lenses, as well as the search for new ones Buz Trevor is the chief mine geologist for the Flin Flon mines

At Chisel Lake, where Chief Geologist Frank Bill is in charge, underground exploration will be suspended during open pit extraction of the crown pillar (see The Northern Miner Magazine, January, 1989) Surface drilling in the vicinity of the Chisel Lake North deposit, where three million tons (2 7 million tonnes) of probable ore have been outlined, will continue, however

At other Snow Lake area mines, such as Stall Lake and Rod, surface drilling will test along the favorable mine horizons In addition, underground drilling at Stall Lake will test the area between Stall and the Rod mine from the 1,950-ft level (590-m level) exploration drift At Spruce Point, underground drilling will be undertaken from footwall crosscuts on the 574-m level to explore the deposit in depth To allow for deeper exploration, a hangingwall crosscut will also be driven in 1989

The main focus of exploration at the Ruttan mine will be a continuation of the West Anomaly program The West Anomaly is a zone of copper/zinc mineralization about 1 km west of the main Ruttan mine, which was indicated by surface drilling and some underground drilling from the 260-m level Hudson Bay hopes to evaluate the depth projection of this zone To this end, the 660-m level of the Ruttan mine is being extended westwards in order to get in position to carry out a detailed drill program covering the area between the 600- and 850-m levels It is anticipated the drifting will be completed by the end of March Drilling will commence at that time and should be completed by August or September A few surface holes have been budgeted to explore the mine horizon to the northeast of the mine as well The chief mine geologist is Andy Gottzman Highland Valley Copper The rejuvenated Highland Valley operation, an enormous 240,000- tonne-per-day open pit copper mine in the British Columbia interior, will explore for additional mineralization along strike and down-dip The 1989 budget has been set at $350,000

Last year, follow-up exploratory drilling was done on the Bethsaida zone, directly south-west of the Main zone of the Valley orebody A 0 10% copper contour of the zone suggested that it extended north-east into the Valley orebody within current ultimate pit limits Previous core and percussion drilling intersected significant copper and molybdenite values, but drill results were inconclusive because the holes were shallow and assaying had been selective To prove or disprove the continuation of the Bethsaida zone into the Valley orebody, three holes were drilled

To provide additional information where drill data were scanty, four holes totalling 1,861 m were drilled to enhance current ore reserve tonnage and grade, copper and molybdenum grade trends and ore hardness in last year’s in-fill drilling program This drilling will continue over the next five years

Geologically, the Lornex and Valley porphyry copper-molybdenum deposits are situated within the concentrically zoned Upper Triassic Guichon Creek batholith The batholith is approximately 30 km wide and 65 km long and is one of a series of plutons that form the northwest- trending Cordilleran Intermontane Belt, which extends from southern B C to southwestern Yukon The batholith is dated at 202 degrees 8 million years (W J McMillan, B C Dept of Mines, 1980) and comprises four intrusive phases ranging in composition from diorite or quartz diorite to quartz monzonite

The Lornex orebody occurs in Skeena quartz diorite host rock, intruded by younger pre-mineral quartz porphyry and aplite dykes The Skeena quartz diorite is an intermediate phase of the Guichon Batholith and is generally a medium- to coarse- grained equigranular rock distinguished by interstitial quartz and moderate ferro-magnesian minerals The sulphide ore primarily consists of fracture fillings of chalcopyrite, bornite and molybdenite, with minor pyrite, magnetite, sphalerite and galena

The host rocks of the Valley deposit are mainly porphyritic quartz monzonites and granodiorites of the Bethsaida phase of the batholith These rocks are medium- to coarse-grained with large phenocrysts of quartz and biotite The rocks of the deposit were subjected to hydrothermal alteration followed by extensive quartz veining, quartz-sericite veining and silicification Bornite, chalcopyrite and molybdenum were introduced with the quartz and quartz-sericite veins and typically fill angular openings in them Accessory minerals consist of hornblende, magnetite, hematite, sphene, apatite and zircon Pre-mineral porphyry and aplite dykes intrude the host rocks of the deposit

The reserve figure of the total deposit is under review At the beginning of January, 1988, reserves were reported to be 812 million tonnes grading an ave
rage 0 402% copper with recoverable amounts of molybdenum, silver and gold Noranda’s Bell Mine The Bell open pit may be the only Tmine in Canada to which workers must commute by boat every day Situated on a peninsula that juts out into Babine Lake in northern British Columbia, the Noranda-owned operation draws its workers chiefly from Granisle, which sits across the lake from the mine The ferry ride takes about 20 minutes

Noranda Exploration discovered the Bell back in the early 1960s, but production didn’t start until 1972, says Senior Mine Engineer Ross McArthur It produced continuously (except for an interruption during a strike) until 1982, when low copper prices forced its closure until a late- 1985 re-opening

This year, the company will spend $120,000 on exploration to find separate orebodies and investigate the horizontal and vertical extensions of the known deposit Most of the work will entail reviewing previous data compiled on the Bell and Granisle pits and some minor prospecting in the general area Later, a consultant will make recommendations based on the review Current mine reserves are 18 million tons (16 4 million tonnes) of proven ore grading an average 0 513% copper The mining rate is 40,000 tons (36,000 tonnes) per day, 17,000 tons (15,000 tonnes) of which are ore and 23,000 tons (20,909 tonnes) waste

The Bell orebody is crescent-shaped on plan, dips steeply to the northwest, is 150 m to 300 m wide by 1,000 m long and is dated at 48 million years old Its depth has yet to be determined The orebody follows and overlaps the west and north edges of an Eocene plug of biotite-hornblende- plagioclase porphyry The orebody is enclosed in a halo of hydrothermal alteration and is in a zone of hydrothermal biotitization Chalcopyrite, the main copper mineral, is finely disseminated or occurs as fracture coatings and stringers Equity Silver Mines Equity Silver’s mining operation in the heart of northern British Columbia got off to a rough start Discovered in the late 1960s, the deposit didn’t start producing until 1980 Even then, arsenic and antimony in the ore caused marketing problems and metallurgical headaches, the latter stemming from a leach plant that was to remove the contaminants On top of that, silver prices nosedived after the Hunt brothers’ bid to corner the silver market failed So Equity has had its struggles

The worst of it seems to be behind it However, the necessity of finding new reserves will start to loom large very soon Current reserves (as of Jan 1, 1988) stand at 14,696,000 tonnes grading 86 5 g per tonne silver, 1 08 g per tonne gold and 0 255% copper Mine production is 30,000 tonnes per day and mill throughput is 9,000 tonnes per day

The current exploration program (budget not established by presstime) will concentrate on the down-dip extension of the Southern Tail open pit, one of three orebodies on the Equity ground The hope is that reserves might be found below Southern Tail to warrant underground production, senior exploration geologist Daryl Hanson says (Mining-grade material has already been intersected by drills ) The diamond drilling from surface this year could precede a feasibility study if all goes well The Southern Tail open pit has been mined out Most of the current production comes from the Main zone and from a another, smaller deposit

Equity Silver has been drawing ore from three separate deposits along the same trend The orebodies have been defined within dominantly pyroclastic volcanic rocks in a mesozoic inlier The sequence is intruded by a quartz- monzonite stock and a gabbro- monzonite complex which is coeval with the surrounding Tertiary volcanic flows Cassiar Mining Corp After operating as an open pit for more than 35 years, Cassiar is in the midst of moving underground The pit that has provided asbestos for nearly four decades will be exhausted by 1991 By that time, development will have been well advanced on the McDame underground asbestos deposit, which has an initial reserve to sustain the operation to the year 2000 at least

Underground development began last year Part of the program, set at a $50-million expenditure over the two years, will include diamond drilling and bulk-sampling this year

Less advanced but of extreme interest to the mining community is Cassiar’s Similkameen operation, the purchase of which (from Newmont Mining) probably was the bargain mining acquisition of 1988 Similco, as the Cassiar subsidiary is called, will explore the existing orebody along strike and in other areas peripheral to the mine for separate orebodies

“When we took it over from Newmont, the mine was scheduled to close in 1990,” Vice-president Peter Jones told The Northern Miner Magazine “That was the schedule Newmont had Now we’ve got a new pit And so far, we’re confident of 7 1/2 years in reserves And we expect even more ”

Similco’s 1989 exploration will include the following:

* Lost Horse Gulch: A bulk tonnage copper target only a mile from the primary crusher of the current mine One intersection cut 600 ft (180 m) of 0 35% to 0 6% copper The project is in Phase 2 definition drilling stage

* Voigt Camp: 2 km from the primary crusher, this project is in Phase 2 as well Similco states that this copper/ gold target has moderate potential

* Oriole Camp: In Phase 1 (detailed surface exploration and drilling), one intersection cut 120 ft (36 m) of 1% copper

* Copper Mountain Peripheral Evaluations: Examine and evaluate numerous copper-gold showings and delineate drill targets

The mine, a 25,000-ton- (23,000- tonne-) per-day producer, is a copper- gold bulk tonnage/low-grade deposit hosted in the Nicola Group/Wolf Creek volcanic formation Mineralization is micro-fracture controlled internally and mineralized zones are seemingly controlled by layer structural boundaries Copper occurs as chalcopyrite and bornite and can be classified as a calc-alkali porphyry copper deposit Excellent potential exists for expanding the current reserve inventory through delineating smaller, moderate-grade bodies, the company says

At presstime, the company hadn’t established a dollar figure for its exploration program Giant Yellowknife Giant Yellowknife has been a fixture near Yellowknife, N W T , since 1948 when it first started producing gold That’s a pretty good run and it seems far from over Chief geologist Don Lewis reports that reserves stand at 494,660 tons (449,690 tonnes) of proven ore grading 0 228 oz gold per ton (7 82 g per tonne), 694,191 tons (631,000 tonnes) of probable ore grading 0 266 oz (9 1 g per tonne) and 1,221,373 tons (1,110,340 tonnes) of possible ore grading 0 246 (8 43 g per tonne) These reserves indicate another six years of mine life Reserves have increased marginally every year since 1982

Minesite exploration is divided into two camps, Lewis says These two are separated by their relevant time frames Short-term work focuses on strike and dip extensions and extrapolations from known orebodies Because of the existing database and local degree of knowledge, it is a low- risk activity Longer term research seeks new “giants” at depth and along strike through detailed volcanogenic, structural and geochemical analysis A deep drilling program was initiated in 1984 This year, Giant Yellowknife will spend $1 5 million on exploration, a $1-million increase over last year’s budget

Geologically, gold is intimately associated with arsenopyrite within quartz-carbonate veins and lenses hosted within Archean mafic volcanics Quartz lodes are preferentially deposited in high strain loci along a brittle-ductile transition zone The zone has variable attitude and the lodes have many geometries

Giant has produced in excess of 12 5 million tons (11 4 million tonnes) grading 0 55 oz gold per ton (18 86 g per tonne) The mining rate is 370,000 tons (336,000 tonnes) per year Polaris Commercial production at the western world’s most northerly base metal mine began in 1982 Current reserves stand at 15 million tonnes grading 3 9% lead and 14 4% zinc The mine production rate is 3,000 tonnes per day

Exploration this ye
ar will focus on ore outline drilling from surface to the north of the existing orebody Exploration also will be conducted from surface to the south of the orebody, where drills will test induced polarization targets

The deposit is a carbonate-hosted Mississippi Valley Type lead/zinc orebody

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