50,000 oz gold a year is new Queenston target

A minimum production target of 50,000 oz gold a year has been set by Queenston Gold Mines (TSE), for about the fall of 1990, when the company reaches its 50th birthday, shareholders were told at the company’s well-attended annual meeting.

“That’s a realistic target, too,” Chairman Hugh Harbinson assured The Northern Miner following the meeting.

He began the meeting by announcing that Queenston, HSK Minerals (TSE) and Joutel Resources (TSE), the latter two holding a 40.6% total interest in Queenston, will form a new mining group, to be known as the Queenston Group.

Harbinson bases his confidence in the gold production forecast on expectations from a number of major exploration projects now under way by Queenston, in partnership with three senior Canadian mining companies — Lac Minerals (TSE), Inco Gold, and American Barrick Resources Corp.(TSE).

Senior officials from all three companies were on hand to give the meeting an update on each of the gold joint ventures, which include a Lac/Queenston program on the promising Kirkland Lake West gold property, the Barrick/ Queenston project on the Pandora mine property in Cadillac Twp., Que. and the Anoki joint venture with Inco Gold, also in the Kirkland Lake area.

Harbinson told shareholders that in addition to Inco Gold’s involvement in the Anoki project, Inco is also negotiating with Queenston to option the latter’s Upper Canada property.

An agreement on this is expected within the next few weeks, according to Queenston secretary and treasurer Roderick Chisholm.

Lac will spend some $1.5 million on the Kirkland Lake West property, which is adjacent to the western boundary of Lac’s producing Macassa mine.

Lac will undertake an underground program on the Kirkland Lake West project, consisting of a minimum of 5,000 ft of drifting on three levels together with a minimum of 15,000 ft of underground drilling. Gerald Gauthier, Lac senior vice-president operations, told the meeting this program should start within the next 2-3 months.

The Anoki project is on schedule and on target, Harbinson said, with Inco Gold carrying out a $7- million underground program which is expected to be completed this summer. A production decision would follow.

Richard Worsfold, Inco Gold director exploration, Canada, said serious exploration has just begun at the Anoki project, to substantiate tonnage and grades. He said the company is “very pleased” that gold grades are standing up to those calculated from previous drilling on the property. The present program should be completed by the end of this summer, he said.

On the Pandora mine property in Cadillac Twp., joint venture partner American Barrick reported recently (N.M., April 18/88) further encouraging drill results, with nine out of 15 holes drilled on the eastern sector of the property intersecting ore quality mineralization over 5 ft to 94 ft true thickness, grading 0.12 oz to 0.17 oz gold per ton.

At the Queenston meeting, Barrick vice-president exploration, Paul Kavanagh, said the current 17,000-ft drill program on the Pandora should be completed by about the end of July, when, he said “we should be looking for probable ore potential, rather than possible.”

Harbinson told shareholders Queenston’s financial base, debt- free and with working capital of $2.5 million, “will facilitate achievement of our new objectives.”