Exploration budget doubled at Cheni Gold’s B.C. bet

Site preparation at Cheni Gold Mines’ Lawyers property is on schedule and within budget, says Paul Girard, president. Road access into the Sturdee airstrip was scheduled for completion by the first week in September which will allow access to the mine from Prince George, B.C.

Wright Engineers of Vancouver has confirmed the original flow sheet proposal for the mill and it has been awarded the final design contract. No metallurgical problems have arisen since the initial test work, he notes.

The company’s 1987 exploration budget for the property has been doubled to $1 million and the program to expand the reserves “is encouraging,” he claims. The increase will allow for approximately 36,000 ft of drilling. To date, 20,340 ft of drilling in 34 holes has been completed in the Cliff Creek zone. Another 328,000 tons of drill- indicated reserves grading 0.164 oz gold and 9.4 oz silver were added to inventory, he states.

The Cliff Creek zone, which extends more that 1,050 ft vertically and some 1,300 ft horizontally, is still open to depth and along strike. Delineation drilling of the zone should be completed by mid- October. Underground drilling to test the depth extension of the agb zone will be carried out with underground development scheduled for late October. The haulage adit for the agb zone has already been collared.

Diamond drilling has been completed on two groups of claims in the general area of the Lawyers property and also on a third group. Ten holes were completed totalling 6,100 ft. Results indicate a potential zone of magnetite skarn with low grade gold values in one group.

Preliminary on-site assay analysis from hole 87-A-3 returned values in two parallel zones less than 30 ft apart. These values included 0.123 oz gold over 26.9 ft and 0.062 oz over 49.9 ft with minor silver values, he points out.