Hemlo starts drilling Pukaskwa property in Mishibishu area

The property is about 40 miles west of Wawa on the western end of the Mishibishu greenstone belt which hosts the producing Magnacon gold mine.

Mishibishu Gold President Ronald Philp said a permanent winter camp has been established on the 371-claim Pukaskwa property by project operator Hemlo Gold.

Initial drilling on the fly-in project will focus on the Champagne vein, where earlier surface sampling yielded values up to 0.47 oz gold per ton across an average width of 4.9 ft for a length of 705 ft.

A program of surface trenching and stripping was completed earlier this fall which traced the gold- bearing vein structure for a distance of up to 7,546 ft along strike, Philp said.

Also outlined during the 1989 summer program were several other gold-bearing structures, some of which are up to five miles away from the Champagne vein where drilling is under way.

Another quartz stringer showing, called the Aardvark zone, returned gold values up to 0.85 oz gold per ton in grab samples. Situated five miles from the area of current drilling, the Aardvark stringer zone varies in width from 3.3 ft to 16.4 ft, and has been traced along strike for 984 ft, said Philp.

In a third area, 1.2 miles east of the main Champagne vein, a series of three sub-parallel gold-quartz veins have been sampled. Erratic gold values varying up to 0.21 oz across 3.3 ft are reported from initial sampling.

The current diamond drilling program is proceeding initially with one machine, but could be expanded depending on the results obtained. The joint venture partners have recently expanded the size of the Pukaskwa River propert y to 371 claims, an increase of more than 30% from the 274 claims reported a few months ago. Under new terms, which include the additional claim blocks, Hemlo Gold may earn a 51% interest in the property by making cash payments totalling $1.625 million and exploration expenditures of $6.777 million over a 4-year period.

In June of 1988, an earlier agreement gave Hemlo Gold the right to earn a 51% interest in the property by making cash payments totalling $1.2 million and spending $5 million on exploration over four years.

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