Casa Berardi
During the third quarter of 2007, the Company entered into a joint venture agreement with Aurizon Mines Ltd. (“Aurizon”) for the Casa Berardi property which covers a 30 kilometre strike length of the Casa Berardi deformation zone. The historical exploration data has been received and a detailed compilation was conducted in the fourth quarter. A significant drilling program for the project started early in 2008.
The Casa Berardi property is located outside of Aurizon´s existing mining leases and outside of its 100%-owned Casa Berardi mine. The Casa Berardi property covers 227 claims in an east and west block surrounding the Casa Berardi mine and covers an area of 11,594 hectares along a 30 kilometre section of the Casa Berardi fault. The Casa Berardi fault is a major structural zone that is host to a number of gold and base metal deposits. Numerous gold showings occur within the Casa Berardi property, which have been subject to limited exploration since its discovery in the 1980s.
Under the terms of the agreement, Lake Shore Gold can earn an undivided 50% interest in the Casa Berardi property by incurring exploration expenditures of $5 million over a five-year period, including a firm commitment of $600,000 in the first year. Lake Shore Gold will be the operator during the earn-in period. If an indicated mineral resource of at least 500,000 ounces of gold at a minimum grade of 6.0 grams of gold per tonne (or economic equivalent thereof) is established, the area containing the resource plus a one kilometre radius surrounding the outer perimeter of the resource may be transferred to a specific property joint venture, in which Aurizon and Lake Shore Gold will each have a 50% interest. Aurizon will then have the right to earn an additional 10% interest in the specific property by funding the costs of a feasibility study. The work program started in the first quarter of 2008, with the first-year expenditure commitment of $600,000 having been met during the quarter. Initial work focused on the claim block located east of the Casa Berardi mines.
On October 23, 2008, Lake Shore Gold announced results from the first phase of its 2008 drill program at Casa Berardi. The results included the discovery of a new gold zone, with the best intercept being 13.03 grams per tonne gold over 6.45 metres within a broader intersection of 8.58 grams per tonne gold over 10.4 metres (“Hole CE-08-03”). Hole CE-08-03 was the deepest mineralized intersection at a vertical depth of 247 metres and is located approximately 90 metres below a historic intercept of 11.11 grams per tonne gold over 2.24 metres. The new intercept is open both at depth and laterally.
| Casa Berardi | |
|---|---|
| (CE-08-03) | 8.58 Au g/t over 10.4 metres |
| Including | 13.03 Au g/t over 6.45 metres |
| Including | 51.33 Au g/t over 0.65 metres |
| (CE-08-07) | 8.64 Au g/t over 2.4 metres |
| Including | 28.82 Au g/t over 0.65 metres |
| (CE-08-11) | 6.84 Au g/t over 3.1 metres |
| Including | 13.80 Au g/t over 0.3 metres |
Work completed in the first quarter of 2009 included drilling 3,656 metres in 10 holes on the east block of claims, which holes were designed to follow up on favourable results obtained in 2008 drilling. A further drill program was launched during the summer of 2009 and is currently ongoing.
