Vancouver — In the mid-1980s through 1991, the Debbie property on Vancouver Island was one of British Columbia’s most active exploration projects, with $13 million spent on surface and underground exploration by former operator Westmin Resources. Since renamed Mineral Creek, the advanced project is now being explored by
Bitterroot president Michael Carr says the company was attracted to the project because previous work had already identified disseminated and “bonanza-style” epithermal gold mineralization, as well as volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) mineralization, at several locations on the property.
“We have a different approach than Westmin, which was interested in the lower-grade, bulk-tonnage targets,” Carr says. “We’re drilling to define gold resources in a number of high-grade zones that were previously discovered, but not extensively explored.”
Earlier this year, Bitterroot inked a deal to earn up to a 75% interest by spending $2 million on exploration, issuing 400,000 shares, and paying $160,000 before May 1, 2010. Along with the Mineral Creek property, the junior can earn 75% of five adjoining claims by issuing 100,000 shares to a private party.
The 55.7-sq.-km project is situated 10 km east of Port Alberni, on Vancouver Island, and covers ground that saw limited production in three phases, starting with placer mining in the 1860s. Seven adits were developed, along with stamp and gravity mills, and a small mill that operated in the 1930s.
The region was revived in the 1980s, when several juniors used flow-through funds to test some of the historic gold showings. Westmin was also active, exploring for VMS deposits similar to those mined at its Myra Falls zinc-copper-silver-mine 80 km to the northwest.
Westmin saw potential for gold deposits too, and took over the project in 1985. The company identified the Linda, 900, 1050 and Mineral Creek zones, which host quartz veins with high-grade gold mineralization along a 2-km-long trend. The gold targets are hosted by Sicker Group volcanic and sedimentary rocks, which also host VMS occurrences and deposits, including those mined at Myra Falls.
In addition to early-stage exploration, Westmin carried out more than 50,000 metres of drilling and 1,200 metres of trenching. A 1.8-km-long exploration and 230 metres of crosscuts and raises were driven to provide drill platforms and allow for bulk samples to be collected from the targeted gold zones. No exploration drilling was done from the underground workings, however, as low gold prices and the industry downturn of the early 1990s took their toll. Westmin placed its priorities elsewhere and was subsequently acquired by Sweden’s
Bitterroot intends to pick up where Westmin left off, and is funding a drill program focused on the previously identified Linda, 900, 1050 and Mineral Creek zones. Some of these veins have resources defined from Westmin’s surface drilling that Bitterroot and its partner intend to bring up to National Instrument 43-101 reporting standards.
The first phase of drilling began this summer, initially focused on the near-surface 1050 zone, which was tested by the last hole ever drilled on the property by Westmin. The hole intersected 287 grams gold per tonne over 1.7 metres, with only 30% core recovery.
The first results from the current program were released earlier this fall, and include a surface hole that intersected a 0.8-metre interval grading 244 grams gold per tonne 20 metres above the aforementioned Westmin hole. Another hole returned a 0.5 metre-interval grading 55.6 grams, about 15 metres below Westmin’s high-grade intercept.
The high-grade system has now been traced downdip about 55 metres, and is open at depth and along strike. A gold-in-soil anomaly more than 300 metres wide was identified along strike and downhill of the surface trace of the mineralized zone, but has not yet been tested.
Once surface drilling at the 1050 zone is complete, the partners plan an underground program to explore the high-grade Linda and 900 zones. This involves applying for permits to re-enter and rehabilitate underground workings accessing the 900 zone, situated 800 metres east and along strike from the 1050 zone. The company says the modern trackless workings are still in excellent condition.
Work programs are operated by Mineral Creek Ventures, under the supervision of former Westmin geologists Michael Becherer and Georgina Price, both credited with VMS discoveries at Myra Falls.
Carr says the company has the benefit of their expertise, and the extensive geological and exploration data compiled by previous operators over the years.
Despite the work done to date, the project area lies within a geologically complex environment that is considered both challenging and underexplored, relative to gold and VMS districts in eastern Canada.
Carr acknowledges that much work needs to be done before the historic mining camp can become a modern one.
“And it’s geologically intensive work, compared to the large earth-moving projects favoured by major gold companies these days,” he adds.
While not making a direct comparison in terms of size or even a deposit model, Carr makes the point that geological detective work combined with “lots of drilling” revived the Red Lake gold camp of Ontario.
“A (similar) approach could work on some scale at Mineral Creek too,” he notes. “It’s about doing the work.”
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