Hemlo, Crude test milling samples from Eagle River

Test milling results are expected by next month for two bulk samples extracted from underground test stopes at the Eagle River joint venture of 60/40 partners Hemlo Gold (TSE) and Central Crude (TSE). Richard Nemis, president of Central Crude, says the current underground exploration program at Eagle River is “proceeding on schedule.” Material from the first test stope (about 12,000 tonnes) has been trucked to Hemlo’s Golden Giant mill for processing. Results are expected from that sample by the end of this March, he says.

An identical tonnage of material, from a second test stope located east of the first one, is also being test milled and results are expected by the end of April.

Nearly $18 million has been spent at the Eagle River project, about 32 miles west of Wawa in the Mishibishu Lake area of northwestern Ontario.

The company also reports 2,664 chip samples, 2,287 muck samples and 2,509 core samples have been taken during the recent underground program, and metallurgical testing done to date has indicated gold recoveries in the range of 96-97%.

The program is focusing on a gold-bearing quartz vein system within a granodiorite intrusive, where preliminary reserves were reported previously at 1.7 million tons grading 0.25 oz. gold per ton, cut to one ounce per ton.

Meanwhile, the company has recently completed a 17-hole surface drill program on another joint venture — the Moss Lake gold project, optioned last year from Tandem Resources (ME) and Storimin Exploration (ASE). That property is 70 miles west of Thunder Bay.

Assay results from some 19,610 ft. of drilling completed recently were mixed, and indicate that gold occurs in lenses within narrow parallel zones. The mineralization is hosted by a diorite intrusive.

So far, the gold zones have been traced by diamond drilling for a strike length of 5,000 ft. and are still open along strike and at depth. By using two different assaying techniques, fire and metallic, the company has found a “nugget effect” in the material sampled.

Some of the better results from the recent holes include 9.9 ft. of 0.39 oz. gold, 16.4 ft. of 0.18 oz., 19.7 ft. of 0.18 oz., and 9.8 ft. of 0.29 oz. A number of wider, low- grade intervals were also reported, including 190 ft. grading 0.054 oz., 65.6 ft. grading 0.058 oz. and 52.5 ft. grading 0.05 oz.

Central Crude has an option to earn a 51% interest in the Moss Lake property by spending $4 million over a 5-year period. Hemlo Gold holds a 41.2% interest in Central Crude.