Montreal-based Maude Lake Exploration (MAU-M) has finalized the acquisition of a 50% interest in 130 claims owned by Cameco (CCO-T) at the 185-claim Comtois gold property, west of Lebel-sur-Quevillon, Que.
The milestone was reached after Maude Lake completed two holes at Colline de l’ouest, 1 km west of Comtois’ known resources. The work brought the company’s expenditures on the Cameco option to $1.3 million. The holes are part of a 6,000-metre drill program, which is expected to wrap up by the end of January.
Hole Com-01-80 cut 12.9 metres (from 144.2 metres below surface) running 3 grams gold per tonne, including 3.7 metres (from 150.2 m) grading 7.8 grams. Hole Com-01-81 returned 1.5 metres (from 47.4 m) of 9 grams gold.
Channel sampling at Colline de l’ouest earlier in the summer returned 1-metre intervals running between 4.5 and 26.7 grams gold.
Over the winter, a 5,000-metre drill program by Maude Lake developed an indicated resource of 695,485 tonnes grading 9.05 grams gold at a cutoff grade of 4 grams gold. At a 1-gram cutoff, indicated resources rise to 1.8 million tonnes of 4.5 grams gold.
Comtois’s gold mineralization has been delineated within a 1.2-km corridor of felsic volcanic rocks that remains open both to the east and west.
Two recent metallurgical tests on the Comtois material indicate that gold can be recovered using conventional cyanidation methods, and recovery rates above 95% are anticipated.
Cameco had an option to reacquire a 10% interest in the property by completing $500,000 in exploration work, but did not take the option. It did however reject an all-share bid by Maude Lake for its 50% interest in the project.
Maude Lake also has an option to acquire a 95% interest in a 15-claim property north of, and contiguous with the Comtois property from Newmont Mining (NEM-N). To earn its interest, Maude Lake must spend $200,000 on exploration before February 2005. Government-owned Socit de developpement de la Baie James holds the remaining 5% interest.
Results from drilling on the Newmont option will be available soon.
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