ardeen historyPress Release, January 27, 1999
ARDEEN MINE PROJECT
January 27,1999, Toronto, Pele Mountain Resources Inc. (“Pele”) Pele released further details today on it’s 100% owned Ardeen Mine Project located 110 km west of Thunder Bay, in the Moss Lake area. The Project consists of approximately 1100 mining claim units, on 45,000 acres, extending for 40 km along the Shebandowan greenstone belt. The Ardeen Mine, located at the center of the property, was northern Ontario’s first producing gold mine. During the 1930’s the Ardeen Mine #2 shaft was sunk to the 1250 foot level. A 200 tpd mill on the property produced 30,000 ounces of gold and 175,000 ounces of silver from 144,000 tons of ore. Mine records indicate that the width and grade of the orebody improve with depth. Exploration by Pele over the past two years has delineated additional high grade gold-silver deposits at the “Pele” Zone and the “Fisher” Zone, in close proximity to the Ardeen Mine.
The Pele Zone is a high grade, shear hosted, gold-silver deposit that is an extension of the vein system of the Ardeen Mine. The Pele Zone has been traced continuously for more than 2 km from the west end of the mine workings. Drilling has confirmed the presence of high grade gold-silver mineralization including visible gold. Hole 97-60 was drilled directly above the west end of the Ardeen Mine workings on the 375 foot drift level and averaged 17.30 grams Au/tonne across 2.75 meters. A 60 kilogram bulk sample taken from the Pele Zone approximately 1 km west of hole 97-60 was analysed by Lakefield Research and it assayed 16.7 grams Au/tonne and 137.0 grams Ag/tonne.
The Fisher Zone is a high grade gold-silver deposit located approximately 300 meters south of the Ardeen Mine. The Fisher Zone has been traced for more than 1200 meters to the east where it continues off the grid. Drilling highlights in the Fisher Zone include hole #96-8 which averaged 75.3 grams Au/tonne uncut over 4.88 meters, hole #97-56 averaging 20.2 grams Au/tonne uncut across 7.34 meters and hole number 98-5 which averaged 34.69 grams Au/tonne uncut over 3.70 meters.
An independent report prepared in August 1998 by Richard Murphy, B.Sc. and Doug Hunter, M.Sc. of Minescape Exploration Inc., evaluated the gold resources of the Ardeen Mine Project. The Resource Estimation covered portions of five zones of gold mineralization in close proximity to the mine workings. The inferred resource on these zones totalled 1,082,939 tonnes at 14.4 grams Au/tonne uncut. Less than 10% of the known strike length of the Pele Zone had sufficient drilling to be included in the resource calculation. In their report, Murphy and Hunter stated:
“Work to date has focused on relatively high grade narrow vein type mineralization…. It is reasonable to expect that further drilling will encounter significant gold values both under present holes and in step out holes from known zones. Work to date has not outlined the full extent of the gold bearing structures. The potential for expanding the known mineralized zones as well as outlining new zones is very high.”