Warm weather expected to boost Ateba

Gold production from the screening and sorting operation of Ateba Mines (TSE) in Beardmore, Ont., was lower during the winter months than originally anticipated. The reason is one of the coldest winters in the area for many years, says President Peter Howe.

With –40 degree C weather for four months straight, frozen piles of screened waste dump material slowed the operation down, he told shareholders in Toronto.

Now that the company has moved its screening operation to the Leitch mine dumps from the lower-grade Northern Empire dumps, millhead grades, and therefore gold production are expected to pick up this summer.

“Our objective remains at 1,000 oz per month,” Howe says. Production was as low as 300 oz a month this winter.

Millhead grades for the 200-ton- per-day mill should be 0.16 oz gold per ton in July with 700 oz expected to be poured.

On the exploration front, drill indicated reserves on the eastern extension of the Northern Empire mine now total 103,000 tons at an average grade of 0.205 oz.

At the old Magnet mine, where Ateba is working in joint venture with Roxmark Mines (TSE), crews are preparing to install a pump on the 11th level winze. It will be used to dewater the lower levels of the mine to the bottom, 17th level.

It is here where old records indicate major mine-making potential. It should take about a month to pump down to the 17th level, according to General Manager Stephen Wilkinson.

“If this zone pans out, we would consider building a mill in Geraldton,” Howe says.

Elsewhere in the area, Ateba controls ground over a 12-km strike length, stretching from Beardmore in the south to Geraldton to the northeast.

Trenching has been done on a number of the more than 12 discoveries made so far. On the Dominion property, assay values in one zone have run from 0.1 to 0.42 oz over 3.5 to 4.5 ft. A second zone on the same ground ran 0.16 oz over 3 ft, according to Wilkinson.

Induced polarization surveys have traced the Orion zone for a distance of 2.5 km.

Geologist Fenton Scott, lawyer Neil Steenburg and senior geologist Daniel Gillis were welcomed to the board of directors of Ateba at the meeting.

The company has also dealt its platinum properties in Ungava to soon-to-be-listed Imperial Platinum and has picked up a 75-km long placer diamond exploration permit in the Central African Republic.