At Feasibility stage on Abermin gold bet

Exploration work is continuing at Abermin Corp.’s Tartan Lake project near Flin Flon, Man., which falls under a joint venture agreement with Granges Exploration. According to Roger P. Taylor, Abermin president, by the fourth week in November the exploration decline had been advanced a distance of 2,400 ft to a depth of 360 ft.

Final depth of the decline is 500 ft and a crosscut will be driven into the main zone at the 400-ft horizon, he notes. Then some drifting is planned along strike of the No 2 lens to verify continuity of the ore zone. Underground diamond drilling has commenced from the decline to “further delineate the lenses in both the main and south zones,” he adds. The latter is 150 ft south of the decline and 300 ft south of the main zone.

Surface diamond drilling has been carried out in the south zone and several significant intersections were encountered. Widths of 5-18.1 ft were returned from three holes in the program with grades ranging from 0.084 oz to 0.787 oz gold.

Six surface holes intersected the south zone and widths of 4-35.5 ft were encountered with grades ranging from 0.124 to 0.328 oz gold. Mr Taylor says these results indicate that the south zone may “contribute additional economic tonnage not previously included in the ore inventory of the project.” The characteristics of the zone will be determined by a crosscut driven from the 300-ft level, he points out. Abermin and Granges (the operator) confirm that a feasibility study has been commissioned to determine the viability of the project, adding that a production decision is expected shortly after that study is completed. Initial production could be under way by mid-1987.

A second phase exploration program consisting of 16,000 ft of drilling began on Abermin’s Lara project in October. That property is located near Duncan on Vancouver Island. About 40% of the program will be directed towards the stratigraphic testing of numerous geochemical and geological anomalies. A similar amount will be used to further delineate the extension made to the Coronation and Coronation extension zones during the first phase of this year’s program.

The remaining 20% will involve the completion of large diameter metallurgical test holes in the Coronation zone and to further define the strike and dip of the massive sulphides discovered in a trench this summer. That trench found a massive sulphide intersection of 11.5 ft grading 0.717 oz gold, 14.98 oz silver, 43% zinc, 3.1% copper and 8.3% lead.

Since the program started, 49 diamond drill holes or 18,700 ft of drilling has been completed. Recent fill-in drilling on the Coronation zone has improved the average grade and exploratory drilling encountered a second parallel mineralized horizon 4,000 ft to the northeast. Laramide Resources, a public company headed by prominent mine finder Albert Reeve, has a 35% interest in the project.