Wheaton River bullish on Golden Bear results

Drilling on the Ursa zone at the Golden Bear mine property in northwestern British Columbia is returning impressive results for Wheaton River Minerals (TSE).

The third hole (95-269) of this year’s program returned a 77.8-metre intersection grading 15.1 grams gold per tonne, or 11.5 grams cut to 34.2 grams (1 oz.).

Wheaton controls the project through a majority holding in property owner North American Metals (VSE). In addition to owning in excess of 80% of North American’s issued capital, Wheaton is owed more than $60 million by the company.

The drilling is part of a program aimed at expanding reserves and restarting the mine, which shut down last year when ore in the Main Bear refractory zone became depleted.

The Main Bear zone is 4 km south of the Ursa zone and sits adjacent to the mine’s 365-tonne-per-day refractory mill.

In 1994, Wheaton began constructing a heap-leach operation 3 km north of the mill, but heavy rains forced the company to suspend the work. The mine plan included mining and leaching material from the Kodiak A deposit, which is estimated to contain minable diluted reserves of 473,000 tonnes grading 4.6 grams gold.

Plans for a heap-leach operation are now on hold while the company works to determine the size of the Ursa, which is situated 800 metres north of the Kodiak A.

Like the Kodiak A, Ursa hosts predominantly oxide mineralization; and although this material is believed to be amenable to heap leaching, it is also conceivable that grades are sufficiently high to support milling.

Drilling on the Ursa now includes 15 holes covering a strike length of about 120 metres, with hole 95-269 representing the deepest intersection at 85 metres below surface.

The new hole was preceded by hole 95-268, which returned the best intersection thus far encountered on the property: 27.2 metres grading 63.5 grams gold (16.7 grams cut to 34.2 grams).

The drilling is part of an infill and stepout program designed to increase and upgrade the previously estimated Ursa resource of 364,000 tonnes grading 5.7 grams gold.

Hole 95-268 represents an infill hole drilled about 20 metres south of hole 94-262 (40.3 metres grading 5.7 grams gold). About 40 metres south of 95-268, previously released hole 94-256 intersected 7.3 grams gold across 43.2 metres.

Holes 95-268, 94-262 and 94-256 all represent approximate true widths at a depth of about 50 metres.

Hole 95-269 was drilled about 40 metres below 95-268 at a depth of about 90 metres. The closest previous holes at about the same level include: 94-259 (8.7 grams over 11.3 metres), about 40 metres to the south; and 94-266 (4.5 grams over 95.8 metres), about 20 metres to the north.

Drilling is continuing on the Ursa, which remains open to expansion primarily to depth. Holes 95-270 and 271 are targeted to test the Ursa 20 metres north and south and about 15 metres below 95-269.

Kerry Knoll, executive vice-president of Wheaton, says there is also significant exploration potential in the ground between the Ursa and Kodiak, and in the strike extension north of the Ursa.

He expects trenching to get under way in August, leading to drilling, once targets have been identified.

Meanwhile, a few kilometres to the south, drilling is under way on the Grizzly zone which is below the Main Bear zone and adjacent to the property’s 365-tonne-per-day mill. Infill and stepout holes are being drilled from a decline parallel to, and about 75 metres into, the hangingwall of the zone. The Grizzly resource was last estimated at 271,000 tonnes grading 16.3 grams gold, and the company is working to prove up sufficient reserves to re-open the Golden Bear mill.

Wheaton is drilling the fifth hole of the current Grizzly program and expects to release additional assay results from both the Grizzly and the Ursa in the first week of July.

Wheaton has 27 million shares outstanding, or 33 million on a fully diluted basis.