VANCOUVER — Claude Resources (CRJ-T, CGR-X) has hit long intercepts of near-surface gold and silver at its Amisk gold project and high-grade drill results at its operating Seabee gold mine, both in northeastern Saskatchewan.
The company has a 65% working interest in the 120-sq.-km Amisk project, which lies about 20 km southwest of Flin Flon, Man., while joint-venture partner St. Eugene Mining (SEM-V) holds the rest.
The 2010 winter drill program included 2,300 metres of drilling over 11 holes with all hitting mineralization. The company, however, knows the property well, having completed 18,000 metres of drilling between 1997 and 1999.
The latest drilling tested from surface to roughly 300 metres depth. So far, the company has tested a strike length of 550 metres, with the system still open to the west, southwest and downdip to the northeast.
Hole 281 cut 161.9 metres grading 1.29 grams gold per tonne and 8 grams silver per tonne from 87 metres depth. Hole 277 hit 237.4 metres carrying 0.98 gram gold and 8.5 grams silver from 23 metres downhole and included 3 metres of 13.29 grams gold. Hole 279 intersected 119.1 metres carrying 0.92 gram gold and 5.1 grams silver from 10 metres downhole.
The company reported some early results from the program in May, including 86.7 metres averaging 1.03 grams gold and 6 grams silver and 34.9 metres grading 2.91 grams gold and 4.3 grams silver, both starting 11 metres downhole.
The site saw extensive work by previous owner Cameco (CCO-T, CCJ-N) in the 1980s, which included underground bulk sampling and a calculated historic reserve.
Claude first optioned the property in 1995 and spent roughly $3.4 million on it to earn a 35% stake from Cameco and Husky Energy (HSE-T) by 1999. Over the past decade, the company did minor sampling and maintenance work at the site, but only late last year did it decide to re-evaluate the potential of the property. In early 2010, Claude acquired the rest of the property interests from Cameco and Husky and soon after entered into a joint venture with St. Eugene.
The Amisk-Laurel gold zone, where current exploration is focused, is hosted within a rhyolite flow-dome complex and overlying pyroclastic tuffs and flows. Mineralization is hosted within a series of moderate to shallow-dipping sulphide vein systems.
The company plans further diamond drilling for the coming weeks as well as re-sampling of historic core. Historic drill results include 79 metres grading 5.41 grams gold and 46.4 grams silver, 196.8 metres carrying 2.09 grams gold and 7.6 grams silver and 10.5 metres averaging 8.82 grams gold and 24.4 grams silver.
Claude also recently released high-grade hits at its wholly-owned Seabee mine. The underground drill program was conducted to better define the mineralization and allow better head grades to be delivered to the mill.
Results, reported as true widths, include 4.3 metres grading 46.06 grams gold uncut and 17.96 grams gold cut in hole 631, 6.3 metres carrying 15.9 grams gold uncut and 9.89 grams cut in hole 629, and 2.1 metres averaging 39.27 grams gold uncut and 24.14 grams cut in hole 632.
Claude recently received the final operating permit needed for Santoy 8, a satellite deposit 14 km east of the mine and mill, with pro-duction expected by the first quarter of 2011. Santoy 8 contains reserves of 177,300 tonnes grading 7.02 grams gold.
Recent drill results from Santoy 8 include 3.6 metres carrying 15.06 grams gold from 125 metres depth, 3.8 metres averaging 11.23 grams gold from 161 metres downhole and 4.2 metres grading 5.52 grams gold from 146 metres.
The company recently arranged to sell the majority of its oil and natural gas assets for $6.2 million to an unnamed private Canadian company.
At presstime, Claude’s shares closed at $1.16. The company has a 52-week trading band of 61¢-$1.46 and 131 million shares outstanding.
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