Gowest expands Bradshaw footprint

The spring drilling program at Gowest Gold's 109-sq.-km North Timmins gold project in Ontario has intersected extensions of the Bradshaw gold deposit.

Drill highlights include 2.2 metres of 12.24 g/t gold and 2.5 metres of 1.89 g/t gold; both of these intersections include higher-grade intervals. These intercepts are from holes drilled near existing underground development, which were completed to assess the crown pillar.

"In addition to the significant technical information we have received, we can reconfirm our belief that the deposit extends beyond the currently defined outline in a new area adjacent to the existing underground infrastructure," Greg Romain, the company's president and CEO, said in a release.

"This clearly underlines the potential to add additional ounces to our resources and reserves at the project."

The latest program consisted of six holes: three were completed to assess the crown pillar with an additional three holes drilled to the north of the Bradshaw deposit

The latest program consisted of six holes: three were completed to assess the crown pillar with an additional three holes drilled to the north of the Bradshaw deposit to collect information for development of a ventilation raise and a secondary egress for the proposed mine.

Additional step-out drilling is planned to extend the known zones of gold mineralization and to test prospective targets around the existing deposit.

Last month, the company announced that it had received funds from a C$1.6-million bridge loan facility with Lush Land Investment Canada to complete an advanced exploration bulk sample at Bradshaw.

The site features over 2,098 metres of development, which includes a ramp and three underground levels. Gowest has stockpiled 28,567 tonnes of development material on surface for sorting, milling and sale of the resulting concentrate.

In 2018, the company signed a gold concentrate purchase and sale agreement with China's publicly listed Shandong Humon Smelting, which currently extends out to the end of this year.

Indicated resources at Bradshaw stand at 2.1 million tonnes grading 6.19 g/t gold for a total of 422,000 oz. with additional inferred resources of 3.6 million tonnes at 6.47 g/t gold for a further 755,000 gold oz.

In 2015, Gowest released the results of a pre-feasiblity study for Bradshaw, which outlined an underground operation producing an average of 40,500 oz. of gold annually over an 8-year mine life at all-in sustaining costs of $891 per oz. With an initial capital cost estimated at $21.5 million, the resulting net present value estimate, at a 5% discount rate, came in at $39.8 million with a 27% internal rate of return.

Gowest currently envisions commercial production at Bradshaw starting by 2021.

(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)