Newhawk/Granduc plan $5.2-million program for Sulphurets bet

Now that summer has come to northwestern British Columbia bringing with it long days and a snow-free countryside, Newhawk Gold Mines (TSE) has made surface work part of its Phase II program now under way on the Sulphurets property near Stewart. The gold-silver project, which could see production in 1989, is a joint venture between Newhawk (60%) and Granduc Mines (40%).

The new $5.2-million program will continue ongoing underground exploration work on the West zone, along with surface work to investigate the zone’s extensions and to investigate other known zones within the Brucejack area of the property.

Fred Hewett, P.Eng., vice-president, said that an evaluation program, to be conducted independently from the major program, will also be undertaken to assess numerous gold and silver occurrences identified in the past in other areas of the large 33-sq-mile property.

“Previous operators had documented at least 18 known occurrences which we’ve never had the time to even look at,” he said.

Although the Sulphurets project already has a comfortable mineral inventory of just over two million tons of 0.462 oz gold and 21.78 oz silver per ton from three zones found within the Brucejack area, Newhawk sees the large property as having potential for new discoveries and expansion of reserves.

The company’s recently completed Phase I program, designed to define the geological picture necessary for mining reserve estimates, was focused on the West zone which has a reported mineral inventory of 1.5 million tons of 0.506 oz gold and 20.17 oz silver. These reserves, as calculated by American Mine Services earlier this year, include 300,151 tons of 0.516 oz gold and 28.28 oz silver in the proven category.

Newhawk recently drilled two surface holes to depths of approximately 1,900 ft to determine if the geological structure of the West zone extends to greater depth. The company says both holes intersected the structure, and assays are expected shortly.

The ongoing underground exploration of the West zone will include extending a level to prepare for underground drilling and advancing the decline to the 1,250 level (approximately 650 ft from surface).

The surface component of the program will include detailed mapping and investigation of the 5.9 vein to the south of the West zone, as well as investigating the zone’s northern extension. Newhawk plans to do surface mapping and trenching on the Shore zone in order to extend the areas of known mineralization and to gain a better understanding of ore controls before undertaking underground development.

The company also plans to conduct intensive surface geology to establish the potential of the Gossan Hill zone located about 230 ft from the West zone. Newhawk hopes to expand the zones’s drill- indicated mineral inventory of 27,000 tons at an average grade of 1.94 oz gold.

Upon completion of the present program in late October, Newhawk expects it will have completed a comprehensive pre-feasibility study, including environmental, metallurgical and other related studies in preparation for the full feasibility study scheduled to begin at the end of the present program.

Progress has also been made to upgrade the project’s accessibility. Road work, under way since April on a 21-km section of the road from Bowser Lake to the Knipple camp, will continue in order to complete this section and begin construction of a section along Brucejack Lake.