Cash flow from Zeballos seen soon

Cash flow is expected this summer from New Privateer Mines’ Zeballos gold property on Vancouver Island. In the annual report Harvey H. Cohen, president, says that initial mill feed will be taken from several stopes developed along the No 3 vein structure.

He confirms that widths and grades encountered there are comparable to that mined during the period 1937-38 when the operation produced more than 168,000 oz gold from 166,000 tons of ore. The company is installing a 100-ton- per-day gravity mill which he says “will provide us with the metallurgical information necessary in the construction of a possible full-scale gravity and flotation mill.”

The equipment was purchased secondhand and has been refurbished on site. The gravity concentrator is expected to recover 70%-80% of the gold and silver depending on head grades. A full- scale milling operation would probably include a flotation circuit which would increase over-all recoveries to an estimated 95%, he says.

The depth potential of the mine will be assessed by driving a lower level adit due north of the main mine workings. Eventually, a decline will be advanced from this tunnel to the flooded lower levels of the New Privateer min e. The new adit will be used to explore the southern portion of the mine.

Proven reserves for the Privateer and Prident orebodies are 135,000 tons averaging 0.27 oz gold per ton. But Mr Cohen notes that a 1980 engineering report lists probable reserves of 358,000 tons averaging 0.44 oz gold.

The company’s 1,100-acre holdings in the Zeballos area include the Privateer, Prident, Van Island and Zeballos Pacific mines. So far, at least five veins have been identified in the Privateer and 11 veins in the Prident. The average grade of New Privateer ore was 1.1 oz and 0.55 oz gold for the Prident.

Mr Cohen says the extension to the No 3 vein discovered two years ago has been followed for a total distance of 700 ft. High grade material was mined and sacked by hand for direct shipping purposes. But most of the drift muck was shipped to the low grade stockpile.

Seven 100-ft-long stopes were developed in the vein for mill feed purposes. Claiming that old workings were never mined out, Mr Cohen notes that the main 1,100 haulageway was developed along an ore grade vein, only a portion of which was extracted.

New Privateer will be exploring its holdings in the area through drilling and underground exploration. There are more than 20 veins to explore and he says the company is in a position to “fully exploit the tremendous potential of this valuable gold area.”