St Elias Mines Tesoro project, a Red Lake comparison

The Red Lake gold mine in Ontario owned by Goldcorp, is one of the highest grade gold mines in the world and richest. Although the long term average grade of the mine is perhaps less than an ounce per ton gold, there is a high grade zone, that has been averaging around 2 ounce per ton gold. This is the mine/deposit that Lori made reference to when she spoke of how Kevin Killan from Quantec was excited and how he compared the Tesoro geophysical signature, to that of the Red Lake mine.

The highest grade part of the Red Lake mine has a sulphide content of around .5%, which is comparable to the Tesoro to some extent, but the Tesoro may have higher historic gold grade samples at this comparable aspect, and may even be as much as double. I see some mention of over 300 g/t early samples from the Red Lake, while we have samples around 600 g/t from the comparable A-4 Vein on the Tesoro. Also here, there are high grade pods present in this high grade area of the Red Lake mine, but I havent seen any mention of grades or quantity that come close to the 4 tons of material from the Tesoro that averaged ~11 ounces gold per ton.

In the sulphide zone of the Red Lake mine, their sulphides can average 10% in that area, their acompanying gold grade is around 10-15 g/t, compared to us, having average gold grade of 2-3 ounces gold in 5% sulphides, and indication of some samples getting higher, 6-11 ounces per ton, in increased massive sulphide mineralization in the C-1 complex of the Tesoro. Goldcorp tends to call these sulphide rich zones of their deposit as sulphide replacement zones as well, which can have veinlets of almost 100% sulphides with a low gold content, these same type of veinlets are mentioned on the Tesoro, but again, in any comparison, it would seem that these comparable areas, have the Tesoro perhaps doubling those numbers from samples. Understand that it is not always specified in the Tesoro sampling if the samples are select or not, so the assumption has to be made that they are not select, and that a random more demonstrative sampling protocol was followed, eliminating bias to the sampling procedure. Having said this, I feel confident in my comparison as is, and do see brighter prospects with the Tesoro, and this is not biased by me, a mere interpretation of the facts by me.

I see that vein clusters and narrow veins are responsible for the high grade portion of the Red Lake deposit, with main veins between 0.3 and 1.8 meters, I would say very close to an exact match to vein size of the Tesoro, whereas these veins are at considerable depths, and evidence is given that the Tesoro veins widen at depth, with some gold bearing veins being around 1 meter wide near the surface. A pinch and swell sequence appears as well between the two deposits, where the veins narrow and widen, not always uniform in width and depth.

The high grade zone of the Red Lake mine appears to be very small, with a strike of 60m and a down plunge of about 1000m. This is really small in comparison to the size of the signatures on the Tesoro, and may suggest that the Red Lake deposit is many many times smaller than the Tesoro signature. But to use the most probable signature or discerned area of the Tesoro property, its really hard to tell, because the Quantec geophysics around the A-4 comparable vein/geology, does not pick up the lesser sulphide content in this near surface area, until you get down perhaps close to 200m, although once out of the oxide zone around the 50-80 meter level, there appears to be signs that the sulphide content increases in the structure there, starts to widen further, and becomes better able to provide a signature to the geophysics at the settings level of the induced polarization. But for all intents and purposes, again by just comparing the A-4 Vein to their high grade zone, even though the average grade of the known depth to 60 m plus for the A-4 is around .75 ounces per ton, while the Red Lake average is around 2 ounces per ton, the A-4 vein is known to be at least 620 m long at surface, compared to the 60m strike of Red Lake. So with quick math just on this lower grade A-4 vein, perhaps there are many multiples more gold than the Red Lake HGZ , not even counting our other more impressive veins and structures.

The sulphide lower grade replacement zones at Red Lake appear to have structure width between 3-12 meters, but with short strike of 120-180 m. If we start comparing these, again by going with the data from the Tesoro and the geophysics, indications to me are that even these structures are many multiples smaller than what seems suggested on the Tesoro at depth.

This Red Lake mine is down now to approximate a depth of 2000m, I believe their high grade stuff is around this level. In comparison, we have been getting consistent grades from the C-1 at the 100m level of 2-3 ounces per ton, with Quantec signature and historic data suggesting to me that the sulphide content goes higher at depth, as well as the gold ratio. Although the C-1 vein may have a narrow average width, we have to allow for the massive sulphides found around and within the vein here, and also consider Lori,s comment from one of the presentations, how the adit put in in this area didn,t even follow any veins, and the development material still averaged 1 ounce per ton gold, so this shows you the capability of the disseminated gold content that has permeated the porous rock, and/or is part of initial dissemination within the host rock itself.

All in all, with the Red Lake mine having perhaps 20-30 million ounces gold, I don,t believe it is a good comparison in quanity to the Tesoro, and by looking above, I believe you see why. Perhaps the Quantec signatures are very comparable as Kevin Killan may have said, but definitely not the size of the signatures. The Miningstockreport seems to suggest the same thing, when discussing the shear size of Quantec signatures on the Tesoro and making the connection to the grades and historical data. So as you see, I am not the only one thinking this, and it is not a fabrication, only an assembly of the facts that are derived from news releases and historical data from the Tesoro. So am I saying the Tesoro is big? YES, I am saying its huge! And that explains all the BS we are going through, stand your ground.

thank you

rick jewers

http://rjgeorgeblog.com/