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Few areas offer views of
imposing grandeur, such as we were able to observe from
both auto and airplane during our recent analyst tour,
which match the magnificent scenery of far northwestern
British Columbia near the Cassiar Mining Camp. However,
it was not the scenery that attracted Vancouver-based
Hawthorne Mining Corp. to the area, but rather it was
the opportunity to gain a project offering the
opportunity to enter production in the relatively near
future that was the basis for their recent acquisition
of the Table Mountain and Taurus properties, along with
a fully functional 300 tonne per day (tpd) mill as well
as and an additional 39,000 hectares of recently staked
property.
Along with their Frasergold project located in the
Quesnel Trough east of Williams Lake and south of
Barkerville, the company has now adopted a strategy of
bringing one project - Table Mountain - into production
at the earliest possible time while advancing
exploration and development at all their properties.
With the early 2008 completion of the acquisition of
Table Mountain and Taurus from prior owners Cusac Gold,
the company was able to clearly define its goal as:
"...to build another successful gold company through
focused exploration initiatives, continued development
of the Frasergold, Table Mountain and Taurus mineral
deposits and potential acquisition of other projects."
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Table Mountain
has a lengthy history of exploration and past
production going back more than half a century,
starting in the 1940s with a prospector named
Pete Hamlin who exposed auriferous quartz veins
in an area now known as "The Pete." Hamlin then
shared his information with brothers Guilford
and Fred Brett who were instrumental in creating
Cusac Industries Ltd., which later became Cusac
Mines in 1995.
During the
various periods of exploration, several
important veins have been discovered, beginning
with the Vollaug and followed up by the Jennie,
Maura, Devine, Bear, Goldie and Dease. In fact,
through the years, more than twenty veins have
been discovered and underground operations have
taken place at several, including Jennie,
Eileen, Michelle High Grade Zone, West Bain,
Vollaug, Bear and Rory. |
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Total production through
the years 1979-2007 from Table Mountain has amounted to
315,651 ounces of gold with an average grade of
approximately one-half ounce per tonne. In addition, low
grade recovery from the Taurus Property from 1981-1988
added another 35,000 ounces and placer activity from
nearby McDame Creek from 1874 through 1988 recovered
another 74,500 ounces.
Hawthorne's goal is to advance Table Mountain as quickly
as possible toward production, utilizing the mountains
of information accumulated through the years and
combining that knowledge with current exploration
efforts and a just-completed 6,355 line-kilometer
geophysical survey, consisting of a magnetic gradiometer
with VLM-EM geophysics. The mill is fully functional to
process ore at the rate of 300 tpd and the potential
exists to expand that to 400 tpd in the future. Initial
mill feed would likely come from the Maura and Rory
Veins with plans to process ore from other veins as
resources are developed across the extensive
quartz-carbonate-gold vein systems which are similar in
nature to some of Canada's largest gold camps such as
Timmins, Kirkland Lake and Val d'Or. Thirteen
underground adits are located on the property and are
available to further exploration and resource
development. Production at Table Mountain is planned to
resume about mid-2009.
Hawthorne believes the potential exists for the addition
of significant additional ounces, given the numerous
prospective areas spread across their large land
holdings. One of the purposes of the just-completed
geophysical survey is to identify anomalies which might
indicate specific target areas for further work.
Taurus is located just to
the north of Table Mountain and a recently completed NI
43-101 compliant estimate showed an inferred gold
resource of 1.04 million ounces consisting of 32.4
million tonnes at a gold grade of 1.0 grams per tonne.
Hawthorne plans to conduct an in-fill drilling and
exploration program to potentially increase and expand
the current gold resource. It is also worth noting that
another gold zone with significant gold intersections,
named Taurus II, lies adjacent to Taurus and offers
another target for future development.
Since the grades at Taurus are generally lower than at
Table Mountain, projected plans call for the development
of an open pit, bulk tonnage deposit. Company geologists
note that because there has only been limited
exploration at Taurus in the past two decades and there
are additional prospective areas that have been
untested, they believe the potential exists to
ultimately develop a multi-million ounce project.
At present, Hawthorne's plans for Table Mountain call
for opening underground portals and drilling to define
resources during the rest of 2008; pre-production mine
development during the fall and winter of 2008/09 and
actual gold production to be resumed by mid-2009.
The company's other major resource is the Frasergold
Project, located in the historic Quesnel Trough east of
Williams Lake and south of the famous mining town of
Barkerville. The project covers some 2,866 hectares and
is currently optioned from Eureka Resources. Hawthorne
will own a 51% interest upon completion of a full
feasibility study with the potential to be increased to
60% upon the arrangement of project financing. Access to
Frasergold is excellent through a series of paved and
gravel roads from Williams Lake and future connection to
the electric power grid would be available. At present,
due to heavy area snowfalls, exploration work can be
conducted from mid-spring through late October.
Like Table Mountain,
Frasergold also has a lengthy history with exploration
dating back to the late 1970s as well as earlier
references to previous area placer recoveries. Between
1980 and 2007 an estimated $11.26 million had been
expended for exploration at Frasergold, including a
total of 344 drill holes covering 39,582 meters which
have been completed along with 294 meters of underground
drifting, providing access for bulk sampling and
metallurgical testing.
During our visit to the drift, significant vein systems
were clearly visible, indicative of the quartz veins and
knotted phyllites which host gold mineralization as
coarse free gold and finer grained sulphide bearing
gold.
Shortly after acquiring their option, the company
initiated a major exploration program at Frasergold and
during 2007, sixteen diamond drill holes covering 3,615
meters were completed during a period of 3 1/2 months.
That program has been accelerated during 2008 and, by
late July, 53 holes covering more than 9,000 meters had
been completed before a short break was scheduled to
allow processing of already recovered core. When the
program is completed, now scheduled for mid-2009, a
total of over 28,000 meters of drilling are planned and
ten drill pads for future use have already been
prepared. |
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Hawthorne's VP of Operations, Michael
Redfearn, was recently quoted as noting, "We are
extremely pleased with our progress to date at the
Frasergold Property. We are ahead of schedule on
drilling, our team is aggressively logging core and
evaluating our exploration targets and we are making
ready an exploration team to review extensions to the
Frasergold mineralized system. Drill core has arrived
at the lab for testing and we expect to deliver initial
results to the market by the middle of August."
Several notable ore zones
have been discovered and a fully compliant estimate is
planned for the project by mid-2009. Work on a
pre-feasibility study is already underway and Hawthorne
plans to have a full feasibility study prepared by
year-end 2009, with the ultimate goal of having the
project ready for open-pit production by 2012 at a
processing rate of 25,000 tonnes or more per day.
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It is also worth noting that the
entire mineralized zone at Frasergold is estimated to cover some
ten kilometers and virtually all the work to date has taken
place over a one-kilometer portion near the center of the zone.
The company has assembled an
experienced and knowledgeable management team led by President
and CEO Richard Barclay who has filled those positions since
October, 2006. He previously served as Chief Financial Officer
and Director for TSX-listed Bema Gold from 1982 through 1992 and
has held high executive positions with other companies including
Adriana Resources, Nevada Pacific Gold and Eldorado Gold Corp.
Michael Redfearn has served as VP of Operations since February,
2007. He holds a B.Sc. Metallurgical Engineering from Michigan
Technology University and is a member of the Association of
Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia. He
has over thirty-five years of mining, environmental,
metallurgical and construction experience.
Patrick McGrath has held the positions of Chief Financial
Officer and Secretary since January, 2006 and has a Bachelor of
Commerce degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland and is
a Certified General Accountant.
The company has sufficient cash on hand to fund its exploration
and development programs, having successfully completed a
private brokered placement in April, 2008 which raised some
$11,740,000.
With the successful completion of the Cusac merger announced on
April 16, 2008 and the accelerated development now ongoing at
both project areas, in our opinion, Hawthorne Gold Corp merits
close attention by the mining investment community.
For further Investor Relations information, contact either
Robert Ferguson at (888) 629-1505 or Todd Hanas at (866)
869-8072 or visit the company's website at
www.hawthornegold.com
Leonard Melman
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