AURIZON MINES continues to drill at the former Casa Berardi gold mine, 95 km north of La Sarre, Que. The company reports that all six holes in Zone 118-120, located 500 metres east of the West mine, intersected gold values. And three of the holes south of the Casa fault cut narrow quartz veins with high gold values. These values included 21.3 g/t Au over 1.0 m, 37.1 g/t over 1.0 m, 49.5 g/t over 1.5 m, and 4.9 g/t over 5.2 m.
INCO LTD. opened the first of two mines at Casa Berardi in 1988, but both were closed in 1997 due to the depletion of reserves. The property yielded 668,000 oz of gold before it was shut down.
Aurizon is in the midst of a $2-million deep drilling program aimed at increasing reserves and extending projected mine life. A feasibility study conducted in 2000 estimated a $121-million cost to reopen the mine and increase annual production to 200,000 oz. Reserves stand at 6.9 million tonnes of 6.7 g/t Au plus a resource of 4.5 million tonnes at 7.7 g/t Au.
Complete information on Aurizon, Casa Berardi and the Sleeping Giant gold mine is available at www.Aurizon.com
Comments