Canadian gold miner, Claude Resources (CRJ.TSX, CGR: AMEX), reported an NI 43-101 gold resource from its 100% owned and operated advanced exploration project at its Madsen Gold Mine in Red Lake, Ontario, Canada. Madsen is located in one of the highest grade gold districts in the world, and in terms of historical production ranks as the third largest gold producer in the Red Lake camp, trailing only the Campbell and Dickinson gold mines with a total of 2.45 million ounces of gold produced during its 38-year mine life. The 10,000-acre property contains a 4,125 foot shaft, 500 tonne per day mill and tailings pond, each of which is fully permitted. Claude Resources went on to say that dewatering of the Madsen Gold Mine is on-going and presently 137 feet above the 16th level, while rehabilitation of the 16th level and the establishment of diamond drill chambers in support of Phase II underground drilling are scheduled to be completed by the second half of 2010.

The highlight of Claude Resources’ gold resource was the determination that the Madsen Gold Mine contains indicated resources of 928,000 ounces of gold at 8.93 grams per ton (g/t) and inferred resources of 328,000 ounces of gold at 11.74 g/t. The reported resource of 1.256 million ounces of gold was well above market expectations of approximately 500,000 ounces of gold. The gold miner noted that mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 5.0 grams of gold per ton - this material is amenable for underground extraction, at an assumed gold price of $1,000 per ounce and a gold metallurgical recovery of 94%. The effective date of the gold resource statement is November 30, 2009.

Brian Skanderbeg, Vice-President Exploration for Claude Resources, commented that “The successful integration of our Phase I underground drilling with historic drilling and mining data to generate this geological model and resource estimate is a major milestone for the Madsen Project and Claude Resources. Our geological understanding of the Madsen system has improved immensely through this process and will guide future underground and surface exploration at Madsen and in the Red Lake belt.”

Neil McMillan, President and CEO of Claude Resources, an industry veteran who also sits on the Boards of Cameco (CCJ) and Shore Gold (SGF.TSX), stated that “With the support of a major rise in the gold price, strong working capital, improving economics at our Seabee Project and a significantly expanded resource base at Madsen, Claude is well positioned to execute on its strategy of discovering, developing and producing gold in established belts proximal to existing infrastructure.”

Claude Resources recently received an investment from former Kinross Gold (KGC) Chief Executive Officer, Robert Buchan, of roughly C$5.3 million. Claude is a gold exploration and mining company located in Canada. Since 1991, Claude has produced approximately 865,000 ounces of gold from its Seabee Operation, located in northeastern Saskatchewan. As previously mentioned, the company also owns 100% of the 10,000-acre Madsen property in the Red Lake gold camp of northwestern Ontario. In morning trading shares of CRJ.TSX were up C$.03 to S$1.33 while the gold price was lower by $17.40 to $1,142.26 per ounce.