Aurizon reads between Casa Berardi mines

VANCOUVER — With two underground gold deposits actively being mined at the Casa Berardi project in northwestern Quebec, Aurizon Mines (ARZ-T, ARK-N) recently completed a drill program to better understand the near-surface mineralization between them.

The 12,800-metre drill program targeted the Crown Pillar area of the Principal zone, which lies roughly a kilometre east of the West production shaft and 3 km west of the East shaft. The drilling covered an area of 825 metres along strike, 250 metres in width and went 50 to 200 metres underground.

Crown Pillar currently hosts an indicated resource of 1.8 million tonnes grading 6.2 grams gold per tonne and an inferred resource of 800,000 tonnes of 6 grams gold. Aurizon designed the infill drill program to increase both the quality and quantity of the resource, as well as the general understanding of it, in anticipation of a prefeasibility study on the area it expects to complete by year-end.

Out of 68 holes drilled, 66 hit mineralization over 1 gram gold and 33 hit a metal factor of 50 or higher (defined as the true width in metres multiplied by the gold grade in grams per tonne).

Hole 366 cut a true width of 68 metres grading 4.6 grams gold from 80 metres depth. Hole 331 hit a true width of 43 metres carrying 6.2 grams gold, also from that depth. Hole 341 returned a true width of 38 metres averaging 7 grams gold from 105 metres down-hole. Hole 316 hit a short 0.6-metre section of 114.2 grams gold at 80 metres depth.

Mineralization in the zone occurs within multiple lenses and dips slightly to the south. The gold is found in veins, stockwork and sulphide-rich replacement zones in a volcanic-sedimentary bearing environment. The results will be factored into an updated resource estimate, which the company expects to complete by September, and then used for the prefeasibility study.

Exploration in the Principal area forms part of a larger exploration program at Casa Berardi. The company expects to spend $7.2 million drilling 60,000 metres in the first half of 2010, following extensive exploration in 2009.

Late last year, the company released the results of drilling from a drift 800 metres underground in the West mine area. The program, exploring roughly 650 metres east of the production shaft, hit 24 metres carrying 8.1 grams gold, 30 metres averaging 6.5 grams gold and 11 metres grading 12.5 grams gold, all true widths.

In October, the company released results from a deeper section of the Principal area, drilled from a 280-metre-deep track drift. Results included 7 metres carrying 59.4 grams gold, 4.2 metres averaging 16.2 grams gold and 3 metres at 22.5 grams gold, all true widths.

Aurizon re-opened the Casa Berardi mine in 2006 and expects to produce roughly 150,000 oz. gold at US$490 per oz. this year. The company has already produced more than 500,000 oz. from the mine since restarting it.

In early March, Aurizon released an update of its gold reserves at Casa Berardi. Reserves, including both open pit and underground, now stand at 4.43 million tonnes at 7.1 grams gold for more than a million oz. gold. The latest reserve contains 54,000 oz. gold more than the estimate released a year prior, after 165,000 oz. were mined, 200,000 oz. were converted to total reserves, and 19,000 oz. were added thanks to an adjustment of the cutoff grade following higher gold prices.

Aurizon’s stock price was up 7¢ on the latest drill results to close at $5 even. The company has a 52-week trading range between $3.63 and $5.98, and 159 million shares outstanding.