I will be very interested to see if Wesdome can dramatically increase reserves at both Eagle River & Kiena Mine in 2022. The growth story for Wesdome going forward must include:
1) Significantly Increased reserves at both mines to allow for increased mine life while increasing production at both mines to become "Canada's Next Mid Tier Producer"
2) Increesed reserves will allow for increasing daily production rates from current:
a) Eagle
Current Actual Production YTD Ave = 690 tpd (81% of existing mill capacity)
Existing Mill Capacity = 850 tpd
Permitted Capacity = 1200 tpd
b) Kiena
Current Actual Production YTD Ave = 234 tpd (28% of existing mill capacity)
Existing Mill Capacity = 850 tpd
Permitted Capacity = 2000 tpd
Increasing throughput is the biggest opportuinity for Wesdome. Management will not increase production and shorten the LOM below 7 years at either facility IMO.
Hence they need to prove up significant Increased Reserves reserves BEFORE they dramatically increase OUNCES and through increase MILL THROUGHPUT. Management has many times said that "News flow" on exploration and development would increase. I have not seen an increase in News flow over the last 7 years. This is my biggest (and only) dissappointment with the management team. I think they could do a much better job in communication of their activities. All I here are crickets for what was previously said to be "exciting results" at both Shawkey & Bourgo. What is so exciting about Crickets?
Previously management went out out f their way to explain that thew orientation of the mineralization was similar to that of Kiena Deep A Zone....
from Sept 29, 2021 news release (over 1 year ago... crickets)... The drilling in the Shawkey area was following up on gold anomalies in historical holes and exploring untested areas along strike. Eight holes intersected a new zone called Bourgo which is perpendicular to the general northwest-southeast trend. It consists of quartz veins with very low sulphide content hosted in a komatiitic basalt unit. The northern orientation is similar to the orientation of the nearby Kiena Deep A Zones. Drilling is planned to improve the understanding of this area.
Mr. Duncan Middlemiss, President and CEO commented, “We are pleased with the recent underground exploration drilling that continues to define the high grade Footwall Zone, which already extends over 300 metres down plunge. This new discovery could have major positive impacts on the project as the underground infrastructure utilized to access the A Zones would only incrementally be added to for the potential mining of the Footwall Zones. It is our goal to include this zone in the updated mineral resource estimate at year end.
We are also pleased with initial surface exploration results which could potentially increase our resource base in areas proximal to the mine. These results also illustrate the excellent potential to find new discoveries on our large, and hugely underexplored property. The fact we have mineralization in a similar orientation as the A Zones in the Bourgo Zone is notable. Any near mine resource has the potential to add additional mill feed and place less strain with increased flexibility on mine production.