Wayside drilling continues

Underground drilling at the Wayside mine near Goldbridge, B.C., is continuing in an effort to test the former producer’s future potential.

Joint venture partners Wayside Gold Mines (VSE) and Brigadier Resources (VSE) completed an underground rehabilitation and dewatering program last year to provide access to the mine’s deepest level.

Previous operators developed the mine on nine main levels into a hillside above Carpenter Lake with the lowest and 9 level about 550 ft. below the bottom of the lake.

The Wayside mine operated sporadically between 1906 and 1952 when a fire permanently closed the operation.

Production from the nine levels totalled more than 5,500 oz. gold during the period, from quartz veins and shear structures that the joint venture describes as similar to those seen at the Bralorne and Pioneer deposits to the south.

The current underground drilling program is testing the Main zone below the 9 level as well as further testing the Notman vein, a parallel structure about 100 ft. into the hangingwall of the Main zone.

Drilling by Chevron in 1987 intersected the projected trace of the Notman 350 ft. below the 5 level at an elevation of 50 ft. below the 9 level. The hole intersected 1.84 oz. gold over 28 ft.

Wayside recently completed seven underground holes, all of which intersected the Notman, although assay results have not yet been released. Surface drilling at the end of 1991 by Wayside traced the Main zone to about 300 ft. below the 9 level. The company estimates the downdip extension adds at least 50,000 tons, although the precious metal values of the intersections were all relatively low grade. The estimate is based on an average width of about 10 ft. over 200 ft. of strike.

Frank Callaghan, president of Wayside, said the joint venture hopes to encounter higher grades at depth.

As part of the current drilling program, the company plans to drill a number of holes down the Main vein from the 9 level to further test the structure’s grade.

Additional drilling is also planned from the 5 level to further test the Notman vein.

Wayside and Brigadier are well funded for the program, with the recent completion of unit placements at 95 cents to raise an aggregate of about $400,000.

The joint venture has also identified a number of other targets on the property including an outcrop of massive sulphide mineralization grading about 0.25 oz. gold, 0.10 oz. silver, 2% copper and 3% zinc.