QUEENSTON

Talk of re-opening the mines comes as good news to residents of the area, many of whom have been hard hit of late by mine closures.

Many citizens of nearby Virginiatown are infuriated by Golden Shield Resources’ decision to close the Kerr mine there, in the early summer. That episode marked the closure of yet another great gold mine along the break. But, more important, it left the Kirkland Lake Break, once the pride of the Canadian gold mining industry, with only one underground gold mine — lac Mineral’s Macassa mine. Lac is recovering gold from the old Lake Shore tailings, and Eastmaque Gold Mines also is squeezing more yellow metal from tailings in its retreatment operation. But the current amount of gold mining activity is nothing compared with the level of activity this once-booming gold camp has enjoyed in the past.

The Upper Canada mine closed shop in 1972 after producing 1.5 million ounces (46,600 kg) while the Upper Beaver mine produced 130,000 oz (4,050 kg) from 558,000 tons (507,000 tonnes) of ore grading 0.23 oz gold per ton (7.9 g per tonne). Mine workings in the Upper Canada mine go down as far as the 6,000-ft (1,800-m) level.

Inco Gold optioned the property from Queenston Gold Mines in 1986 and has recorded, on computer, data pertaining to mine workings and ore reserves. The company is now delineating reserves and will decide, by May, 1990, whether an underground exploration program is in order, for the purpose of bringing the mine back into production. Inco Gold has a milling facility nearby at the former- producing McBean mine, which was mined out in 1986.

The most significant exploration potential at the Upper Canada mine, according to Queenston’s Exploration Manager William McGuinty, lies below the 1,750-ft (525-m) level on what is known as the l zone. The previous mine-operators had calculated ore reserves in that zone to be 48,227 tons grading 0.34 oz gold per ton (43,850 tonnes at 11.7 g per tonne) and geologist s later came up with a figure of 640,000 tons of 0.265-oz material (580,000 tonnes of 9.1-g material).

The Upper Beaver mine was optioned to Pamorex which will be conducting detailed mapping, stripping and sampling with drilling this fall.

Inco Gold also has delineated 650,000 tons (590,000 tonnes) of mineable reserves grading 0.136 oz gold per ton (4.7 g per tonne) on the nearby Anoki property. A ramp has been driven to the 735-ft level and a 50,000- ton (45,450-tonne) bulk sample was extracted in October, 1988. The underground workings are flooded, but the deposit would likely support a 750- ton-(680-tonne)-per-day operation if gold were $425 (us) per oz.

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