Mishi Lake get $2.8 million to expand

Granges President, Mike Muzylowski, feels a target production rate of 2,000 tons per day is achievable and he concedes “we are lifting our sights all the time because we are finding more gold.”

A few months ago the joint venture concluded an agreement with Muscocho Explorations (TSE) to mill up to 200 tons per day of open pit ore at its Magnacon mill. Muzylowski predicted they could handle production at lower rates utilizing the Magnacon mill and he concluded using that facility “would be a good pilot test at the very worst.” Their two ore types appear to be compatible despite localized variances in the respective orebodies.

Four discoveries have been made to the west of the Granges/MacMillan main zone and he says they are all shallow and potentially mineable by open pit. There seems to be a downward gradation to the zone and Muzylowski feels they are on the downthrust of a major fault between the Muscocho and Mishi deposits.

“We are going to step down and do some deep drilling in addition to the surface program because we still believe there is bonanza stuff down there.” The deepest hole to date is over 1,400 ft vertical and the joint venture hopes to cut the 2,000 ft level at a later date. The structure was very strong at this depth and he emphasizes that “those Archean things in Ontario are deep-seated and we certainly want to test some deep horizons.

“But we want to drill the hole where we think the best chances are. You do that step-by-step from surface and then take some long step-outs down the dip and down the plunge,” he notes.

Muzylowski estimates they have over two million tons of “reserves” at present but he emphasizes they would like to have at least four million tons before making a production decision. “We are looking to expand that tonnage quite a lot over the next few months, hopefully to 4-5 million before spring.

“If we can get a little higher grade, 2,000 tons per day is not as important,” he emphasizes, adding that they could probably do it with 1,200 tons per day or less. Several bulk samples are being extracted to get some idea of “where the nugget effect is taking us,” he adds.

An initial reserve calculation along 1,300 ft of strike established an open pit reserve of 760,000 tons averaging 0.098 oz gold. The proposed open pit is adjacent to an underground zone where reserves have been estimated at 1.1 million tons grading 0.17 oz gold.

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