Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Aug 28/00) - The future of the Meliadine West gold property in the Kivalliq region should become clearer in the near future.

"The company is confident that major decisions will soon be made with regard to the Meliadine West property," said Comaplex Minerals Corp., part-owner of the property, in its half-year financial report released last week.

"This property continues to be one of the most prospective gold properties in North America."

Comaplex, a Calgary-based junior mining company, owns 22 per cent of the Meliadine West property, located 20 kilometres north of Rankin Inlet. The company also has an oil and gas division.

Cumberland Resources also owns 22 per cent of the property. Majority owner and operator on the property is Australian-based WMC Ltd. WMC continues to study mining methods, capital and operating costs, and to gather baseline environmental information on the Meliadine West property.

Meliandine West's gold resource is estimated at 6.5 million ounces.

Comaplex says that covering the six months ended June 30, about $45 million has been spent on Meliadine West. About 500 drill holes, covering about 125,000 metres, have been carried out on the property.

On financial results, Comaplex reports net six-month earnings of $438,800 on revenues of $2.1 million, compared to $242,300 on revenues of $1.4 million in the previous year's six-month period. Comaplex predicts cash flow from all operations will exceed $2.5 million this year and top $3 million in 2001.

The company adds it has a "strong" working capital position. At June 30, Comaplex said it had working capital of $9 million.

The company's other Nunavut activities include exploration work at the Meliadine East, Noomut, Victory Lake and Spi Lake properties.