Acadian leaves no rock unturned

In addition to its interests in zinc, Acadian Mining (ADA-T, ADAIF-O) is the dominant player in Nova Scotia’s goldfields, controlling four advanced gold projects: Beaver Dam, Forest Hill, Tangier and Goldenville.

The four projects combined hold a National Instrument (NI) 43-101-compliant resource of 626,000 oz. gold in the measured and indicated categories and 909,000 oz. gold inferred.

Of the four projects, one is an open pit and the remaining three are underground mines. Acadian wants to pursue a multiple mine, central processing, managing and servicing strategy.

Management envisions building a central mill at Beaver Dam that would process 3,000 tonnes per day and ideally produce about 50,000 oz. gold a year. Ore would be trucked 150 km from Forest Hill, 100 km from Goldenville, and 40 km from Tangier.

“Forest Hill, Goldenville and Tangier all have shafts and declines, so we can get them up and running fairly quickly,” says Terry Coughlan, Acadian vice-president and director.

The company has completed six deep drill holes to 650 metres at Beaver Dam. Drill holes of note included hole 134, which intersected 6 metres of 13.87 grams gold per tonne including 2 metres of 33.28 grams gold, and hole 137, which intersected 4 metres of 10.54 grams gold.

Acadian will begin a prefeasibility study in the fourth quarter of this year and a scoping study should be completed by December. It hopes to start permitting in the first quarter of 2008.

Acadian also owns the largest in situ barite deposit in Atlantic Canada. It has an estimated 1.7 million tonnes of contained barite near the surface and it’s high-grade, Coughlan says.

“We picked it up for $300 because the people hadn’t renewed their claim and we got it the next day. It fell in our lap.”

The company also holds a 44.42% equity interest in Royal Roads (rro-v). That company’s principal asset is a 161-sq.-km parcel of land known as the Tulks North property, which is strategically located in the centre of the world-class Buchans base metal camp in central Newfoundland.

Royal Roads’ Tulks North property is host to the Daniels Pond deposit, which was discovered by BP Resources Canada in 1989. It has an inferred resource of 1.69 million tonnes grading 0.57% copper, 4.4% lead, 8.37% zinc, 196.9 grams silver per tonne and 0.68 gram gold over an average width of 4.2 metres.

Royal Roads has started drilling at Daniels Pond to try to upgrade its numbers from inferred to indicated; Warren McLeod, president of Royal Roads and Buchans River, says he hopes to have an NI 43-101-compliant resource ready sometime next year.

Royal Roads holds a 34.05% equity interest in Buchans River (BUV-V, BCHRF-O), which also holds a prospective property portfolio of 134 sq. km in the Buchans camp, and the Buchans mine. Acadian’s indirect interest in Buchans River is 15.13%.

Between 1928 and 1984, the Buchans mine produced about 16.2 million tonnes of combined metals grading 14.5% zinc, 1.33% copper, 7.56% lead, 126 grams silver per tonne and 1.37 grams gold.

“It was one of the richest VMS deposits in the world, right up there with the Rosemary mine in Australia,” McLeod says. “They were unbelievable numbers.”

Currently, Buchans River is systematically reviewing and compiling historical data on the property into a digital database and starting four exploration programs. Before the end of this year, it hopes to complete a Quantec Titan 24 geophysics survey looking for high-grade volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits at depths of 250 metres to 1,500 metres. In January, it is scheduled to drill on targets identified in the Titan 24 survey.

It is also drilling 4,000 metres in eight holes that were prioritized by Billiton Canada in 2000. (The company pulled out of Newfoundland before drilling began.) That drilling is expected to be complete before year-end. Finally, Buchans River will drill a minimum of 4,000 metres on its Lundberg zone with a view to identifying an NI 43-101-compliant resource located at surface beneath the mine’s old headframe.

Coughlan says the company plans to start drilling before the end of October on the Billiton targets.

The Lundberg zone has the potential to become an open-pit bulk-tonnage deposit. It has a historic resource of 11.8 million tonnes grading 1.83% zinc, 0.38% copper, 0.67% lead, 5.5 grams silver per tonne and trace gold.

“They built the mine right on top of the mineralization,” MacLeod says. “There aren’t many people who can plant themselves on top of a historical deposit and use new technology to look deeper than has ever been looked before.”