Third quarter report
The Company's working capital position at September 30, 2000
was $8.1 million compared to $11.1 million at December 31, 1999. The decrease
is a combination of a number of factors including the capital funding of the
Madsen dewatering and shaft rehabilitation project and the closing out of a
foreign currency position.
The Company does not have any material gold and currency hedging
positions.
Operations
Gold - Seabee mine
Year to date the mine has processed 177,900 tonnes of ore grading 8.27
grams per tonne yielding 41,750 ounces of gold. Production is slightly below
target as lower grades were mined to accommodate the orderly mining and
backfilling of the 2c1904 stope. It is expected that the high grade 2c1404
stope will make up for any current shortfall to achieve the 60,000-ounce goal
for the year.
Definition drilling and development has further outlined the 2c and 2d
structures between the 80 and 290 levels. Drilling results have been very
positive on both structures which are open along strike and depth. With
additional drilling it is expected that this area will provide feedstock for a
number of years.
The Seabee, including the 100% owned Currie Rose properties, hosts
approximately 1,041,000 tonnes of reserves at an average grade of 7.65 grams
per tonne.
Exploration
On the Madsen property efforts were directed at locating and tracing the
high-grade No. 8 zone's host stratigraphy on surface. The No. 8 zone is known
to occur near a mafic-ultramafic contact and mapping south of Flat and Russet
Lakes has further clarified the position of this contact.
On November 8, 2000, Claude entered into an option/joint venture
agreement with Placer Dome (CLA) Limited in respect of Claude's Madsen gold
exploration property. The details of this agreement are outlined in Note 6
accompanying the financial statements.
Mapping and prospecting in the Amisk Lake area of Saskatchewan produced
modest results near one of the showings near the Duplex property. In addition
work on Outlook Island revealed a strong shear system with anomalous gold
values along its margins. Further work is planned for this area.
Prospecting and mapping in the Pine Lake-Munro Lake area north and east
of the Seabee mine has resulted in the discovery of a potentially significant
high-grade, gold-bearing vein system. Occurring as dilational extensions at
the intersections of two vein sets, channel samples from two zones produced
multi-ounce assays. These targets will be incorporated into the Seabee winter
exploration drill program.
Second quarter report
The dewatering and level rehabilitation work associated with accessing
the Madsen mine's 16 Level continued throughout the second quarter. Layouts
for the No. 8 Zone drill drifts have been prepared and the strategy of
drilling fan holes from known mineralized veining on the 22 Level upwards with
progressively shallower cuts to the 16 Level has been developed. Drilling is
scheduled to start in the fourth quarter.
Surface mapping northwest of the mine has outlined stratigraphy,
alteration and veining comparable to that seen in the high grade No. 8 Zone.
Referred to as the Central Deformation Zone, this area is either the surface
expression of the No. 8 Zone or a parallel structure. It is noteworthy that an
early shallow Madsen drill hole intersected 0.46 meters grading 247 grams per
tonne approximately 35 meters below surface along the projected trace of this
zone. |
