Royal Oak hits high grade at Copperstone property

High-grade gold and Royal Oak Mines (RYO-T) don’t often appear in the same sentence. But that may change, if ongoing exploration continues to deliver results similar to those encountered at the company’s Copperstone gold property in southwestern Arizona.

The company has been investigating the underground potential of Copperstone, a former open-pit operation where more than 500,000 oz. gold were extracted between 1987 and 1982.

During last year’s exploration program, Royal Oak traced the known mineralization an additional 1,600 ft. along the dip of the structure below the pit. The latest phase of drilling, which was designed to test the down-plunge extension of the mineralization, returned several high-grade intersections.

While testing the Main zone some 600 ft. north of the pit, a recent hole returned 1.55 oz. gold over a width of 25 ft. This is the most northerly hole drilled to date along the trend of the structure.

The intercept is hosted in a relatively untested brecciated limestone unit near the periphery of the known mineralization. A second hole, positioned to investigate an untested area adjacent to two mineralized shoots, returned 0.39 oz. gold over 35 ft., while another yielded 0.25 oz. over 20 ft.

Royal Oak is carrying out a prefeasibility study to determine the operating costs for an underground mine. More drilling is planned to verify the character and continuity of the mineralization and to increase the size of the resource.

In 1987, the company plans to spend $250,000 in an attempt to outline at least 1 million oz. gold in minable reserves. So far, the property contains a resource of just under 500,000 oz. (2.4 million tons grading 0.17 oz. gold per ton).

Royal Oak currently produces gold from predominantly low-grade operations in Ontario and the Northwest Territories. The company’s Hope Brook gold mine in Newfoundland is scheduled for closure and construction is under way at the new Kemess gold mine in northern British Columbia.

The company turned out 389,203 oz. gold in 1996, which, this year, is expected to slip to 375,000 oz. following the closure of Hope Brook.