AME BC Roundup session highlights recent discoveries in BC, Yukon and Alaska

Vancouver – With the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia celebrating its 100th anniversary at this year’s Mineral Exploration Roundup in Vancouver, it was only fitting that most of the projects highlighted in Tuesday’s sessions had long histories.

The conference technical session focused on a selection of notable recent discoveries from British Columbia, Yukon, and Alaska, with a packed house eagerly getting the latest updates on the projects.

Thompson Creek Metal‘s (TC-N, TCM-T) Mt. Milligan project first saw prospecting in the late 1930s, though it was not until 1987 that the Mt. Milligan deposit was discovered. By 1991 the project had a feasibility study and in 1993 it was ready for development, but an economic downturn derailed construction.

Fast forward over a decade later and and newly established Terrane Metals took over the project and brought the project to the construction stage by mid 2010. Shortly thereafter Thompson Creek took over Terrane in a $650-million deal.

Today Mt. Milligan is quickly taking shape with most of the concrete foundations in place, a 900-bed camp built, the major mining equipment beginning to arrive and some 650 people active on-site. Over the planned 22-year mine life Mt. Milligan should yield roughly 194,500 oz. gold a year and 81 million lbs. copper.

With an estimated start of late 2013 the project should be British Columbia’s next major mine, ushering in a new era of mine development in the province.

Two earlier-stage B.C. projects highlighted in the session also have some history, with New Gold‘s (NGD-T) Blackwater gold-silver project first seeing exploration in the early 1970s and Pretium Resources (PVG-T, PVG-N) Brucejack gold project first being explored in the early 1960s.

Both projects saw a major shift in the past couple years however, with new discoveries that totally changed the project dynamics. Pretium concentrated on high grade gold and pulled some very impressive intercepts including 0.6 metre grading 18,755 grams gold per tonne. At Blackwater Richfield Ventures – later taken over by New Gold – hit long intercepts including 329 metres grading 1.25 grams gold that led to a rapid expansion of the resource.

New Gold expects to release an updated resource on Blackwater any day now and Pretium should be releasing an updated preliminary economic assessment this quarter.

Further north in the Yukon, Prophecy Platinum‘s (NKL-V) Wellgreen project has a history just as long, even being put into production briefly in the early 1970s. But only last year, following a thorough compilation of old and new data, and taking into account the significant platinum, palladium and gold values that weren’t factored in before, was a significant resource released that caught investors attention. The project now has a resource of 289 million inferred tonnes grading 0.38% nickel, 0.35% copper and 1.18 grams platinum, palladium and gold.

On the opposite end of the history spectrum sits Atac Resources’ (ATC-V) Osiris project, an entirely new gold discovery that has shown striking similarities to the famous Carlin trend. Discovered from high-arsenic stream showings, the company has confirmed through drilling that the project hosts Carlin-type gold mineralization. Atac plans to double its drilling at the project in 2012 to roughly 120 holes during the short June to October drilling season at the helicopter-access only camp.

Golden Predator’s (GPD-T) Brewery Creek gold project was discovered in 1987, making it a relatively recent discovery. But with the oxide deposits turned into a mine between 1996 and 2002 the project still has a lot of history. Last year Golden Predator managed to make a few new discoveries on the project, hitting gold mineralization further to the east and the south after conducting over 55,000 metres of drilling. Thanks to ready road access, the company will begin drilling again shortly, and will also shortly release an updated resource for Brewery Creek.

Looking westward to Alaska, NovaGold Resources (NG-T) is rekindling interest in the Bornite and Arctic copper projects in the northwestern reaches of the state. The projects saw early development in the 1960s, with a deep shaft sunk on the high-grade Bornite deposit but no sustained mining.

More recently NovaGold has pulled strong intercepts including 110.6 metres grading 2.6% copper and 178 metres averaging 4.01% copper. The company is now working to spin out the properties into NovaCopper, a subsidiary it is trying to list within months, to bring more attention and momentum to the project.

And Finally Full Metal Minerals (FMM-V) is attracting interest in the Pyramid porphyry project in southwest Alaska that it is developing with partner Antofagasta Minerals (ANTO-L).

Last year the companies pulled several long intercepts at the copper-molybdenum-gold discovery, including 155.9 metres grading 0.97% copper equivalent and 310.3 metres grading 0.53% copper equivalent. Like almost all of the other exciting new discoveries highlighted at the session, the project has seen quite a bit of historic exploration, but is being looked at differently thanks to the recent drill hits.

Overall the message at the session was that, despite over a hundred years of exploration, there is still lots to discover in these geologically diverse regions.