Wesdome building VC zone at Kiena (March 04, 2005)

Underground drilling on the VC mineralized zone at the Kiena gold mine in northwestern Quebec continues to show gold mineralization across minable widths.

Operator Wesdome Gold Mines (WDG-V) most recently reported five holes drilled on the 13200E section of the mine, all from the 520-metre level. Zones cut in drilling have true widths ranging form 2.5 to 22.5 metres, with most in the 4-metre to 10-metre range.

Hole U-3763, drilled up-dip, encountered four zones of mineralization, including a 9.3-metre zone grading 11 grams gold per tonne. Cutting high assays to 34.28 grams per tonne (1 oz./ton) brought the average grade of the interval down to 6.6 grams.

Hole U-3764, drilled less steeply upward, intersected a 12-metre core length grading 15.9 grams per tonne and two others with grades in the 1- to 2-gram range.

Hole U-3766, drilled nearly horizontal from the 520-metre level, cut a 23.9-metre length (a 22.5-metre true width) grading 3.5 grams gold per tonne starting about 20 metres from existing workings.

Another hole testing the down-dip extension of VC cut a 13.5-metre length grading 5.7 grams gold per tonne.

Earlier drilling on sections 15 and 30 metres to the west obtained similar results. VC remains open at depth.

Wesdome, which bought Kiena out of the failed McWatters Mining, is hoping to block out enough minerlization to justify resuming production at Kiena.