Wolfden’s zinc-silver resource may revive Bathurst camp

An initial estimate for Wolfden Resources’ (TSXV: WLF) Canoe Landing deposit outlines strong zinc and silver grades, marking the first modern resource at Wolfden’s multi-target Tetagouche property inside New Brunswick’s Bathurst Mining camp.

The resource includes about 3.69 million indicated tonnes grading 0.71% zinc, 0.52% copper, 0.57% lead, 32.87 grams silver per tonne and 1.04 grams gold, though the estimate didn’t include contained metal amounts. Inferred resources total 17.1 million tonnes at 1.83% zinc, 0.53% copper, 0.61% lead, 33.73 grams silver and 0.95 gram gold. The project is about 240 km northeast of Fredericton.

“We are very pleased [with]…the tenor of the precious metal grades and that the deposit remains open at depth and in part along strike”, Wolfden CEO Ron Little said Thursday in a release. “The project already enjoys the benefit of its size and location close to existing infrastructure and industrial sites, in one of the most supportive and experienced mining jurisdictions in North America.”

Bathurst’s new potential?

The Canoe Landing resource points to the potential for smaller polymetallic deposits inside the wider Bathurst Camp, where the largest deposits have already been mined.

The company is doing metallurgical work with the Research and Productivity Council of New Brunswick (RPC), to raise base and precious metal recoveries and determine if the project could be more economically robust, Wolfden said.

The resource also sets Canoe Landing apart as the largest of the six targets at Tetagouche, where significant exploration happened in the 1960s and 1970s.

Nearby historic mine

Tetagouche sits about 30 km northwest of the Brunswick No. 12 mine, where about 11.4 million tonnes of zinc were mined from 1964 until 2013. The site was one of the world’s top massive sulphide deposits which hosted more than 100 million tonnes grading 8.99% zinc, 3.65% lead and 100 grams gold.

The Canoe Landing resource is based on 70 holes across a strike length of about 1 kilometre and down to 850 metres depth, Wolfden said.

Company shares were flat at 8¢ apiece on Thursday morning in Toronto, for a market capitalization of about $15.1 million. The stock has traded in a 12-month range of 6¢ to 18¢.