Miramar drill results from Hope Bay

Miramar Mining (MAE-T, MNG-X) issued its first results from the 2006 exploration program at its Hope Bay Project in Nunavut.

The program’s intent is to expand and upgrade resources and to try to extend the Madrid system in an effort to determine if a large pit is feasible.

Highlights of the program include 29.8 metres grading 13.4 grams gold per tonne, 18.1 metres grading 8.5 grams gold, and 21.3 metres grading 7.1 grams gold per tonne.

In Toronto on May 25, the company’s shares were up 4.7% or 17 to $3.80 on roughly 820,000 shares.

The company is trying to define a second phase of production at Hope Bay for 2006. The first phase — Doris North — is now in the permitting process.

When its feasibility study is complete, the company says it plans to have a resource defined that can produce 250,000 to 300,000 oz. of gold annually. That would be taken from Doris Central and the upper parts of Madrid and Boston.

Tony Walsh, Miramar’s president and chief executive, says improved continuity and tighter drill density will have a positive impact on the 2006 feasibility and economic studies. Also, linking the zones at Madrid will have a significant impact on production on the Hope Bay belt.

Walsh also said if the limits of mineralization are widened that open pit mining could become an option.

Miramar says the key to its large pit concept is proving the continuity of mineralization in the northern most 2.3 km of the Madrid trend which includes the Naartok, Rand and Suluk deposits.

The company says it has had success over the past three years as it has established the area as the new “center of gravity” for the Hope Bay belt with roughly two thirds of the current total resource on the belt occurring along the trend.