Grayd advances Alaskan properties

Slumping metals prices and weak equity markets have not deterred Grayd Resources (GYD-V) from pursuing its impressive portfolio of properties in the Bonnifield and Delta districts of Alaska.

“We’ve been quite busy in the past year,” Grayd President John McCluskey told The Northern Miner during a recent visit to the scenic properties.

“We’ve added to management, raised a lot of money, brought in 14 additional properties and established two new joint ventures with majors . . . and we’re not finished yet.”

Grayd’s busy year is largely attributable to its exploration successes in the Bonnifield district, situated on the northern flank of the Alaskan mountain range, about 88 km south of Fairbanks. The junior owns five non-contiguous properties there: the Dry Creek volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) prospect, the Anderson Mountain VMS prospect, the Sheep Creek VMS prospect and the Kansas Creek and Daniel’s Creek gold prospects. The most advanced of these are Dry Creek and Anderson Mountain.

The Bonnifield district comprises Precambrian and Paleozoic-aged sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Yukon Tanana Terrane. The VMS-style mineralization here is usually hosted in Devonian- to Mississipian-aged felsic volcanic and sedimentary rocks. Precious metal mineralization is commonly found in mid-Cretaceous-aged intrusions.

The Dry Creek property, which straddles the north-cental part of the district, hosts two zones of VMS mineralization. These structures occur on the northern and southern limbs of an east-westerly trending synclinal fold.

The rocks are metamorphosed to a lower greenschist grade. The dominant structural fabric on the property is a strong mylonitic foliation, and there is a consistent east-northeasterly lineation that plunges at about 20-30.

The southern limb of the syncline contains three stratigraphic horizons of sulphide mineralization and dips steeply to the north at about 70-80. The three horizons include the DC-North, DC-South and DC-17 zones.

Recent work has focused on the DC-North zone, where drilling has targeted sulphide mineralization defined by a 2-km-long electromagnetic (EM) conductor. The DC-North zone has been sub-divided into three areas: Discovery, which rougly bisects the EM anomaly; Lago Creek, which is 200-400 metres west of the Discovery area; and Fosters Creek, about 800 metres west of the Discovery area.

It was in the Fosters Creek area that a recently reported drill hole, 40, hit a 29-metre interval (true width) grading 6.22% zinc, 2.56% lead and 0.22% copper, as well as 182.8 grams silver and 1.03 grams gold per tonne. A 3.7-metre intercept in the hole produced assay results as high as 23.58% zinc, 8.46% lead, 1.02% copper, 531.5 grams silver and 2.24 grams gold.

At the time of The Miner’s visit, Grayd was drilling hole 44, which has been designed to test the easterly extension of hole 40. In total, about 3,600 metres of drilling are planned for Dry Creek this season.

The DC-South horizon is virtually unexplored except for a few reconnaissance holes, whereas DC-17 represents a 15-metre-thick bed of pyrite (with minor amounts of lead and zinc) that is believed to be genetically related to other zones. The company intends to investigate both areas more thoroughly.

The northern limb of Dry Creek syncline dips gently to the south and hosts the WTF zone, which contains a reserve estimate of 2.8 million tonnes grading 0.08% copper, 2.3% lead, 5.6% zinc, 155.7 grams silver and 0.9 gram gold. This narrow zone of mineralization measures 0.3-5 metres thick and has been tested by 26 widely spaced holes. The WTF zone remains open along strike and downdip.

“There is potential to drill through the WTF horizon and reach the DC-North horizon, but that remains totally untested at this point,” said Robert Fankhauser, director of Pacific Alaska Resources, which is managing the Bonnifield properties.

Grayd’s wholly owned Anderson Mountain property is in the centre of the Bonnifield district, about 96 km south of Fairbanks and 29 km southwest of the Dry Creek property.

Volcanic massive sulphide (VMS)-style mineralization is found in Devonian- to Mississippian-aged felsic volcanics and sediments, and numerous massive sulphide boulders (some up to 1.5-metres thick) are found protruding beneath the scree-covered slope of Anderson Mountain. Geophysical and geochemical surveys have defined a potential zone of VMS mineralization stretching over a strike length of 1,373 metres.

A hole put down by previous operators in 1976 intersected a massive sulphide zone that measured 1.7 metres thick and assayed 1.2% copper, 2% lead, 8.5% zinc and 61.4 grams silver.

A current drill program at Anderson Mountain has intersected several narrow intervals of minerlization in the rhyolitic and dacitic volcanics. However, complex folding has made it difficult to predict the sulphide zone’s position.

“This is exploration in its purest sense,” said Gary Anderson, manager of the Anderson Mountain project. “We’re chasing some pretty good grades, and the biggest challenge is to find out where the sulphide zones thicken.” Grayd intends to drill 2,400 metres on the property this season.

.SDelta district

Grayd is also exploring ground in the Delta district of east-central Alaska, some 320 km southeast of Fairbanks. Its holdings there consist of a 16.2% interest in 711 claims with Inco’s (N-T) exploration subsidiary, American Copper & Nickel (ACNC). The junior can boost its interest to 34% by spending US$1.8 million to fund this year’s program. ACNC has already spent US$5.3 million exploring the land package.

The Delta district is host to its namesake schist belt, which forms part of the Yukon Tanana Terrane, and consists of interbedded and tectonically imbricated metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks. These rocks are metamorphosed to greenschist facies; they strike northwest and dip to the southwest. Five series of rocks occupy the Delta Schist belt: Tok River, Drum, Tiger, Lagoon, and Tushtena Pass.

The massive sulphides are commonly associated with the rhyolitic and dacitic rocks of the Lagoon and (structurally higher) Drum series. The Tiger series represents a barren group of rocks sandwiched between Lagoon and Drum.

The Delta joint venture includes a 115-sq.-km area of mountainous terrain that contains close to 40 massive sulphide occurrences, only 11 of which have been drilled. Eight of these prospects have preliminary resource estimates. However, because no thickness or grade cutoff values were used, ACNC plans to carry out new calculations incorporating these factors.

The DD deposits (North and South) occur in the Drum series rhyolite and were first discovered in the late 1970s. DD North carries a preliminary resource estimate of 1.8 million tons grading 1.3% copper, 1.4% lead and 2.1% zinc, whereas DD South is pegged at 2.4 million tons of 1% copper, 2% lead and 5% zinc.

Drilling indicates that each deposit has a 10-metre-thick, higher-grade keel. Also, both remain open and have about 1.2 km of untested ground between them.

The DW-LP deposits, estimated to contain a total of 7.8 million tons grading 0.4% copper, 1.1% lead and 3.3% zinc, have been traced over a strike length of 3.2 km.

Another mineralized horizon, PP2, discovered below DW-LP, is estimated to contain 2.6 million tons grading 0.4% copper, 1.4% lead and 3.1% zinc. The whole system (DW-LP and PP2) remains open in all directions.

Meanwhile, two prospective zones, Trio and SuperCub, are attracting considerable attention. ACNC’s mapping has found that surface showings at Trio represent large sulphide blocks in a massive landslide, indicating that all previous drilling had missed the bedrock sulphide horizon. The company plans to drill-test EM conductors farther up-slope.

The SuperCub prospect was discovered in 1995 by ACNC geologists, who found boulders with grades that ran consistently higher than 25% combined copper, lead and zinc. Gold and silver were found in the samples and assayed 0.3 oz.

and 6 oz., respectively. EM conductors at the prospect have yet to be tested.

ACNC’s program for this year inc
ludes about 2,300 metres of drilling and some bore-hole EM geophysics. The program is designed to drill-test the uppermost EM anomaly at the Trio prospect, and find the source of the SuperCub high-grade float boulders. Exploration will also focus on extending the known deposits and exploring the geometry of the sulphide horizons.

Grayd has $5.2 million in working capital and 16.9 million shares fully diluted.