Gold hunters in New Brunswick

Article publisher in the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal Saturday May 17 2003

Geodex excited by gold find
EXPLORATION: Vancouver firm hits rich concentrations near Saint John

BY TALI FOLKINS
Telegraph-Journal

Gold has been found along the Fundy Coast east of Saint John - possibly enough to justify an open-pit mine three to five years from now, says the company exploring the area.

Geodex Minerals, a Vancouver-based junior mining company, is planning to begin this June an "aggressive" exploration program after finding exciting concentrations of gold in the Cape Spencer area, about 20 km east of Saint John, says company president Jack Maris.

"There are substantial reserves there," Mr. Maris says. "It's going to be one of the primary projects that we'll be exploring this summer, that's for sure."

Geodex, he says, plans to spend about $250,000 exploring the area this summer, hiring a mostly local workforce of four people plus drilling and backhoe contractors. If the results continue to be encouraging, the company will spend three to five summers exploring, after which, in the best-case scenario, a major mining company might decide to begin production on the site, he says.
The company first announced its intention to explore in the area April 22, at the site of an abandoned open-pit mine that had been operated briefly in the 1980s, and also at a number of other sites in an area known as Armstrong Brook.

A week later, Geodex said its recently-acquired Armstrong Brook property contained the highest-grade gold deposit yet discovered in the Cape Spencer region. On Wednesday, the company announced it had reached an agreement to explore an adjacent area, also next to the old Cape Spencer mine.

"It's a belt that our geologists like very much," Mr. Maris says. "They see tremendous opportunities in that area."

Chris Anderson, a company spokesman, says the geology of the area is quite different from that found in the Clarence Stream region, in Charlotte County. The Clarence Stream area, which Montreal-based Freewest Resources has been exploring in recent years, features sporadic deposits of gold in quartz.

But the Cape Spencer area falls into the Avalon system, he says, which runs all the way to North Carolina and is known for rich, deep-running deposits of gold.

The company, which only arrived in New Brunswick this spring, is excited about the province's mining potential, Mr. Maris says.

"We certainly want to expand our position in New Brunswick," he says. "Our geologists are working with other people now to try to find more properties."

Geodex minerals trades under the symbol
GXM on the TSX.v

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folkins.tali@nbpub.com