EXPLORATION 1998 — Maude Lake to acquire stake in Comtois

A signed agreement with Cameco (CCO-T) allows Maude Lake Exploration (Mau-M) to acquire a 50% interest in the 4,222-ha Comtois property, 20 km from Lebel-sur-Quvillon, Que.

The Val d’Or-based junior can earn the interest in the large land package by spending $2 million on exploration over a 4-year period. The company is already active in the region, where it owns a 280-ha property.

The Comtois property lies within a regional belt of felsic volcanics with potential for hosting gold and base metal mineralization.

Maude Lake primarily is interested in the gold-bearing Osborne zone, which contains mineralized lenses that have been traced by drilling for over 1 km, to a depth of 400 metres. Results from Cameco’s past work on this target include 2.6 metres grading 30.5 grams gold per tonne, 4.8 metres of 7.7 grams, 9.2 metres of 9.76 grams and 3.2 metres of 10.02 grams. Drilling 2 km north of the Osborne zone yielded a 2-metre intersection grading 4.3 grams.

The company plans to carry out a tighly spaced drill program that will target the best intersections from the Osborne zone. Geophysical programs also are planned.

Maude Lake holds, or has options to buy, eight properties in northwestern Quebec and northeastern Ontario. Its latest acquisition is the Baden property near Matachewan, Ont. To earn a 100% interest, the company must spend $650,000 on exploration, issue 200,000 shares and pay $135,00 over a 3-year period.

The Baden property is intersected by a major shear zone, which hosts significant gold mineralization exposed in trenches for 180 metres. The mineralization consists of disseminated pyrite, accompanied by quartz veins in an iron and chlorite carbonate schist, locally injected by altered syenitic intrusions.

Samples collected along this exposure returned grades up to 17 grams gold over 2.1 metres, 8.6 grams over 1.2 metres and 1.7 grams over 9.1 metres.

Maude Lake notes that the mineralized shear disappears below overburden to the east and west, and represents an unexplored potential target of 3 km.

Maude Lake plans to spend $200,000 this year on mapping, geophysical programs and other work aimed at better defining drill targets. McWatters Mining

(MCW-M), which operates two gold mines in northwestern Quebec, holds a 21% interest in Maude Lake.