Drilling starts on Great Lakes’s bet

Joint venture partners Great Lakes Minerals (TSE) and Michigan Mining have begun an 8,000-ft drill program on their Keweenaw copper project in northern Michigan. The property is situated about 80 miles east of Metall Mining’s (TSE) White Pine copper smelter. Great Lake’s objective is to upgrade the known copper reserves and confirm drilling results obtained by the property’s previous owners.

In the 1970s, Inco (TSE) and Homestake Mining (NYSE) outlined probable reserves of 3.1 million tons grading 2.9% copper in the main sulphide deposit as well as another 520,000 tons grading 4% copper in a second zone located 10 miles to the east. The mineralization occurs as chalcocite, a high- grading copper mineral, with most of the reserves located above 500 ft.

Drilling will also examine a third native copper deposit which hosts low-grade open pit reserves of 8 million tons grading 0.8% copper per ton. The Great Lakes program will also include metallurgical testing.