Resource estimate for Eleonore expected in the new year

When Goldcorp (G-T, GG-N) did the US$425-million deal to acquire the Eleonore gold project from Virginia Gold Mines in March, there was no reserve or resource estimate for the project and a lot of speculation on how big it was going to get, as it represented a major new discovery in a relatively unexplored area of central Quebec.

Since its discovery in mid-2004 and prior to the Goldcorp purchase, 212 holes were completed on the property. A high proportion (70%) of the holes reported assay results exceeding 10 grams gold per tonne, with great continuity hole-to-hole. Many analysts at the time figured the new discovery held somewhere between 3 and 3.5 million oz. gold.

“It will be the new year before we have a resource estimate on Eleonore,” Goldcorp president and CEO Ian Telfer said recently at the 2006 Denver Gold Forum. “There is no point in us putting out a resource calculation when we have only gotten halfway through all of this confirmation drilling.”

The Eleonore project is centred on the Roberto mineralized system, which had been traced over a lateral distance of more than 1.9 km and to a vertical depth of 900 metres, remaining open in all directions.

The Roberto system comprises the Roberto, Mid-Roberto and Roberto Est mineralized zones — a series of steeply dipping, sub-parallel zones hosted in a strongly altered sedimentary package. The zones are part of a replacement-style system of en echelon lenses.

Exploration work on the periphery of the Roberto system had also outlined the emergence of new gold-bearing quartz zones often containing visible gold.

“That’s one fabulous deposit that we’re going to have a lot of fun with,” said Kevin McArthur, president and CEO of Glamis Gold (GLG-T, GLG-N), which is in the process of merging with Goldcorp. McArthur believes there are 5 million oz. there. “It depends on how deep you are willing to look,” he said.

The Eleonore project is in the Ell Lake area of the northeastern part of the Opinaca reservoir, 320 km north of the town of Matagami in the James Bay region of Quebec. The project is relatively close to accessible infrastructure and enjoys a mining friendly regulatory environment.

Goldcorp has been conducting an accelerated drilling campaign, involving both infill and stepout drilling to further test the potential of the deposit, and to provide additional data for preliminary conceptual scoping studies.

“We’re very, very happy with the results,” Telfer said. “We have now brought in drills that can drill deeper so we can start to look at seeing how much we can expand it beyond what we thought was there when we acquired it.”

Telfer added: “Developing Eleanore is a significant priority.”