Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Apr 08/02) - The state of two Kivalliq gold projects was front and centre at the Kivalliq Chamber of Commerce's annual general meeting in Rankin Inlet recently.

Cumberland Resources Ltd.'s Glen Dickson updated on the two projects.

It was a good news for the Meabowbank project near Baker Lake but, "The Meliadine project is in a state of limbo," said Dickson.

"We realize it's very frustrating for the people here, but, believe me, it's equally frustrating for us.

"We brought WMC into this project with the understanding they would advance the project and they haven't done that."

Dickson informed the gathering that exceptional drilling results during the past year expanded resources at the Meadowbank gold project to a total of more than three million ounces.

The increase makes Meadowbank the third largest undeveloped gold project in Canada. Cumberland committed more than $2 million into the next phase at the site hoping to identify enough resources to make the mine viable for a 10-year period.

He said current economics surrounding the Meadowbank project are improving all the time.

"We're looking at $168 an ounce in operating costs and an additional $67 per ounce in capital costs, bringing out total cost to $235 per ounce.

"Although our operating costs are very high at $123 million, we're optimistic we can lower those, at least to a point we can live with.

"A large open pit allows us lots of flexibility, as do the deposits being close together for the mining process.

"The big thing right now is that we need 10 years worth of resources."

Dickson concluded his talk by shining one small ray of optimism on the Meliadine project near Rankin Inlet explaining Meliadine has world-class potential which needs to be further developed.