West Timmins and Lake Shore find new high grade

Vancouver – If location is king, West Timmins Mining (WTM-T) and Lake Shore Gold (LSG-T) have hit gold: the joint-venture partners’ latest discovery on the West Timmins land package in Ontario is a high-grade gold zone within 750 metres of Lake Shore’s new underground workings

West Timmins’ namesake gold camp, which covers 114 sq. km of land just west of Timmins, hosts some 30 zones of gold mineralization being explored through nine projects. Of late the focus has been on Thunder Creek, where the company and its partner are starting to delineate the high-grade Rusk gold zone.

The latest hole to probe Rusk hit the widest high-grade intercept to date and was also the deepest hole to date at Thunder Creek. Hole 54 returned an intercept of 11.2 grams gold per tonne over 10.4 metres from 666 metres depth, including a high-grade core of 25.99 grams gold over 3 metres. The high-grade intercepts occurred within a broader gold-mineralized zone averaging 5.9 grams gold over 26.4 metres.

The results from hole 54 were enough to impress investors, who lifted West Timmins’ share price 12¢ to 42¢. The company has a 52-week trading range of 13¢ to $1.04 and has 113 million shares issued. Lake Shore investors were also pleased, boosting that company’s share price by 8¢ to $1.28. Lake Shore has a 52-week range of 60¢ to $2.09 and has 175 million shares issued.

Rusk has returned several intercepts of note. Hole 36 cut 7 metres grading 24.61 grams gold; hole 30 hit 2.65 metres of 14.68 grams gold and 3.1 metres of 12.01 grams gold; hole 43 returned 9 metres averaging 8.57 grams gold; and hole 41 intercepted 2.05 metres grading 8.52 grams gold.

The results from hole 54 extend the Rusk zone another 160 metres down plunge, bringing the down plunge length to over 400 metres. The zone remains open down plunge and along strike. It appears to be a high-grade chute within a broad northeast-trending mineralized corridor that plunges steeply to the northwest.

That Thunder Creek is a joint venture between these two companies – with Lake Shore holding 60% and West Timmins the other 40% – only makes sense. Lake Shore’s Timmins West development project  sits smack in the middle of West Timmins’ large property; Thunder Creek is just south of the border. That means that Lake Shore’s Timmins West shaft is less than 750 metres northeast of the latest Rusk zone intercepts. The proximity is key because Thunder Creek is a joint venture between West Timmins, which holds 40%, and Lakeshore, which owns the other 60%.

And interestingly the high-grade intercepts in hole 54 sit at the same depth as the top of the best mineralized zone at Timmins West. Like at Timmins West, mineralization at Rusk is centred along a contact between the Thunder Creek alkalic intrusive complex and sedimentary rocks located in the footwall.

At Timmins West, Lake Shore is on track to start gold production from its 1.2-million ounce reserve in early 2009. The project will comprise an underground mine access via a spiral decline feeding a 1,000-tonne-per-day mill.

West Timmins is also drilling at its wholly-owned Highway 144 property, which is located immediately south of and along strike from Thunder Creek and Timmins West.

Further south – 3 km southeast of Rusk – West Timmins is back at work on the Golden River trend. The 5-km long trend hosts 11 known zones of gold mineralization, one of which is the Golden River West zone. All seven holes punched into the West zone returned gold-bearing intercepts ranging from 13 to 45 meters in length. Broad intercepts, such as 37.5 metres grading 1.6 grams gold from 326 metres depth and 45 metres averaging 0.89 gram gold from 340 metres downhole, helped prove up the size of the zone. It remains open in all directions

But drills also hit a higher-grade subzone, which returned gold grades from 7 to 25.3 grams gold over width ranging from 1 to 4.5 metres. The subzone has been traced from surface to a vertical depth of 350 metres, still open to the west and down plunge.

Along the Golden River West Timmins has already proved up an inferred resource of 4 million tonnes grading 3 grams gold.

Five km north of Rusk and Timmins West is the Allerston gold property, where in mid-November West Timmins fulfilled its obligations and now holds a 51% interest. At Allerston a broad, gold-mineralized deformation zone extends for 4.5 km. The limited, shallow drilling completed to date returned grades from anomalous to almost 40 grams gold over 0.5 metres.

West Timmins is also exploring gold, silver, copper, and zinc properties in Mexico.