Craibbe plans drilling near Campbell mine

Toronto-based Craibbe-Fletcher Gold Mines (COATS), a subsidiary of Placer Dome (TSE), is planning an underground exploration program on its property adjacent to Placer’s Campbell mine near Red Lake, Ont. Restored access to the 2,000-ft. level of the Campbell mine will allow Craibbe to initiate an underground drilling program sometime next year, Craibbe President Henry Brehaut told The Northern Miner. The level, which has been blocked for a number of years, will be cleared out as part of a development effort at the Campbell mine.

If the proposal is accepted by the board of directors, Craibbe will explore depth extensions of a vein structure identified at surface, Brehaut said. In 1985, the company traced a zone of gold mineralization for a distance of about 5,200 ft. along the Craibbe property. Back then, Brehaut told shareholders “at such time as access to the property can be provided from Placer Dome’s Campbell mine, an underground exploration program on the downward extension of this zone will be considered.”

Gold mineralization in the zone is associated with quartz-carbonate veins occurring within a sequence of andesite and rhyolite. The veins strike east-west and dip steeply to the south.

The Craibbe property, dormant for the past five years, consists of 14 claims on the western boundary of the Campbell mine property. Placer Dome has a 51% stake in Craibbe-Fletcher.