Partners terminate option on Interlake’s Hemlo play

During Hemlo’s exploration heyday in the early 1980s, the Interlake claims were at one time the hottest exploration play in the camp. In 1983, the shares of Interlake Development, (the predecessor of International Interlake), were the most actively traded shares in Canada. During that year, Interlake’s shares hit a high of $6.45.

All that investor interest stemmed from the location of Interlake’s claims — immediately adjacent to the Page-Williams gold mine owned by LAC Minerals. Drilling by Teck and later by Noranda’s affiliate, Hemlo Gold, searched for deep extensions of the target stratigraphy that hosts the rich Hemlo gold deposits.

Over the next six years, the deep drilling did intersect gold mineralization, but at prohibitive depths. The last two holes completed by the partners intersected 0.01 oz gold per ton in a 14.7-ft section at a depth of 7,500 ft and 0.23 oz in a 11.5-ft section at a depth of 8,500 ft.

According to earlier estimates made by the joint venture, the property hosts drill-indicated reserves of three million tonnes grading 0.24 oz between a depth of 3,280 ft and 8,200 ft.

As for investors who bought the original Interlake near the issue’s high back in 1983, they are proof that, yes, some people did lose money at Hemlo. Taking into account a consolidation of one-for-five in 1986, a 1,000-share purchase of Interlake at the high in 1983 for $6,500 is worth about $70 today.

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