Which project gets Norman Burmeister talking breathlessly? Ask him about the company's Kilgore gold property in southeastern Idaho. "I'm very excited about this project," said Burmeister. "It was a property that was very high on Echo Bay's list. At the time they were active, Echo Bay was one of the major gold explorers of the world. They had a very large budget. This was one of their top projects, possibly even their top project."
Indeed, Echo Bay had drilled 122 holes (82,987 feet of drilling) in 1994-96, and bought out Placer Dome for 100 percent ownership of the property. The collapse of junior gold exploration in 1997 led to the project (and all Echo Bay projects) being shelved. Kennecott, Placer and Pegasus each drilled the gold property between 1983 and 1994. Kilgore Gold (wholly owned subsidiary of Kilgore Minerals) acquired 100-percent ownership of the property, after the exploration industry had contracted. The smart buy at the bottom of the cycle, which is what Norman Burmeister did.
During 2006, the main show for Kilgore Minerals will likely be the summer drilling program on the Kilgore gold property, comprising 150 unpatented claims over an area of approximately 4.7 square miles. The technical report (National Instrument 43-101) was filed on the property by G.H. Rayner and Associates, which estimated 218,000 ounces of gold indicated and 269,000 ounces of gold inferred. To ascertain that estimate, nearly 200 diamond and reverse circulation drill holes for more than 126, 000 feet were completed. Major gold companies spent more than $8 million to bring this property to this level of understanding.
As a resource, less than 500,000 ounces is a small deposit. However, a drill intersection, during the summer 2004 drill program, struck a 10-foot section averaging 0.465 ounces/tonne or 14.5 grams per tonne gold. Designated the "Elsa Zone" discovery hole, the intersection found that gold sample more than 4,600 feet from the 487,000-ounce gold resource.
