In the winter, Claude spent $250,000 sinking 18 holes (3,355 metres) on the area of Currie Rose known as West Porky (named after a lake). The program focused on a 600-metre portion of the zone paralleling a major metamorphosed volcano-sedimentary rock contact. The best intersections came from feldspathic arenite and calc-silicate rocks over about two-thirds of the tested strike length.
Most of the holes returned 2-15 grams gold per tonne over intervals of 1-4 metres. Two holes targeting mafic volcanic rocks yielded up to 55 grams gold, well above Seabee’s 8-gram-per-tonne average.
The strongest part of the system is a banded, altered diopside-bearing mafic volcanic shear zone that is well-mineralized for at least 400 metres of strike length.
The drilling followed up on results of prospecting in 2000, which turned up visible gold in outcrops within a 2-km-long geochemical anomaly.
The mineralization is associated with a south-southeast-trending, steeply dipping (75 to the southwest) shear structure which appears to diverge from the arenite contact near the closure of the Porky Lake synform. The zone remains open to the southeast and northwest.
The company believes the find has the potential to be a much larger deposit than the typical vein system at Seabee. It also thinks the new zone may be distinct from Seabee’s system, which runs east-west. Future drilling at West Porky will look for extensions in both directions.
Claude has a 100% working interest in the 44.5-sq.-km Currie Rose property, subject to a 30% net profits interest payable to
Gold production at the Seabee mine slipped to 48,500 oz. in 2001, down from 58,300 oz. a year earlier. The drop is attributed to the mining of lower-grade ore from the D zone. Total cash costs climbed to US$221 from $190 per oz. The company realized an average of US$272 per oz. for its production during the year, compared with US$279 in 2000.
Mining and milling of ore from Zone D will continue through the first half of 2002. Afterwards, Claude will begin mining higher-grade material in the B zone.
The lower-than-expected production landed Claude $2.2 million (or 5 per share) in the red in 2001. In the previous year, the company posted a net loss of $48.7 million ($1.25 per share), owing to a $51.1-million, non-cash writedown. Cash flow from operations was $3.4 million, less than half that of the previous year.
Meanwhile, in Ontario’s Red Lake camp,
The drilling will test five targets at or near the Balmer assemblage mafic-ultramafic contact. The targets have the potential to host high-grade lode gold targets, and Placer believes they may represent the northeastern extension of the system hosting the mine’s high-grade No. 8 zone.
Late last year, drilling by Placer intersected four zones of gold mineralization while testing for an updip extension of No. 8. Two pilot holes were each followed by a wedge hole for a total of 4,432 metres. The four holes covered 500 metres of strike length at depths halfway between surface and the old No. 8 zone workings.
Three of the four zones yielded grades of 4-5 grams gold per tonne over 1-3 metres. The remaining zone returned two intervals running up to 3 grams gold over 1.2 metres and 1.2 grams over 0.9 metre.
The major can earn a 55% interest in the historic producer by spending $8.2 million on exploration over three years and completing a bankable feasibility study by November 2006. Placer can boost its stake to 60% by funding all development costs.
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