Metanor buys Bachelor Lake mine

For $2.3 million in cash, Montreal-based junior Metanor Resources (MTO-V) has bought a 100% interest in the formerly producing Bachelor Lake gold mine in Quebec from miner Campbell Resources (CCH-T).

Situated on 18.3 sq. km in Quebec’s Lesueur Twp., 220 km northeast of Val d’Or, the Bachelor Lake project consists of 50 claims and two mining concessions that host 523,075 tons of measured and indicated resources grading 0.233 oz. gold per ton (474,000 tonnes of 8 grams gold per tonne).

A 500-ton per day mill with a cyanidation plant and crusher room is on site, as is a tailings facility.

Campbell acquired Bachelor Lake three years ago through its merger with sister company GeoNova Explorations, which had bought the mine a few months earlier from the paper-products company Ced-Or (COQ-T).

The gold deposit was mined from 1982 to 1989 by a company named Bachelor Lake Gold Mines, which Espalau Mining acquired in 1994. Espalau changed its name to Ced-Or in 1999.

Bachelor Lake Gold Mines produced 958,360 tons averaging 0.15 oz. per ton, and the operation reached a depth of 1,723 ft. Mining dilution is estimated at 34-55%.

Results obtained from drilling an exploration drift at the bottom of the mine in 1990 suggested that the Main vein was richer and wider at depth. The holes also cut a parallel gold zone, dubbed the B vein. Both zones remain open at depth and along strike.

These holes returned up to 0.504 oz. gold per ton over 12.5 ft. from the Main vein, and up to 0.6 oz. over 10 ft. in the B vein.

Metanor’s purchase of Bachelor Lake is subject to a pre-existing agreement, struck in the summer of 2003, with senior explorer Wolfden Resources (WLF-T). The latter has an option to acquire a half-interest in the project by spending $3 million on exploration over two years and making certain additional, small share issuances or cash payments.

Wolfden personnel are now at the Bachelor Lake site dewatering the shaft.

“We’re going to follow up on some deep intercepts beneath the old mine workings,” says Wolfden President Ewan Downie. “One of the deepest holes returned 0.33 oz. per ton across 81.7 feet — that’s the first area we’ll be targeting in a drill program in early 2005.”

With a recent $25.7-million financing under its belt, Wolfden has more than $43 million in the bank, though the figure could exceed $60 million if warrants and options are exercised.

“We are fully financed to take our primary project [the High Lake polymetallic and Ulu gold properties in Nunavut] to full feasibility,” says Downie, who notes that Wolfden “is one of North America’s most-active exploration companies.”

Wolfden and its partners will be spending well over $30 million this year on seven ongoing projects in Canada, where 11 drills are now in operation.

“Wolfden is one of the few companies in the market that provides leverage to both gold and base metal deposits,” says Downie, who adds that the company is evolving from exploration to production.

Led by President Serge Roy, Metanor had its initial public offering in December 2003; at the time, its key property was the 4.3-sq.-km Dubuisson property, situated within the city limits of Val-d’Or, Que., some 3 km north of the Cadillac tectonic fault.

Metanor describes the property as being near the geological limits of the Superior province and defined by a stacking of mafic volcanic rocks in contact with the southwestern edge of the Bourlamaque batholith.

Past exploration efforts at Dubuisson had been limited to the Stabell vein, which was the object of underground development and subsequent small-scale commercial production. Production figures from 1933 to 1937 stand at 64,850 tonnes grading 7.2 grams gold for a total of 15,000 oz. gold.

In 2001 and 2002 at Dubuisson, Metanor carried out surface stripping that led to the discovery of the no. 5 vein structure, which has now been exposed, mapped and channel-sampled for a strike length of about 250 metres.

Metanor spent more than $770,000 exploring the property between June 2001 and June 2003, during which time it collared 43 diamond drill holes, totalling 5,838 metres, on the no. 5 vein.

Metanor is also exploring for gold, nickel and cobalt at its Wahnapitei property in Ontario’s Sudbury camp, in the northeastern extension of the Sudbury Basin and less than 5 km northeast of Falconbridge’s Nickel Rim South deposit.

For its part, Campbell is producing gold at the Joe Mann mine, near Chibougamau, Que., and is set to resume copper and gold production this December at the nearby Copper Rand mine.

Campbell is also carrying out definition drilling on the former-producing Corner Bay property, adjacent to Copper Rand, and will soon resume drilling on its Meston property.