Claude sets major programs for Madsen, Seabee

A $5-million budget will cover two exploration programs mounted by Saskatoon-based Claude Resources (CRJ-T) — one, at its Seabee gold mine in Saskatchewan; and the other, at its Madsen development project in northwestern Ontario.

Claude, which took over Madsen Gold in 1998, is dewatering the old Madsen shaft to the 16 Level for a drilling program in the mine’s No. 8 zone, a quartz-carbonate vein system on the contact between mafic volcanic rocks and an ultramafic intrusion that resembles some of the more prolific veins at the Campbell Red Lake and Dickenson mines. The structure is open updip and downdip.

The holes will test the No. 8 zone between the 16 and 22 Levels, updip from a known resource of 80,000 tonnes grading 18.2 grams gold per tonne between the 22 and 24 Levels.

Madsen produced 2.4 million oz. from 1938 until 1976, when the mine closed.

At the Seabee mine, 120 km northeast of La Ronge, a 7,000-metre drill program is testing the Seabee mineralized structure along strike, west of the mine’s 2C zone. Earlier drilling had partly defined a new zone, labelled 2D, down to a vertical depth of 190 metres. Also, a drift along the 2D zone graded an average of 18.6 grams gold along a 3-metre sill.

The 2D mineralization, as currently known, has about 86,000 tonnes of mineralized material between the 80-metre and 190-metre levels. Limited drilling at shallower depths also intersected gold mineralization with comparable grades, and the zone has not been drilled off along strike or at depth.

Claude also plans to test the structure another 2 km farther along strike, looking for the mine’s pattern of repeated, west-plunging mineralized shoots to continue. The drilling will focus on the Currie Rose property, which surrounds the Seabee property. Under the terms of a 1994 option deal, Currie Rose Resources (cui-v) has a 30% net profit interest in the Currie Rose property.

From the time of the agreement to the end of November 1999, gold production from Seabee stopes on the Currie Rose ground totalled 14,565 oz. Claude will be hoisting about 180,000 tonnes this year from stopes on the Currie Rose, and Currie Rose Resources expects to earn about $600,000 from its interest. The company currently has a $3.3-million project deficit with Claude Resources, which has been funding both companies’ share of the work, and the money will be applied to Currie Rose’s deficit.