Red Lake Mining District

The Red Lake gold camp is situated in the Red Lake greenstone belt of Ontario, an accumulation of Archean-age metavolcanic, metasedimentary and intrusive rocks comprising a portion of the Uchi Sub-province of the Superior Province of the Canadian Shield.

Gold was first discovered in the Red Lake area in the mid 1920s and by the mid 1930s several producing gold mines were in operation. The belt is recognized for its high-grade, highly profitable gold mines, which include the world class Campbell mine of Placer Dome and Red Lake mine of Goldcorp.

The Red Lake District is made up of six communities: Red Lake, Balmertown, Cochenour, McKenzie Island, Madsen and Starratt Olsen. Past production and current reserves in the Red Lake district total approximately 23 million ounces of gold and continues to rise.

Since the mid-1960's The Red Lake District has yielded over 30-million ounces of gold worth over USD$20 billion at today's prices and is home to Goldcorp's Red Lake Mine, one of the richest, lowest cost production mines in the world. The Red Lake Mine produces approximately 600,000 ounces worth USD$405 million annually, with over 11 million ounces (USD $7 billion) gold to date.

Despite Red Lake's long history, the most prolific discovery was made just ten years ago. Dickenson Mines Ltd. had been successfully operating the Arthur White Mine in the region since 1948 and was acquired by Goldcorp in 1989. After applying advanced science and contemporary perspective to the former Arthur White Mine site and surrounding area, and implementing an impressive exploration program, Goldcorp made one of the highest grade gold discoveries in the world, averaging 9.08 ounces of gold over 7.5 feet on nine drill holes.

The now high profile Red Lake district has attracted nearly 60 juniors over the past five years and District real estate has elevated to blue chip status.
Prospects

There are prospects for development in the Red Lake district, although no companies have announced they are ready to consider production. A number of properties are being explored near the two producing mines. New underground drilling is ongoing this summer at the Cochenour-Willans Mine, which produced 1.2 million ounces of gold from 2.3 million tons of ore between 1939 and 1971.

The McFinley prospect has a 423-foot shaft and a completed mill. The have not announced any plans, but drilling has indicated reserves of 890,000 tons at .21 ounces of gold per ton.

The Red Lake Mine has a reserve of 4.3 million ounces of gold with an average grade of 1.34 ounces of gold per ton (45.94 g/t), including the recently discovered High-Grade Zone of 3.8 million ounces of gold with an average grade of 2.05 ounces of gold per ton (70.27 g/t). Combined, the Campbell-Red Lake ore bodies contain 22 million ounces at an average grade of 0.66 oz/ton (22.62 g/t) Au (past production and reserves). Accordingly, there is demonstrable economic rationale for exploring within the Red Lake camp for similar deposits.