Wallbridge pushing for early production at Fenelon: Quebec property showing good results, say executives.

• Author: McKinley, Karen
• Position: SUDBURY

A Sudbury-based company says it is feeling so confident about their property in Quebec, they are hoping to make a production decision by late next year despite having few proven reserves.

Wallbridge Mining Company Ltd. presented their latest findings and core samples from their Fenelon property at a special November presentation of the Sudbury Prospectors and Developers Association. The talk, presented by Attila Pentek, senior geologist at Wallbridge, and Joshua Bailey, vice-president of exploration, gave a comprehensive history of the property, the geology of the deposits, initial test drills and preliminary assay results of core samples, as well as the short timeline the company is planning to be in production.

Fenelon is located 150 kilometres north of Val d'Or, just over the Ontario/Quebec border, and is in an area that Bailey described as largely overlooked by prospectors. Exploring the property was part of a valuation strategy by the company, which met the investment criteria for a number of reasons.

"This is a high-grade historic resource, with existing mine workings," Bailey said. "There had been two bulk samples showing the ore is mineable, producing around 110 grams per tonne, with bulk recoveries around 97 per cent."

For those who understand what is known as "nuggety" gold deposits, having such high-grade samples is significant, he added.

The project has advanced rapidly over the last year, he said. Early last year they started discussions with Balmoral Resources, who owned Fenelon at the time, to acquire the property 100 per cent. Last summer they did a resource update before the acquisition was complete.

Since then, it's been a steady and rapid process of drilling and assays, and results are so positive the company is pushing to get a 35,000-tonne bulk sample before the end of this year.

During question period from the audience, a member asked about why the company was considering an early production date when they have so few proven reserves. President-CEO Marz Kord said he understood the concern, but was very confident in the initial results to get a return to the stakeholders.

"The last 100 years the larger companies wouldn't go ahead unless they had around three years' reserves, but there are times when they do all this preliminary work, go into production and there's almost nothing left (to mine)," he explained.

"These results show, even at shallow depths, the results are very good. We are going to make capital as we go...