ATLANTIC REPORT Coxheath Gold’s first gold pour

Coxheath Gold Holdings (TSE) of Bedford, N.S., made its first gold pour in late June at its Tangier, Halifax Cty., gold property and is now pouring 150 to 160 oz per week from the mill’s bulk test feed. The company has stockpiled 17,000 tonnes of potential ore at surface to use in bulk tests for final confirmation of grade.

The $2 million Coxheath raised recently in a flow-through share offer to NIM Resources will be used to open the south vein system at Tangier, according to company president Michael Riddell. Coxheath had been working on the four north veins on the property, but 70 m away from them to the south are an additional eight veins.

“We’ll be crosscutting on the 4,900-ft level from the main decline to access the south veins for drifting and raising,” says Riddell. “We want to open up the south veins to develop additional tonnage in preparation for full-scale mining.”

Probably ore reserves have been calculated at 235,000 tonnes that are developed underground and 315,300 additional tonnes drill- indicated that are accessible from the underground workings. The average grade of these reserves is 10.3 g/tonne. An additional 1.25 million tonnes grading 9.46 g/tonne are in the possible or geologically inferred category. All of the reserve calculations are from three of the vein systems within the Tangier Main Block to the 200 m level only. All three zones are open along strike in both directions and to depth.

Orleans Resources of Val d’Or, Quebec, has negotiated an option agreement with Hathor Resources, a non-trading Quebec company, by which Orleans can acquire a 50% interest in all of Hathor’s Nova Scotia gold properties, according to Orleans’ President Guy Laperriere.

The agreement requires payment to Hathor in 1988 of $200,000 and 400,000 Orleans treasury shares, as well as $1.7 million in exploration expenditures. During each of the next two years, Hathor will receive payments of $150,000 and 100,000 Orleans treasury shares, and a further $3.3 million in exploration must be done by mid-1990. Hathor also has a 3-year option to acquire 260,000 Orleans common shares.

Orleans’ option covers nine Nova Scotia gold properties: nine claims at Tangier adjacent to Coxheath’s holdings, 76 claims at the Oldham gold district, 149 claims at the Renfrew gold district acquired from Edgar Horne, 96 claims at Liscomb Mills, 96 claims at Sheet Harbour, 62 claims at Ecum Secum, 163 claims at Grant River, 16 claims at Lake Charlotte and 76 claims at the East Rawdon gold district. Tangier and Oldham will be the first exploration targets.

Orleans was incorporated in 1987 in Quebec and holds three grassroots properties in that province. Its shares trade on the Montreal Stock Exchange.

Scotia Prime Resources, a private Halifax-based company 78% owned by Petroco of Texas (ASE), is undergoing a corporate restructuring.

Earlier this year, Petroco shareholders unanimously passed a special resolution that will see Petroco move its head office from Fort Worth to Nova Scotia, change its name to Scotia Prime Minerals, and consolidate Petroco’s capitalization on a 1-for-4 basis, to about 2.2 million shares. Scotia Prime Minerals will then be the main operating company for the Nova Scotia exploration program and will assume Petroco’s Alberta Stock Exchange listing.

Scotia Prime has been having a successful field season despite a modest budget of $600,000, according to company president Craig Miller.

“Drilling results are meeting our objectives and expectations thus far,” says Miller.

The current program at the company’s gold property near Lower Seal Harbour, Guysborough Cty., has been completed. The property produced about 435,000 t grading 0.08 oz/t in six years of operation. That grade is inconsistent with higher grades reported in old assay plans from some of the deeper stopes, according to Miller.

Seven holes totalling 2,850 m were drilled in a joint-venture with Lotus Resources on the mine structure, tracing it to a vertical depth of about 400 m, where zones of intense quartz veining 3 to 10 m wide are still gold-bearing.