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Saturday, November 22, 2008 1:53 PM IDLE (GMT +12hrs)


Featured Listing

  • Deposit Type: Vein, Breccia and Stockwork, Porphyry
  • Commodity: Copper, Gold, Lead, Molybdenum, Silver, Zinc
  • State/Province: BC
  • Country: Canada
  • Latitude: 49° 16' N
  • Longitude: 120° 45' W
  • Deal Type: Option
  • Conditions:


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Property Summary

Property Location Map


- Over 120 million tonnes of mineralization outlined to date in two zones

- Over US$27.00 per tonne of values at current metal prices

- Potential for over 500 million tonnes

- Easily accessible by car on good roads, less than 3 hour drive from Vancouver

- Located near former producing mines

- Necessary infrastructure available nearby

- Reports available on previous work done by Majors and others.

- Why waste time and money searching out in the middle of nowhere when this type of potential is available so close to home?

Location and Access

The property is in the Similkameen Mining Division, British Columbia at latitude 49 degrees 16'N, longitude 120 degrees 45'W on NTS Map 92H/7. The property is 170km east of Vancouver, and is 26km southwest of Princeton. The Similkameen copper-gold mine is 15km ENE of the property.

Access from Vancouver is via Highway 1 to Hope and Highway 3 to Princeton. 13km south of Princeton, a good logging road leaves Highway 3 at Whipsaw Creek and goes southwestward along the north bank of the creek through the property, a distance of 20km to the camp. Numerous logging and mining roads give good access to most parts of the property.

Whipsaw Creek flows eastward through the middle of the property. The topography within the property is generally moderate, but there are some deeply incised valleys. Elevations range from 1385m to 1660m. The property is covered with large stands of commercial evergreen trees. There is little undergrowth, but dense brush does occur locally. Extensive logging has been done, and there are increasing areas of clear cut, which have obliterated the company's grid lines in some areas. In general, outcrop is sparse, but in many areas the overburden is less than one metre deep. Swampy areas occur near the sources of most of the creeks.

Introduction

The property contains mineralization that includes Cu, Mo, Au, Ag, Zn, and Pb in several zones related to the Whipsaw Porphyry intrusion and which extend over a large area north and south of Whipsaw Creek. After the original staking of gold-bearing, quartz-sulfide vein deposits in 1908, mineral claims covering various parts of the mineralized area had always been held by several owners. Major geochemical stream sediment and soil anomalies containing up to 1.8% copper were discovered in two tributaries, Forty-Five and Forty-Seven Mile Creeks, entering Whipsaw Creek from the north. The complex ground situation became even more so after this discovery of the porphyry potential in the northern part of the present property. However, in 1987, for the first time, the ground was consolidated, making it possible to plan exploration projects without property line constraints as was the case in all the pre-1987 work (Richardson, 1988a)

Some of the property to the south is at the early drilling stage of exploration and no ore reserves have been defined although mineralization was encountered in the holes that were drilled. To the north, the property has responded well, with several long drill intersections containing greater than 0.3% copper. Some individual drill intersections assay between 0.4% and 0.5% copper accompanied by significant amounts of molybdenum.

Geology and Exploration

The property contains mineralization that includes copper, molybdenum, gold, silver, zinc and lead, and is related to the Whipsaw Porphyry stock. The stock intrudes the west-dipping mineralized contact between the Upper Triassic Nicola Group volcanics and sediments and the Jurassic Cretaceous Eagle Granidiorite. Up to the present, copper, molybdenum and gold mineralization has been found mainly in the Nicola rocks, and is related spatially to the perimeter of the Whipsaw porphyry.

Intense copper-zinc stream sediment anomalies were discovered in 45 and 47 mile creeks in 1959, and were traced upstream to the northern and southern contact areas of the Whipsaw Porphyry. Since 1959, various parts of the area in which the stream sediment anomalies originated were covered by claim groups with separate and unrelated ownerships. in 1987, all the properties were consolidated by Mr. Charles R. Martin and it was possible, for the first time, to plan an exploration program covering the entire area of interest.

Drilling programs, based on geophysics and geochemistry correlated with geology, have outlined extensive areas of 0.25-0.35% copper mineralization accompanied by significant amounts of molybdenum, the latter becoming increasingly important with the recent rise in its price. In addition, soil sampling and ground work has indicated an area of gold potential, the Skarn area, in the southern part of the porphyry area.

A diamond drilling program was carried out in 2004 to continue the investigation of one of several porphyry copper-molybdenum deposits occurring within this large property. The program consisted of two diamond drill holes that totaled 245.04m. The diamond drill holes were successful in obtaining additional samples of the Cu-Mo mineralization at the north contact of the porphyry. However, more than anticipated fracturing and faulting were encountered and there were some sections of poor core recovery. Further diamond drilling programs should be done with a larger diameter core, such as NQ.

The property was optioned in 2005 and seven holes were drilled. A report is available at the office of Charles Martin.

Property Overview

The property presents an excellent opportunity to develop a highly economic mining operation in a very favorable location.

The most recent P.Geo's report dated December 16, 2005, based upon work done prior to and during August and September 2005, estimates a resource potential of 120 million tonnes on two zones alone. 70 million tonnes are estimated to a depth of 200 metres on the North Zone and 50 million tonnes are estimated to a depth of 300 metres on the South Zone. Both are open to depth and laterally.

While metal prices in years past may have made the economics of mining somewhat marginal, current metal prices as of July 2007 have certainly made the 120 million+ tonnes of mineralization outlined in these two zones alone, quite economic at $27.00 per tonne of gross metals content ($3.25 billion)

This tonnage figure has been developed with limited drilling. It is quite possible that with additional exploration and development work, total tonnage could be expanded to 500 million tonnes at a similar value per tonne, yielding a potential $13.5 billion of gross metals content.

Due to the size and nature of the various showings discovered thus far, there appears to be excellent potential for a number of economic deposits spread out over the nearly 16 square miles of claims encompassed within its boundaries.

Work Done

For a summary of work done by Texas Gulf, Moneta Porcupine, Amax and Newmont please contact the office of Charles Martin.

Original reports, maps, logs etc. are available.