Partners boost resource at Meliadine East

Toronto-listed partners Comaplex Minerals and Cumberland Resources have re- assessed the Meliadine East deposit.

The property, 15 miles north of Rankin Inlet, N.W.T., now has an indicated geological resource of 2 million tons averaging 0.196 oz. gold per ton.

The resource was calculated based on information from 65 drill holes totalling 28,000 ft. High-grade values greater than 1 oz. per ton were limited to a 30-ft. area of influence, and all values were cut to 0.087 oz. per ton.

The resource represents 400,000 contained ounces, an 86% increase over earlier calculations. Of the resource, 256,000 oz. are thought to be amenable to open-pit mining.

The latest calculations include mineralization hosted in an iron formation at the Discovery zone, as well as resources from the newly defined Capricorn and Pisces zones. The three zones are open at depth and lie within 2,000 ft. of each other in the same structure.

The companies consider the exploration potential along the 40-mile-long property to be excellent. The primary target is a tightly folded oxide iron formation, but there is potential for shear zone-hosted mineralization.

The joint venture expects to complete a $1.2-million exploration program at Meliadine East in May. The program will include 20,000 ft. of drilling to evaluate the Discovery zone; other geophysical and high-grade gold zones (to the east) will be tested as well. Additional studies will determine whether the Discovery zone could enter production on a stand-alone basis.

WMC International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Australia’s Western Mining, has started ground geophysical surveys at the nearby Meliadine West property. WMC can earn a 56% interest in the property by spending $12.5 million on exploration. Depending on the survey’s results, drilling is expected to begin sometime in April.

Exploration will focus on the Fox and Wolf zones, discovered by WMC last year. Ten holes were drilled in 1995 along an 8,800-ft section of the Fox zone, which remains open in all directions. Several other zones, detected in previous years, will also be drilled.