Armistice tries to copy Kerr mine next door

A 2-3-year shaft-sinking and drilling program is under way here on a gold property optioned by Armistice Resources to determine the existence of ore deposits similar to those on the neighboring Kerr Addison mine property.

The Kerr mine, now operated by Golden Shield Resources, has turned out more than 10 million oz gold from 40 million tons ore since it went into production in 1938. The Kerr reserves are bounded on the west by a fault, and what Armistice hopes to prove conclusively is that there is a down-fault of the structure of about 2,000 ft.

Whereas Kerr mined ore down to 4,000 ft, Armistice is setting up to drill a deep exploration target at depths between 2,000 ft and 6,000 ft with a strike length of about 4,000 ft.

“This one’s a big project,” Meredith Armstrong, Armistice’s exploration project manager, told The Northern Miner during a recent tour of the property.

“It’s not short-term. Just to get down and define an orebody is a 2-year project.”

Estimated cost of the exploration work is $12-$13 million.

The Armistice property, consisting of 34 claims on the Larder Lake Break, has undergone exploration before. According to vice-president Stephen McIntyre, identical rocks to those hosting the ore deposits at Kerr were discovered by limited drilling. Three carbonated zones have been uncovered. Existing shaft

Before the project was abandoned (it never went into production) in 1948, a shaft was sunk to 1,250 ft and levels driven off at 525 ft, 650 ft and 1,250 ft. The dewatering program currently under way is expected to be completed by the end of April and the shaft extended to 4,100 ft by July, 1989. (The shaft may eventually be extended to 6,000 ft). Dynatec Mining has been contracted to do the exploration and development work.

A report prepared by G. M. Hogg & Associates describes the geology of the region: “In essence, sedimentary tuffaceous carbonate rocks, which form the `green carbonate’ of the area, occur in a sharp, paleo- basin structure overlying a series of tholeiitic basalt flows.”

The Hogg report talks in detail about the property and concludes that the Kerr ore structure extension is present on the Armistice claims. “Its character, including the nature and tenor of gold occurrence, is in complete accord with what might be expected under the structural conditions known to exist,” it says of the Kerr extension. Concrete rings

In addition to dewatering the shaft and installing a new hoist and headframe, Dynatec has undertaken the job of converting the two existing 4 1/2 x5 ft timbered compartments into two 6×6 ft concrete- ringed compartments, plus manway. The replacement of the timber with concrete is apparently being watched carefully by a number of other mine operators in northeastern Ontario and northwestern Quebec who may decide to copy the operation.

Widening the compartments will allow for hoisting of twice the tonnage proposed in the 1940s, Armstrong said, indicating Armistice hopes to be able to mine at a rate of 1,500 tons per day.

While two shaft compartments will be in use to the 1,250-ft level, plans call for a third compartment to be built between 1,250 ft and 3,750 ft, and a fourth compartment to be sunk between 3,750 ft and 4,100-ft.

No surface drilling is planned by Armistice; rather, drill stations will be constructed every 400 ft, as the shaft is sunk, to allow for underground drilling.

“The shaft is really to give us access for drilling,” Armstrong said.

The company should have a good indication before the end of 1989 of reserve numbers, Armstrong said. The “worst-case scenario,” he said, is one million tons.

Armstrong, a native of Kirkland Lake, was born into a mining family. His father worked at the Kerr mine for 43 years. He, too, mined at the Kerr site for six years, and has a son currently working at the mill on the old Kerr property.

Armistice plans to fund the above exploration work with flow- through money. A major objective for 1988 is to identify, in the upper levels, a minimum 250,000 tons of reserves grading 0.15 oz gold per ton.

President of Armistice, which trades on the Alberta and Montreal stock exchanges, is R. Russell Martel. Armistice’s holdings incorporate the mining properties of Aurelian Developers of Calgary, an oil and gas company of which Martel is also president.

The Armistice claims are option ed from Sheldon-Larder Mines of Toronto, which is retaining a 24% interest in the property.