Big boost in reserves at New World

A successful 1990 drilling program at the New World project in Montana has enabled Crown Butte Resources (TSE) to report a substantial increase in preliminary reserves over those released at the end of the 1989 season. Noranda Exploration is the operator of the project and its parent Noranda (TSE) can ultimately acquire up to 60% of Crown Butte’s common shares, subject to certain conditions.

Preliminary reserves at New World now total about 8 million tons averaging 0.2 oz. gold, 0.7 oz. silver per ton and 0.7% copper. This reserve figure, calculated in late October, is considered a preliminary estimate because 1990 drilling is still in progress.

Nevertheless, the new figure represents a substantial increase in reserves since the end of the 1989 program when preliminary reserves were reported as 4.64 million tons grading 0.17 oz. gold (uncut), 0.72 oz. silver and 0.81% copper.

Crown Butte and Noranda have already submitted their proposed “plan of operation” for mining deposits within the New World district. An application was made in mid-November to the state of Montana and the U.S. Forest Service for a Montana hard rock mining permit.

Reserves at New World are contained in five deposit areas: Como, Fisher Mountain, McLaren, Miller Creek and the newly discovered Homestake Breccia. So far, total 1990 exploration drilling has reached 96,849 ft. in 225 holes.

Crown Butte reported some impressive assay results from recent drilling on the New World property. Selected results from exploration drilling in the Miller Creek area include: 25 ft. of 0.14 oz. gold, 1.25% copper and 2.33 oz. silver; 50 ft. of 0.18 oz. gold, 0.39% copper and 1.47% silver; and 10 ft. of 0.12 oz. gold, 1.36% copper and 2.59 oz. silver, which includes 5 ft. of 1.98 oz. gold, 0.67% copper and 1.06% silver.

Infill drilling in the Miller Creek area continued to encounter an unusually thick, laterally continuous zone of mineralization. Uncut assay results from this drilling include: 80.7 ft. of 0.49 oz. gold, 1.19% copper and 2.98% silver; 180.8 ft. of 0.22 oz. gold, 1.11% copper and 1.11 oz. silver; 34.1 ft. of 1.11 oz. gold, 1.56% copper and 4.35 oz. silver and 23 ft. of 0.80 oz. gold, 2.64% copper and 5.02 oz. silver.

A drill rig is continuing to work in the Homestake Breccia zone where a recent drill hole returned various intersections (from 514 to 880 ft.): 26 ft. of 0.2 oz. gold, 0.39% copper and 2.37 oz. silver; 30 ft. of 0.23 oz. gold, 0.20% copper and 1.53 oz. silver; and 90 ft. of 0.26 oz. gold, 0.43% copper and 0.67 oz. silver. The deposit remains open to the west, north and south. Drilling will continue into 1991.