Northern Star Mining NSM-TSXV
Update September 15, 2009
Northern
Star Mining (NSM-TSXV) is preparing to take its 100% owned Malartic Midway gold project in northern Quebec into
production (late September/early October 2009). The company is
fully-permitted and has the entire necessary infrastructure in place to begin
mining, including a 1000 tonne-per-day mill and extra capacity from two other
mills nearby.
Northern Star?s property;
the Malartic Midway project; is immediately west of Val
d?Or, Quebec, and is Quebec?s highest grade mine, historically, at 7 to 10 grams. The
property lies within the Abitibi Volcanic Belt; over 180 million ounces have
gold have been mined from this belt, between Val d?Or, Quebec and Timmins, Ontario, making
it the second largest gold camp in the world (behind South Africa). Quebec
has been voted the #1 place to go mining in the world, by the Fraser Institute,
in terms of geopolitics and geologic potential.
The new mine will be an underground mine with two 3000 foot shafts
(inherited from the old Malartic mine) and a decline
recently completed by our contractor, Dumas. They have completed almost 2 kilometres of
underground at about a depth of 600 feet. A decline has been started on
the western part of the property next door to where Osisko
has drilled off 10 million ounces of gold in low-grade porphyry (1 gram to 1.5 grams/tonne
gold).
The Malartic Midway project features two different
types of gold mineralization: the higher grade gold mineralized gabbros and the
larger volume lower grade mineralized porphyries (like Osisko,
above). Fourteen of these near-surface (containing about 90,000 ounces of gold
each) mineralized lenses have been drilled off. The lenses have been
drilled from surface to 1500
feet. One hole drilled in 2007 intercepted a
mineralized lens at 5300
feet; at this depth, the mineralized area has seven
zones (several high grade breccias and several porphyry lenses). Mining
engineers really like Northern Star?s
near surface mineralized lenses because of their impressive widths and grade
(ranging from 12 feet
to 77 feet
running 8 to 10 grams/ton). In the old Malartic
mine, substantial amounts of one ounce plus material was mined at the 2200 foot level. NSM?S new discovery called the ?L? zone,
where a drill hole intercepted 16
feet of 2.5 ounces/ton gold should boost margins and
initial mining profitability. The initial year of production should be
in a range of 30,000-50,000
ounces of gold with the goal of achieving 300,000 to
500,000 ounces/year 3-5 years from now. For every three ounces of
gold mined, roughly one ounce pays for costs and the remaining two ounces pay
for administrative costs/debt reduction/budget for mine expansion and bottom
line profits.
After last months? $25 million dollar financing, the
company was able to clean up its balance sheet and reduce debt by $15
million. Northern Star Mining currently has $15 million of cash in the
bank. On September 3rd, 2009, Northern Star closed an $8
million dollar royalty financing with Anglo Pacific Group PLC, further adding
to their treasury (NR Sept. 3rd).
Best Regards,
Robert A. Young and Heather A. Conley, Bsch Geo
The RAYA Group
Vancouver, B.C.
Tel: 604-682-5123
Mobile: 604-307-7797
Tollfree for North America: 1-877-626-2121
Email: raya@telus.net
Bruce Scafe/the RAYA Group ? 1-250-748-4309