A major underground program is planned at Black Swan Gold Mines’ Merriland project in Queensland, Australia. In the past two years drilling has outlined a reserve of 110,000 tons grading 0.35 oz gold in the Welcome Lode deposit.
President Arthur Fisher says the company has also applied for a mining lease which is a prerequisite to production. This should be in place by April, at which time the $500,000(A) underground program will commence. In the meantime, several vein structures identified previously by geophysics in the southeastern portion of the property will be drilled.
Numerous old mine workings exist in the area and the drill program will cost about $100,000. Fisher says the Welcome lode exhibits an extreme nugget effect which has made it difficult to accurately determine grades. Bulk sampling should alleviate this problem and in the process the orebody will be prepared for production.
Prospectors using metal detectors have found nuggets on surface weighing several ounces and high grade pockets occur at depth as well, Fisher notes. “Dependent upon results of the exploration programs, it is anticipated that the Merriland project could be brought into production by late 1988.”
Black Swan has a 60% interest in the project while joint venture partners Golden Pyramid Resources and Aurelia Resources (an Australian company) each have 20%. Black Swan has received approval to list its shares on the Sydney Stock Exchange where trading will begin Dec 17. Pan Australian Mining, which has a gold property near the Merriland project, holds approximately 1.6 million Black Swan shares.
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