EXPLORATION ’87 SHERRITT

Sherritt Gordon Mines and its subsidiary, Sherrgold Inc., will be continuing their exploration efforts in northern Manitoba around Lynn Lake and northwestern Ontario, including projects near Red Lake, Cameron Lake, Jellicoe and Pickle Lake.

Sherritt spent $700,000 last year in Manitoba and another $194,000 in Ontario. Combined exploration expenditures this year will be about $1 million. In a joint venture with Manitoba Mineral Resources, Sherritt will be following up 1986 work near Wellmet Lake, 40 miles east of Lynn Lake. One of two holes last year cut 32.1 ft grading 0.32% copper, 3.79% zinc, and trace gold. The second hole cut similar mineralization across 6.1 ft. For 1987, 5,000 ft of drilling is planned.

There are seven known subeconomic zinc-copper deposits in the Lynn Rhyolite unit, centred about Lynn Lake, including Frances Lake which has 355,000 tonnes grading 0.45% copper, 6.45% zinc, 0.061 oz gold per ton. Projects in this area are operated with Novamin and Manitoba Mineral Resources.

In the Red Lake camp, Sherritt has a joint venture with Outokumpu Mines, 5.5 miles northwest of town. An airborne survey last year outlined numerous anomalies near the intersection of the Post Narrows and Cochenour-Dickenson deformation zones, and these will be tested by drilling this year.

South of Cameron Lake, near Flint Lake, an exploration program will be evaluating the potential of local and regional shear zones for gold mineralization.

Sherrgold spent $1.8 million last year, and spending by its partners brought the total exploration expenditures to $2.65 million last year. This year’s direct expenditures will be about the same, and when partners are included the total will be about $3 million.

Most of the work is focussed on two large scale geologic features known as the Rainbow Trend and the Johnson Shear, both in the Lynn Lake area. The Rainbow Trend is a 25-mile ribbon of iron formation and ultramafic and volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks extending both east and west of the MacLellan mine. SherrGold operates four exploration projects along the trend, including Dot Lake which has geological reserves of 1.4 million tons grading 0.12 oz to a depth of 800 ft.

Along the Johnson Shear, SherrGold has six properties, including the Bonanza Deposit, 722,000 tons grading 0.069 oz gold per ton to a depth of 800 ft.

Manitoba Mineral Resources, a Crown corporation with numerous joint ventures with Sherritt and SherrGold, spent $2.15 million last year in the Lynn Lake Belt, most of it on the Farley Lake property where 50,000 ft was drilled in 120 holes. The Wendy zone and the East zone have combined reserves of 700,000 tons grading 0.2 oz gold per ton which may be amenable to open pit mining. The East zone will be tested further this year, and to the south, another deeper zone of 400,000 tons grading 0.14 oz will be tested further. The budget is $1.9 million and provides for an additional 40,000 ft of drilling. Farley Gold, the joint venture partner, is a subsidiary of Inspiration Resources.