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Expansion From Within
Laurion Plans 2013 Gold-Silver Production
~ By Greg Klein and Kevin Michael Grace - July 19, 2011
2008: A global credit crisis shattered the commodities market. The min- has us extremely excited,” Le Sueur-Aquin says. “It was mined between
ing industry struggled just to survive. Hardest hit were junior explorers, 1936 and 1942, producing about 73,439 ounces of gold and 15,922
considered especially risky by panicked investors. As a result, Laurion ounces of silver. We believe that Beardmore-Geraldton is especially
Mineral Exploration President Cynthia Le Sueur-Aquin made a pivotal underdeveloped and undiscovered. Historically the old-timers mined an
decision. “We needed to modify our vision and transition from exploration average of 17 grams per tonne.”
to production rapidly,” she says. “Hence the acquisition of Bell Mountain.”
Sturgeon River property assays released May 26 reveal 3.22 g/t gold,
27.5 g/t silver, 0.38% copper and 5.63% zinc over 3.1 metres (includ-
ing 10.4 g/t gold, 77.1 g/t silver, 0.83% copper and 14.3% zinc over 0.8
metres), 0.1 g/t gold, 10.1 g/t silver, 0.11% copper and 2.85% zinc over
5.9 metres and 0.94 g/t gold, 3.3 g/t silver, 0.07% copper and 0.48% zinc
over 2.4 metres.
March 21 assays reveal 4.19 g/t gold over 1.1 metres (including 8.96 g/t
over 0.5 metres), 1.24 g/t over 3 metres (including 4.5 g/t over 1 metre),
1.36 g/t over 2 metres, 15.3 g/t over 0.6 metres and 1.04 g/t over 3 metres.
Le Sueur-Aquin comments, “What we found very exciting is that we en-
countered several gold zones within the shear zones which envelope the
quartz veins. The historic geophysics and soil sampling indicate a number
of zones adjacent to the shaft and to the north which indicate further
The Nevada property’s key attraction was its historic resource of 2.1 potential within this shear zone.”
million tonnes averaging 1.3 grams per tonne gold and 37.5 g/t silver.
“The historic resource is encompassed within 26 mineral claims,” Le “Right now our focus is to identify all the targets of significance to form
Sueur-Aquin says. “We staked an additional 119 claims to make sure we a picture of Sturgeon River’s full potential,” Le Sueur-Aquin adds. “That
encompassed the full strike of the Spurr-Varga and the Sphinx zones in has increased substantially over the last year.” An eight-hole drill program
which the historic resource was contained.” began there July 6.
A 56-hole drilling campaign followed, confirming that the zone is between The company has about $1.3 million in cash with a burn rate ranging
15 and 30 metres wide. “It has potential to continue and can be traced on from $50,000 to $70,000 a month. A private placement of up to $1.25
the surface for about 1.8 kilometres,” she adds. “We increased the historic million was announced June 23. At press time it had 74.2 million shares
resource from 133,870 gold-ounces equivalent to 311,647 gold-ounces outstanding at $0.075 per share for a market cap of $5.57 million. Insiders
equivalent in this drill program.” hold approximately 6.5% of the shares.
An April 2011 resource estimate shows a measured and indicated The goal of putting Bell Mountain into production is central to Laurion’s
resource of 9,761,000 tonnes at 0.526 g/t gold and 17.63 g/t silver, with plans, Le Sueur-Aquin declares. She concludes, “The resource estimate
165,018 gold ounces and 5,533,907 silver ounces. The inferred category shows we generated a significant amount of value, and we are confident
shows 2,046,000 tonnes at 0.449 g/t gold and 13.26 g/t silver, with 29,550 that this will soon be represented in the share price value. Exploration
gold ounces and 872,411 silver ounces. companies are considered high risk. There is liquidity in the market now,
but it has not found its way back to the resource sector—certainly not to
“Depending how you look at it, it’s either a gold-silver project or a silver- the juniors. Our new vision is to generate our own revenue by metamor-
“
gold project,” she says. “The 43-101 was based on $1,149 an ounce for phosing from an exploration company to a producing company. I believe
gold and $20.92 for silver. We have run our own in-house analysis and that will prove instrumental to our success.”
estimate a 1.5:1 strip ratio, 80% recovery for gold and 50% recovery for
silver. The mining cost for this project is roughly $11.43 per ton. With an
estimated CAPEX of less than $10 million, that all adds up to an extreme- There is liquidity in the market now,
ly robust project.”
but it has not found its way back to
Laurion plans a PEA, possibly by 4Q 2011, an economic assessment by the resource sector—certainly not
2012 and production by mid-2013. Bell Mountain will be an open-pit mine
with heap-leach processing. to the juniors
Half a continent away, in the Beardmore-Geraldton Gold Camp north of – Cynthia Le Sueur-Aquin
Thunder Bay, Ontario, sits Laurion’s Sturgeon River project. “This project
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