Wesdome building VC zone at Kiena (March 21, 2005)

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

Operator Wesdome Gold Mines (WDG-V) recently drilled five holes 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, though most are in the range of 4-10 metres.

Hole 3763, drilled updip, 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. per ton) brought the average grade of the interval down to 6.6 grams.

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

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

Another hole testing the downdip 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 produced similar results. VC remains open at depth.

Wesdome, which bought Kiena out of the failed McWatters Mining, hopes to block out enough mineralization to justify resuming production at Kiena.