Queenston Mining exploration budget set for $15M in 2010

With $15 million in exploration and a dozen drill rigs set to scatter across its Kirkland Lake-area properties, 2010 is shaping up to be a banner year for the ever-ambitious gold-focused Queenston Mining Inc.

More than 140,000 metres of drilling is being planned, prompting a 50 per cent spike in the exploration budget which sat at $10 million in 2009.

Company president and CEO Charlie Page expects the trend will continue, potentially reaching $20 million in 2011.

“We’re pretty excited about how things are shaping up out there,” says Page.

“We think the area has an awful lot of potential, and a lot of that is really starting to be realized through a lot of work that we have done and are continuing to do.”

All this is to advance the company’s continuing production plan in four key Kirkland Lake properties, including the Upper Beaver, the Upper Canada, Anoki and McBean.

The expectation for Charlie Page is to assemble a package of more than two-million ounces of gold to support a mill to be built at the Upper Canada site, where a tailings footprint already exists.

With a history of drilling in the camp and its extensive program through the coming year, Queenston will begin moving on pre-feasibility studies for all of its flagship properties in 2010, says Page.

More than a third of the year’s drilling will take place at the Upper Beaver property, which features an indicated and measured resource of 1.4-million tonnes of 8.5 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold. Five rigs will drill roughly 50,000 metres at the site in 2010, more than double its 22,600 metre-target in 2009. Some of this will be to upgrade its resource, with additional work filling in exploration gaps.

In December, Queenston produced its first industry-compliant resource estimate for the past-producing open-pit McBean property, where 50,000 ounces of gold surfaced in a joint venture with Inco in the early 1990s. The property has indicated and measured mineral resources of 706,000 tonnes grading 4.6 g/t, and inferred resources of 1.2 million tonnes grading 4.7 g/t.

The Anoki property just 500 metres away also saw an update of its resource estimate in December. Already serviced by a ramp down to 700 feet, Anoki saw its indicated and measured resource hiked to 730,000 tonnes grading 4.7 g/t, with inferred resources of 337,000 tonnes grading 4.8 g/t.

The two properties will be the object of a continued exploration program, with two rigs drilling to 25,000 metres through 2010. This will examine the down-dip plunge extensions of the McBean and Anoki deposits, as well as the potential for linking the two. A pre-feasibility study will also begin across both in the coming year.

As another past-producer, the Upper Canada property also had a busy 2009, with drilling having identified some near-surface potential for a low-grade open-pit target.

With an approximate strike length of 1,000 metres and reaching to a depth of 250 metres, “the potential is there for 100-million tonnes of something,” says Page.

Two drills through the coming months will further define the bulk tonnage potential of the site and help determine a resource in 2010.

“This didn’t make any sense in the ‘30s and ‘40s when this thing was being operated, but we’ve identified a broad, low-grade halo of mineralization associated with the old mine workings and stuff that obviously hasn’t been seen or wasn’t economical at the time.”

Queenston is also busy with projects elsewhere in the Kirkland Lake camp, including no less than five joint ventures with Kirkland Lake Gold.

The primary focus among these is on the South Claims property, where the 50-50 partnership has identified a resource of roughly 250,000 ounces.