Underground exploration at the snip gold project in northwestern British Columbia should begin sometime in February, says Cominco Ltd., the operator. Delaware Resources will fund the $4.5-million program which is scheduled for completion by August.
Bill Wolfe, Cominco’s exploration manager for western Canada, confirms they are “walking in some equipment and are clearing the portal site” which has yet to be collared. “It will probably be the middle of February at least before that happens,” he estimates.
Drilling is scheduled underground as soon as possible and the company is “planning to develop a few drill subs while driving towards ore,” he adds. The purpose of the program is to test for down-dip extensions to see if the vein extends to the 150 level.
Wolf emphasizes the next six months will be critical, adding that “if we find what we hope is there we should be in good shape to go for early production on it. That’s what we are working towards.”
The underground program will include about 1,300 ft of adit, 650 ft of crosscutting, 650 ft of raising, and approximately 15,000 ft of underground drilling. A preliminary economic assessment will be prepared after the work is completed which could be sufficient to proceed with production.
At the end of the program, Delaware will have spent approximately $8 million on the project; Cominco can back in for a 60% interest by agreeing to fund two times Delaware’s exploration expenditures when a production decision is announced.
Inferred reserves are currently 1.2 million tons grading 0.75 oz gold which works out to about 800,000 oz of recoverable gold. The reserve inventory is thought to be conservative and there were no blank holes within the zone which could easily continue to depth. Topographic constraints prevented further testing of the ore horizon at depth from which some impressive values were reported.
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