Friday, November 27, 2009

Lamaque will shine

Hi Glorieux,

I think people forget that Lamaque has produced 9,287,450 ounces of gold since 1935 (almost entirely from the underground). A property cannot be that successful, for that period of time (including during periods of low gold prices), and not be world class and distinguished.

Quite often, the best places to find gold discoveries are places where gold has been mined successfully before. Right now, some of the greatest success stories in the world are located on properties with former production (along prominent gold belts in Canada - similar to Lamaque).

I posted this a few months ago, but I thought it's a good point to make again. It profiles the humble beginnings of 3 hugely successful Canadian mines/properties. I especially like the story of Goldcorp's Red Lake Mine. Also, that story reminds me of Lamaque's situation the most. The Red Lake Mine was left for dead at one point, but Goldcorp saw the potential and challenged that thinking. What is it now, the world's most highly regarded mine?

The other 2 mines profiled are Detour Gold's Detour Lake Mine and Osisko's Malartic Mine. Detour Gold (originally Pelangio) started with nothing and now its market cap is $1.2 billion. Same with Osisko, from nothing to $2.2 billion in market cap.

It is my belief that Lamaque will go down a similar path to these 3 mine/companies.

1) Goldcorp’s Red Lake Mine

“1994: Red Lake Mine was a marginal operation that been in continuous operation since 1948. It had been starved of capital and its performance had always been overshadowed by Campbell. Conventional wisdom said the Red Lake was finished, but Goldcorp challenged this belief at the beginning of 1995 when a $7 million exploration program was initiated that lead to the discovery of a high grade zone of gold mineralization.”

“1995: Significant discovery announced at Red Lake – nine holes averaging 311.31 grams of gold per tonne across 2.3 metres. The mineralization was discovered at a depth and location previously thought to have no potential.” The rest is history, right?

I believe Goldcorp used a similar modeling technique and approach (to assist with their exploration efforts) that Century is using with Lamaque right now.


2) Detour Lake

“The Detour Lake joint venture consists of the wholly owned exploration lands and the mine option lands covering the former Detour Lake mine which produced 1,764,985 ounces of gold during its 17-yearhistory.

How successful has Detour Gold’s exploration program been? Detour Gold currently has 13,200,000 of 43-101 ounces.


3) Osisko Exploration

“November 8, 2004: “The Canadian Malartic property includes the former Canadian Malartic Mine which produced over 1 million ounces of gold at an average grade of 3.37 g/t Au between the years 1935 - 1965. Historical production in the Malartic camp from 1935 to 1979 (Canadian Malartic and the adjacent Barnat-Sladen and East Malartic Mines) totaled over 5 million ounces (figures obtained from public data base of the Ministere des Ressources Naturelles du Quebec).”

“November 23, 2004: “…..announce results of the preliminary review of acquired technical documentation on its recently optioned Canadian Malartic property, Quebec. The review indicates that the Canadian Malartic property has a reported historical resource of over 500,000 ounces gold contained within several near-surface deposits.”

How successful has Osisko’s exploration program been? Osisko currently has 10,010,000 of 43-101 ounces.

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