NEVADA — Getchell Gold advances Turquoise Ridge mine project

Getchell Gold (GGO-T) is making steady progress in its development work at the underground Turquoise Ridge gold project, situated on the 50-sq.-Mile Getchell property, 35 miles northeast of Winnemucca.

The production hoist and head frame have been completed and sinking of the ventilation shaft is well under way.

Getchell is sinking two shafts at Turquoise Ridge: a 2,250-ft. production shaft designed to hoist up to 4,500 tonnes of ore per day, as well as the 2,050-ft. ventilation shaft. As the full extent of the mineralized body remains undefined, the two shafts are designed to have a hoisting capacity greater than the initial estimated mining rate.

Construction costs are expected to total US$89 million, less than half of which has already been spent.

Startup is earmarked for late 1997, though commercial production will not get under way until the second half of 1998. By then, the mine is expected to be cranking out 2,000 tons per day, rising to 2,700 tons by 1999.

In the recent first quarter, the company conducted exploration drilling in an area immediately south and southeast of Shaft zone.

Probable reserves, minable by underground methods, stand at 4.2 million tons grading 0.342 oz. gold per ton (11.73 grams per tonne), with additional reserves of 3.3 million tons grading 0.400 oz. gold (13.71 grams) in the Shaft Zone.

Turquoise Ridge, formerly the site of open-pit workings, is 1,800 ft.

northeast of the company’s Getchell mine, which, in the first quarter, produced 105,600 tons from underground.

Together, the two mines will provide feed to Getchell’s 3,200-Ton-per-day autoclave mill.

In the first three months of 1997, the mill processed 270,000 tons grading 0.158 oz. per ton. Mill production contributed 36,829 oz. gold in the first quarter of 1997, compared with 36,176 oz. during the same period in 1996.

Forty per cent of the mill feed came from underground ore, 60% from lower-grade, stockpiled material.

For the first quarter, Getchell reported a loss of US$8 million (or US31 cents per share) on revenue of US$14.9 million, compared with a loss of US$1.7 million (US7 cents per share) on US$14.7 million in the same period of 1996.

The company is based in Englewood, Colo.