Aur sizes up Louvicourt deposit

When The Northern Miner took the 20-minute drive along Hwy. 117 to visit the project, four drill rigs were busily probing beneath the muskeg for extensions of a massive sulphide zone that has already yielded some thick copper-zinc- gold intersections.

Last year, Aur began to sense that a sizeable massive sulphide deposit might lie on the southern portion of the 8,300-acre Louvicourt Twp. property when the company drilled a deep hole beneath the old Louvem copper zinc mine.

“Although Louvem extracted 2.1 million tons before the mine closed down in 1981, there had been hardly any drilling done below the 1,000 ft level,” explained Don Bubar, Aur’s regional exploration manager.

Thinking that the potential could exist for additional massive sulphides at depth, Aur and Louvem spent $1 million to drill a series of deep holes along a favorable horizon about 2,000 ft below surface.

Towards the end of that program, Aur pulled 300 ft of stringer chalcopyrite mineralization in a hole about a mile east of the Louvem mine shaft.

Conclusions reached from that hole led directly to a subsequent $1-million program which has uncovered at least three new massive sulphide lenses. A series of rich intersections hit in holes drilled at 1,000 ft centres put Aur and partner Louvem among the volume leaders on both the Montreal and Toronto exchanges.

Louvem affiliate St. Genevieve Resources (TSE) has also traded heavily on news from Louvicourt Twp.

Based on results of 11 drill holes, Bubar reckons that the joint venture is sitting on between five and 10 million tons of massive sulphide material. All of that mineralization is situated in one or more horizons in an area 1,500 ft long and at a vertical depth of 1,500 ft to 2,000 ft.

But he admits that the tonnage figures have been trotted out to pacify the hordes of mining analysts who are continually evaluating Louvicourt Twp. results from offices in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto.

“Let’s face it, when you have this few holes, its premature to put tonnage numbers on the thing,” said Bubar as he drove along the dirt road that leads from Hwy. 117 into the exploration site. Only 50 holes have been drilled on what is still essentially a grassroots exploration play. Of those holes, 20 have tested the discovery area.

Nevertheless, staff at the Aur Resources exploration office are already talking about an on-site concentrator and executives at Cominco Ltd.’s Vancouver exploration offices were so encouraged by recent results from Val d’Or that Teck Corp. (TSE) and Cominco are taking down 3.3 million Aur common shares at $10.75 each.

After a visual survey of the Louvicourt Twp. drill core, The Northern Miner was able to see why Cominco and Teck have opted to make such a substantial investment.

The Aur discovery has also been a much needed shot in the arm for at least one of Val d’Or’s oldest drilling companies. Benoit Diamond Drilling Ltd. President Annuncio Benoit recently hired 24 drillers to work on the Aur Louvem property. “I’m a lucky man,” chuckled Benoit, referring to the lack of exploration activity in the Val d’Or camp.

Even though a number of companies have picked up properties around the discovery area, the effects of that activity are not expected to be felt until the fall drilling season begins.

“We don’t envision milling to be a problem because of the coarse grain size in the chalcopyrite and sphalerite (minerals that contain copper and zinc),” said Bubar. Even though drill rigs supplied by Benoit Diamond Drilling are sitting on acres of swamp land, erecting a plant isn’t expected to be a problem either.

Further encouragement has also been provided by assays from the latest hole released from the disputed property. Having confirmed the presence of thick sulphide deposits at a vertical depth of 1,455 ft, it also indicated the presence of a second ore horizon 75 ft south of the discovery zone.

Because massive sulphide deposits tend to occur in clusters, Aur is now drilling three step-out drill holes to the east and west of the area to define the limits of the new zone.

Hole 55, for example, is designed to probe between holes 39 and 43. They intersected 65 ft of grade 4.57% zinc and 78 ft of grade 2.75% copper respectively at a vertical depth of between 1,500 ft and 1,750 ft.

Another hole, 53, is being drilled to a depth of 2,300 ft to test for extensions of the zone at depth.

While each machine is drilling at a rate of about 300 ft per day, it isn’t yet known when the next results will be available. Aur is drilling through about 50 ft of overburden and the great depth of the holes has made deviation a significant problem.

“The best potential seems to be at depth right now,” said Aur project geologist Yves Rougerie. “Only time will tell how close it (the massive sulphide mineralization) gets to the surface.”

While the Cominco/Teck agreement could increase Aur’s cash position from about $20 million to over $50 million, Aur vice-president Howard Stockford said any plans for an expanded exploration program will depend on future drill results.

“We may have to extend the current budget in order to delineate the deposit,” he said.

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