Exploration ’88 GETTY

Getty Resources is exploring and developing five major projects in Canada financed by $10 million in 1987 flow-through share issues. It has a sixth project in Nevada, which is funded from working capital. All but the Logan project in the Yukon are precious-metals-related. In total, Getty has budgeted between $10 million and $11 million for 1988 exploration. (In a takeover earlier this year, Getty became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Total Resources (Canada) Ltd.) The main areas of exploration activity are the Tundra Gold Venture and the Slemon and Sito gold properties in the Northwest Territories, and the Logan zinc-silver project and the Rock Creek Ranch property in Nevada. A decision to produce gold ore on the Tisdale project, near Timmins, Ont., was recently made. Production began in January at 200 tons per day. The ore will be custom-milled at the Pamour mill in Timmins. In keeping with Getty’s strategy to seek alternate methods of project- financing and spread exploration risk, several mineral properties have been farmed-out and are now being actively explored. These include the Papaonga and Klotz Lake gold prospects, in northwestern Ontario. Similarly, on the Gold Bottom Creek property, in northern British Columbia, Pacific Trans-Ocean Resources is conducting an aggressive program which should lead to the delineation of drill targets.

A consortium consisting of Uranerz, Minatco and cegb of Great Britain continues to fund exploration activity on the Russell Lake uranium property, immediately to the north of the Key Lake mine in Saskatchewan. Total 1988 expenditures on the joint-venture-funded properties are estimated at $2 million.

As mentioned, the Tisdale joint venture of Getty Resources and Davidson Tisdale Mines announced that mining and processing of the outlined mineable reserves on its Timmins property will begin in early 1988. Reserves stand at about 55,000 tons grading 0.23 oz gold per ton from the Main zone. Ore will be stockpiled during the first three months of operation with custom-milling scheduled to start early in the second quarter of 1988 at the nearby Giant Yellowknife (Pamour) Go-Mill. The initial mining and milling rate is expected to be 200 tons per day. Additional detailed exploration and development work will be carried out in the open S-Zone, which to date has received only limited underground evaluation. This work will be undertaken concurrently with mining activity in the Main zone. Establishing the extent of mineable reserves in the S-Zone will follow the exploration and development program.

At the Tundra gold deposit, 150 miles north of Yellowknife, the main thrust of the 1988 field season will be underground exploration. This property, within the Courageous Lake Volcanic Belt, is a joint venture with Noranda Exploration (51%), as operator, and Getty Resources (49%). The underground program will involve the sinking of a 1,500-ft vertical shaft, 60,000 ft of underground drilling, followed by drifting and raising on the ore for bulk-sampling and metallurgical testing. This 2-year program is expected to begin early this year at an estimated cost of $25 million. The recently completed $8 million of surface drilling at Tundra consisted of about 45 holes for a total of 120,000 ft. The program, drilled at 100-m to 200-m spacings, outlined the gold deposit to a vertical depth of 2,500 ft. A preliminary reserve estimate was completed in 1985 on the Tundra deposit. Based on that initial 21,000 ft of drilling in 38 shallow holes, the in-place probable reserves, along a drill-tested strike length of 4,000 ft and to a vertical depth of 400 ft, were estimated as 1.3 million tons averaging 0.28 oz gold per ton. A 0.23-oz-per- ton cutoff was used. About 125,000 ft of drilling has been completed on the deposit since these reserves were calculated, and the deposit has now been extended to a minimum strike length of 4,750 ft and to a minimum vertical depth of 3,800 ft. A revised mineral inventory has set reserves at 26.4 million tons grading 0.18 oz gold per ton (based on a grade cutoff of 0.1 oz) or, at a cutoff of 0.2, the reserves decrease to 9.3 million tons grading 0.26 oz.

As a result of two seasons of drilling activity, significant zinc-silver deposits have been defined by the Getty Resources/Fairfield Minerals 50/50 joint venture on its Logan property, 60 miles west of Watson Lake, Y.T.

On the basis of 31,000 ft of drilling, the Logan property is estimated to contain 15.4 million tons grading 5.13% zinc and 0.59 oz silver per ton, including a higher-grade zone containing 7.5 million tons of 7.24% zinc and 0.75 oz silver. A significant portion of this deposit should be amen- able to open-pit mining. Drilling to date has investigated only one-third of the known strike length of the favorable structure.

The mineralized structure is steeply dipping to the northwest and consists of quartz-sphalerite veins, breccias, massive sulphide lenses and stockwork bodies within a highly altered and silicified granodiorite. Exploration activity scheduled for 1988 is to consist of a minimum of 41 holes totalling 22,000 ft. It will test the strike potential of the long structure and the dip extension of the defined massive sulphide zones. The 1988 program is budgeted at $1.25 million.

The Slemon property is a 50/50 joint venture with Noranda Exploration (the operator). The property is 70 miles northwest of Yellowknife and about 27 miles north of the MacKenzie Highway. Preliminary drill evaluation of several exploration targets was carried out in 1987. Two particular areas show initial promise. A showing on the north shore of Slemon Lake was verified at depth by a drill hole that returned gold values within iron- formation-type stratigraphy. Additional drilling is being performed on this target. Drilling of a second prospect, 15 miles farther south, intersected a high-grade, visible-gold- bearing quartz vein within a granodiorite intrusive. Numerous quartz veins are exposed on surface, some with visible gold, in a similar geological environment. Further drilling activity is scheduled for early in 1988.

The Sito project is a 50/50 joint venture between Noranda (the operator) and Getty. The property, consisting of 15 square miles, sits about 30 miles north of Yellowknife within metavolcanic rocks of the Yellowknife Group. The northerly-trending Yellowknife shear system, along which the gold mines of the Yellowknife area are associated, runs parallel to the eastern boundary of the property. Gold values up to 2.3 oz per ton from chip samples have been found on the property near this major structure. Geological mapping and prospecting during 1987 located six new gold-bearing occurrences and extended strike lengths of previously known showings. Six areas are to receive initial drill evaluation early in 1988 at a planned budget of $450,000.

The Rock Creek Ranch property, in north-central Nevada, is a 50/50 option-joint-venture enterprise with Getchell Resources (the operator). The land package, consisting of about 19,000 acres, runs along the southern extension of the favorable Getchell structural trend. Several major open- pit gold mines on this trend (the Chimney, Pinson and Preble among them) are producing or are being readied for production. The joint venture has pinpointed four separate areas on the property that have favorable geological conditions for disseminated gold deposits. The first phase of a drilling program, consisting of 8,000 ft, has been completed on two of these areas. Favorable geological environments were verified in drilling. At the time of writing, additional drilling was scheduled to begin.