What has been described as a “barn burner” of a drill hole yielded spectacular gold values at Huntington Resources’ (VSE) Brett property west of Vernon, B.C.
The intersection that may have jolted the foundation of the Vancouver Stock Exchange was a record 2.03 oz gold over 235 ft.
The results shook the VSE when Huntington stock, which closed at $1.30 before the news was released, opened at $5.25 after the halt trading was lifted to release the results
Lacana Mining, now part of the new Corona Corp, is Huntington’s joint venture partner in the project. Lacana president Gilyeard Leathley points out that the hole was drilled down dip through a shear zone and does not represent true thickness. Previous drill results (N.M., Sept 21/87, Nov 23/87) indicated the zone averaged about 6-ft thick but widens at places to 30-40 ft. Leathley said the thicker section was indicated in one hole.
Leathley was cautious in his appraisal of the drill results saying: “We’ll have to examine what they’ve got.”
Huntington President Stirling D. McIlveen said the hole was “targeted to test the continuity of high grade gold mineralization intersected by three diamond drill holes in 1987. This was achieved by drilling through and beyond these core intersections.”
The mineralization is largely in the footwall of the main shear zone and includes an upper higher grade section of 145 ft averaging 2.95 oz gold with extensive visible gold; a section beneath this graded 0.548 oz gold over 90 ft.
Huntington’s project geologist, Werner Gruenwald said they tried twice to drill a reverse circulation near hole 87-29 which last year returned 17.2 ft o f 0.74 oz gold and 7.1 ft of 0.27 oz.
The two holes didn’t reach the desired depth and the rig was moved to another location. But they decided to try another hole and he confirmed it hit all previous intersections and terminated in what they thought was “dead ground” which later assayed 0.61 oz gold. The end of the hole is in the footwall of the shear which probably should have been out of the zone and Gruenwald confirmed there now seems to be “a footwall preference to the mineralization.”
Gold values are found in quartz vein material (including stockwork veining), finely grained andesite, and tufaceous rocks. Some highly siliceous material contained bonanza grades, he noted.
Reverse circulation, a percussion drilling system where cuttings are recovered up a large diameter core barrel, was chosen because diamond drilling did not yield adequate recoveries. Gruenwald said that reverse circulation (4.5-in.- diameter holes) offered about four times the sample returned from NQ diamond drill core. (It’s commonly used in the Western U.S., mostly for low grade heap leach deposits where a good bulk sample is essential.)
The reverse circulation drill is no longer on the property and the emphasis has shifted to diamond drilling again. Short step-out holes are being put down north and south of the recent bonanza hole and they plan to bring back the reverse circulation unit, he said.
Gruenwald confirmed the obvious when he stated that previous diamond drilling results could be significantly upgraded with large diameter drilling, namely reverse circulation. The company has kept all hole rejects and he said they can literally pick gold particles out of the cuttings by hand.
“We obviously have a high grade shoot developing here,” he added.
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