Drilling brightens picture at William Resources’ mines — Record gold output achieved during second quarter

.BBby Stuart McDougall

Exploration drilling by William Resources (WIM-T) has significantly improved the economic potential of two of its producing gold mines.

At the Bjorkdal open-pit mine, near Skelleftea in northern Sweden, the company has outlined a broad zone of mineralization at Quartz Hill. The new zone lies in the footwall of the central and western pits, with a few holes indicating that it may also be continuous with mineralization in the eastern pit.

William is revising its mine plans to include the new discovery.

“We believe this will not only lower our overall stripping ratios, but also improve our operational flexibility,” says William Pearson, vice-president of exploration. “Our mining picture will change, as the new zone gives us a third major place from which to draw ore.”

The zone was tested in a 6,100-metre program consisting of 72 reverse-circulation holes. Fifty of the holes are reported to have intersected ore-grade mineralization over minable widths, and several intersected higher-grade subzones.

Highlights include:

* 6.3 metres of true width grading 60.55 grams gold per tonne in hole 632; * 3.5 metres of true width grading 52.41 grams in hole 605;

* 8.4 metres of true width grading 19.31 grams gold in hole 615; and * 17.5 metres of true width grading 4.02 grams gold in hole 608.

The near-surface zone is 800 metres long and has an average width of 150 metres. Mineralization remains open to the west, south and at depth.

At the Jacobina mine in Brazil, results from five step-out holes indicate that mineralization at the Joao Belo deposit continues along strike to the south.

The holes were spaced over a distance of 600 metres from mine workings, with the ore horizon (pyritic quartz-pebble conglomerates) intersected at roughly 200 and 350 metres vertically below surface.

Highlights include:

* hole 257, which intersected three separate zones, the first and best of which was 2.29 grams over a true width of 12.21 metres (starting at a depth of 433.61 metres);

* hole 258, which also intersected three separate zones, the first and best of which was 2.16 grams gold over a true width of 6.08 metres (starting at a depth of 434.43 metres);

* hole 259, which returned 3.12 grams gold over a true width of 6.06 metres (starting at a depth of 389.59 metres); and

* hole 257A, which averaged 1.73 grams gold over a true width of 11 metres, including 3.31 grams gold over 4.5 metres. (The mineralized zone intersected in hole 257A occurs 150 vertical metres above the zone intersected in hole 257.)

The fifth hole was drilled to intersect the zone 200 metres south of hole 257A and 150 metres vertically above hole 258, but passed through a fault zone.

Nonetheless, the hole returned 6.6 grams gold over 0.5 metre.

Based on recent and previous data, William Resources believes the zone could host more than 10 million tonnes. In light of this, the 730-level drift is being extended into the new zone to allow for underground definition drilling.

The company has deferred earlier plans to develop a ramp for providing access to deeper-lying ore.

Meanwhile, a new resource has been identified at William’s nearby Itapicuru deposit, 4 km to the south. (Joao Belo and Itapicuru are known collectively as the Jacobina mine.)

Re-evaluation of previous drilling there resulted in the outlining of 3.5 million tonnes grading 2.56 grams gold.

The resources are said to be easily accessible from existing workings and potentially amenable to bulk-minable blasthole stoping. A definition drill program will attempt to bump these resources into the reserve category, as well as outline ore blocks.

In the second quarter, William produced 54,440 oz. gold (nearly half of which came from the Bjorkdal mine), and average cash costs were US$278 per oz. By comparison, in the first quarter, output was 47,391 oz. at US$292 per oz.