TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX-listed Wesdome Gold Mines has boosted the compliant reserve bases at its Eagle River and Mishi gold mines, west of Wawa, in Ontario.
At Eagle River, Wesdome lifted the National Instrument 43-101-compliant proven and probable reserves by 57% to 265 000 oz, grading on average 10.1 g/t gold.
At the Mishi mine, the proven and probable surface mineable reserves rose 8% to 121 000 oz at an average grade of 2.1 g/t gold.
Reserve blocks remained open to expansion.
The company reported on Thursday that it planned significant increases in definition drilling this year, particularly at the openpit Mishi mine, to further expand mineral reserves and mineral resources.
"In 2014, we modestly increased drilling and dramatically increased mineral reserves. This work demonstrates the potential of the recently discovered parallel structures which, along with the mine's main producing structure remain open laterally and at depth,” Wesdome president Rolly Uloth said.
This year, the company would focus on demonstrating the long-term potential of the producing mines in the camp. In achieving this, the gold miner had, thus far, reported reserve increases net of depletion, upgraded resources to reserves, increased milling capacity and validated the new parallel zones.
“These building blocks put the company in a position of strength to capitalise on our internal growth prospects and see forward well beyond five years. Importantly, reserves demonstrate high grades. These grades provide both a strong defence and natural hedge should gold prices unexpectedly decline and represent tremendous upside margin leverage at current or improved gold prices,” Uloth noted.
Wesdome VP for exploration George Mannard added that it was important to note that after 20 years of production, underground exploration at Eagle River had been relatively shallow with the deepest drilling to date intersecting high-grade mineralisation at 1 300 m, while the deepest production level stood at 836 m.
“The parallel zone structures remain open laterally and at depth, and they represent exploration targets and internal expansion opportunities for many years to come,” he commented.