Golden Fame Looks For Quick Turnarounds From Past Producers
By Kevin Michael Grace
Graham “Chip” Clark has worked in the mining industry over four decades. He’s been a mining lawyer, rising to senior vice president at Newmont. He’s founded a project generator, Gold Discovery Company. Within the last year, he’s become non-executive Chairman at United Mining Group. Finally, he’s become President/CEO of a new junior, Golden Fame Resources Corp. And now that he has his hands on the controls, he knows exactly what he wants to do: “The best opportunities are those where the ore was literally left in the face when they closed the mine down because of the low metal prices.”
Golden Fame has two properties: Gold Ridge in Arizona, which it owns outright, and Algun Dia in Mexico, which it has signed a letter of intent to 70% option. Clark says that the properties have much in common. “Both had been mined in the past. Both had been closed because of metal prices. Both had underground workings.”
Gold Ridge, which is 90 miles east of Tucson, produced 22,000 gold ounces at grades between 5.62 grams per tonne to 19.9 g/t. Its historic, non-43-101 resource estimate is 50,000 to 78,000 ounces at greater than 10.3 g/t. Previous exploration includes 435 drill holes over 8,500 metres, and the property hosts three underground mines with a drift length of 1,800 metres.
“It’s a vein system,” Clark says. “It was mined in a technique that did not require sinking shafts or hoists. The records and the inspection that we’ve made to date indicate the vein was mined virtually completely along the strike line, all the way to the top. Our next step, because there’s been no mining activity in the last 15 to 20 years, would to rehabilitate the lowest levels of the underground workings, which are still at the valley floor level, and then begin a program of exploration drilling from the valley floor level downwards to determine the width and direction of the vein at the lower levels. Our investigations indicate that this type of vein is usually one that continues one down to significant depths, but there’s been no drilling to confirm that. Our plan will be to rehabilitate the underground workings, begin an underground exploration program to determine the direction of the vein and then confirm the mineralization of it.”
Algun Dia, which is in the León-Guanajuato region, produced 25,000 tonnes at non-43-101 compliant grades of 2.52 g/t gold, 102 g/t silver and 1.69% copper. Golden Fame expects to sign a final option/joint agreement in about a month, after due diligence has been completed. The company will pay $4.3 million cash and three million shares for its 70% and is committed to $6.5 million in exploration expenses.
“It’s a complex ore body,” Clark says. “We’re going to drive a ramp, which is a large adit or tunnel, nine feet by nine feet in diameter, down to explore up close the vein which the owner of the property has already intersected through underground access work and drilling. We’re going to encounter a significant amount of mineralized material there, and we’re start on that very soon after we finalize the option agreement. There will also be some combination of surface and underground drilling.”
From the start, Algun Dia should generate revenue. Clark explains, “The material we would develop as we drive the ramp into the mine would be ore grade and similar to material the owner was able to sell in the past. You could call that pre-production mining of a sort.”
Clark expects fast turnarounds in both Mexico and Arizona. “By 2013,” he says, “I would very much like to see our company with a completed exploration analysis of both properties. Assuming the results confirm what we believe their potential is, we could be in underground development and actual mineral production activities on both properties.”
Beyond that, Clark intends to duplicate his method elsewhere. “To move quickly, acquire option rights in the best properties we can find, confirm the continuation of the ore reserves which were mined in the past and then develop a plan for exploiting those now that metal prices are a magnitude higher. It’s a great opportunity and a great business to be in.”
At press time, Golden Fame traded at
.34, with a market cap of $10.7M and about $350,000 in cash.
https://resourceclips.com/2011/04/14/someday-soon/