Queenston tallies Upper Beaver resource

Queenston Mining (QMI-T, QNMNF-o) staked its claims in Canada’s second-largest gold camp early and often — a strategy that has given it the biggest land position in the Kirkland Lake district of northern Ontario.

With roughly 27 sq. km of land, 90% of which is wholly owned, Queenston is zeroing in on four deposits clustered in Gauthier Twp., in the eastern portion of the Kirkland Lake gold camp.

Its key property, however, is Upper Beaver. It’s a former mine that turned out 140,000 oz. gold and 11.9 million lbs. copper over about 50 years off and on before closing in 1972.

The first resource estimate for Upper Beaver was released in September, factoring in three years of work and 97,000 metres of drilling.

The deposit has an indicated resource of 1.37 million tonnes grading 8.5 grams gold per tonne (capped) totalling 375,000 oz. gold, along with a grade of 0.43% copper.

Inferred resources total 1.06 million tonnes grading 7.7 grams gold per tonne and 0.3% copper for 262,800 oz. gold.

Queenston says the results point to potential for further expansion of the deposit, which is open to the east, west and at depth.

With enough drilling completed for the estimate, Queenston has turned its attention to greater depths. The company is finishing up a drill program aimed at testing geophysical anomalies below the known Upper Beaver deposit. Seven of the planned nine holes have been drilled with assay results pending.

The deeper drilling is being complemented by metallurgical studies on ore from the upper deposit. Previously tested ore had historical recovery rates of 94% for gold and 95% for copper.

All the activity at the project is putting Queenston into a strong development position, and the company says it will soon begin work on completing a prefeasibility study.

The nearby Anoki deposit also has a National Instrument (NI) 43- 101-compliant resource estimate. Measured and indicated resources stand at 522,000 tonnes grading 5.7 grams per tonne for roughly 105,000 oz., while inferred resources are pegged at 142,000 tonnes grading 6.3 grams gold for 32,000 oz.

In the mid-1990s, Anoki saw development work by Queenston and Inco that included a ramp, shaft and five levels of underground infrastructure. The companies were working towards bringing the project into production before collapsing gold prices forced them to pull back.

Roughly 500 metres north of Anoki lies the McBean deposit, a past-producing open-pit mine that turned out roughly 50,000 oz. gold and has a historical resource estimate of 835,000 tonnes grading 5.1 grams for 150,000 oz.

Queenston has been drilling the deposit this year, and plans to have an NI 43-101 resource finished by the end of the calendar year.

Together, the Anoki-McBean deposits are subject to a 2% net smelter return royalty (NSR) to Franco-Nevada (FNV-t) and a 1.3% royalty to Vale (RIO-n) after the production of 300,000 oz. gold.

Next in the order of priority for Queenston is the Upper Canada project, another past-producer that yielded roughly 1.5 million oz. being tween 1936 and 1972. Still in the ground is a historic resource of 1.9 million tonnes grading 6.9 grams gold.

Queenston plans to launch a diamond- drill program at the project before the fourth quarter.

In all, the company’s Kirkland Lake gold camp properties have historic resources of 3 million tonnes grading 6.1 grams gold and 4.6 million tonnes grading 5.4 grams.

At the Cadillac gold camp, the company has 3.7 million tonnes grading 4.8 grams gold for 500,000 oz. of historical resources.

Queenston has roughly 53 million shares outstanding and its shares have traded between $1.49 and $3.83 over the last 52 weeks.