By IAN ROSS
Newly-formed Gold Eagle Mines anticipates a breakthrough 2007 exploration campaign with ‘Bonanza-type’ grades on their Red Lake property.
The Toronto junior miner intends to build on last year’s successful drilling program on the 511-hectare property which features their high grade Bruce Channel Discovery zone.
With their project only a few kilometres west of Goldcorp’s two world-class producers, the Campbell and Red Lake mines, Gold Eagle CEO Simon Lawrence says their project may be writing a chapter of “history repeating itself” in the historic northwestern Ontario mining camp.
Lawrence makes the comparison of their Bruce Channel Discovery zone’s high grade showings and geological characteristics with that of Canada’s two largest producers at their same stage of exploration.
“I know it’s the early days to say that, but (Bruce Channel) has the size and the potential,” says Lawrence.
Located six kilometres north of the town of Red Lake, the Gold Eagle project is in the thick of exploration activity with neighbours Goldcorp, Skyharbour Resources and Cypress Development exploring immediately to the north, south and east.
Gold Eagle is the merged creation last fall of two joint venture partners, Exall Resources and Southern Star Resources, that made a major discovery in August 2005 after drilling deep targets under the Bruce Channel between Red Lake’s McKenzie Island and the mainland.
The companies were testing for what was believed to be an extension of an ore body from the nearby closed Cochenour Willan mine.
Now Gold Eagle geologists think they’ve tied into something bigger with multiple zones and deep mineralization that runs in all directions.
“This mineralization sits on the intersection between two major trends in the area,” says Lawrence.
Last year, the two companies spent more than $15 million on the property with four diamond drill rigs penetrating as deep as 2,400 metres.
This year, backed by a $12 million budget, most of this year’s 25,000 metre exploration campaign will continue targeting the Bruce Channel, but the company is widening its search, says Lawrence, to “test the regional potential” of the property
“We’ve expanded our drilling program and since then we’ve been increasing our confidence and the size of this mineralized envelope.”
The property has family ties dating back decades.
Gold Eagle co-chairman Steve Roman’s father worked the ground in the 1930’s with a predecessor company that became Exall, an acronym for ‘Explore All Over.’
A mine on the McKenzie Island portion of their property produced 40,000 gold ounces between 1937 and 1941. But like most mines of that era, it was only a shallow 500-foot shaft.
Lawrence says last fall’s assays showed deep gold mineralization open in all directions with sizeable 50 metre widths returning eight and nine gram material, plus a second high grade gold vein system.
The well-financed company is directed by a strong board including FNX Mining boss Terry MacGibbon and an experienced exploration team.
“For the all the geologists on our team, this is by far the best gold project they’ve ever been involved in,” says Lawrence.
Four drill rigs will again be turning this year -- three on the mainland and one on the island -- with deep holes to better determine the shape of the ore body.
“One of our rigs will go down 2.4 kilometres,” says Lawrence. “If I could, I’d love to get hold of four more drills.”
Lawrence says Toronto investment houses are now better appreciating the project as “one of the top five gold discoveries in the world to date.” The company expects to have more than $30 million in their exploration coffers for the next few years.
John Tait, the former president of now-defunct Southern Star calls the gold intercepts “absolutely world class” with substantial mineralization and gold grades throughout the property.
“It’s the next big mine in Canada.”
Says Lawrence, a British mining engineer and analyst who has worked internationally, Red Lake is the “premier gold camp in the world.
“It’s in a very safe political environment. I’d rather be in Red Lake...than in the jungles of South America, Africa or Asia. I think it’s the best jurisdiction to be in.”
