Calpine cuts 96 ft of 0.7 oz gold

A significant new gold discovery has been made north of Stewart, B.C., by Calpine Resources (VSE), an affiliate of Vancouver-based Prime Capital. The property is 100%-owned by Consolidated Stikine Silver (VSE) and Calpine can earn a 50% interest for an expenditure of $900,000 by 1990.

The property’s potential was first recognized by the late Tom Mackay who staked it in 1932 and later put the claims into his Unuk River Syndicate. Consolidated Stikine has held the ground for about 35 years and Margaret Mackay, his widow, is the company’s president. “My husband always said it was going to be a great mine,” she told The Northern Miner, adding that several well-heeled majors have looked at it including Placer Dome, Texasgulf, and U.S. Borax.

Calpine recently announced partial results from a 6-hole, 2,548-ft drill program on its Eskay Creek project which included high grade values over good widths at a relatively shallow depth. Indeed, Prime Capital’s typically optimistic chairman, Murray Pezim, said his engineers have concluded “it could be in the millions of tons — possibly 10 million or more.” Inadequate drilling capacity prevented the holes from going deeper and a follow-up program is planned shortly.

Initial results released by Calpine were referred to as “preliminary” because they were analyzed by atomic absorption rather than by standard fire assay techniques. For higher grade values in particular fire assaying is considered more accurate. Even so, the correlation between the two methods has been excellent, Calpine said.

Among the three holes just reported, CA88-3 returned 21.3 ft grading 0.2 oz gold plus minor silver. This hole was abandoned at 305.1 ft in mineralization. Hole No CA88-5 yielded 242.1 ft of 0.125 oz including 9.8 ft averaging 0.31 oz gold and 29.5 ft grading 0.22 oz. (The former was a fire assay and the latter atomic absorption).

Another intercept in that hole gave 52.5 ft of 0.27 oz gold and 0.95 silver including 32.8 ft grading 0.33 oz gold and 1.2 oz silver. (These were composite assays in which atomic absorption assays were converted to fire. The AA values were over narrow intercepts so it would take a major change to effect the over-all result). It was abandoned in mineralization at 354.3 ft.

The third hole, No CA88-6, returned the best results including 96.5 ft of 0.73 oz gold and 1.1 oz silver. Within that intercept was 52.5 ft of 1.33 oz gold and 2.0 oz silver. This inclined hole was abandoned at 391.1 ft in mineralization.

The three holes, which were spaced approximately 165 ft apart, tested the northeast extension of the 21 zone; that zone is still open along strike and at depth, according to Chet Idziszek, the president of Prime Explorations which is providing consulting and management services to Calpine.

All the holes bottomed in mineralization which appears to be volcanogenic in origin and associated with disseminated sulphides in northeast-trending felsic volcanic breccias and graphitic argillites in contact with overlying intermediate volcanics. Gold values are disseminated in the sulphides and the existence of lead and zinc suggests the deposit was formed at a sea floor interface, he said.

Idziszek said the program would probably continue through the winter, adding the property is easily accessible from an existing campsite. The discovery is situated on a plateau at about 3,500 ft elevation and there are few if any topographical constraints. The Stewart/Cassiar highway is about 25 miles to the east. Another 10,000 ft of drilling is planned immediately and a larger drill rig should arrive shortly. The other drill rig, which had a depth capacity of 6-700 ft, wasn’t able to fully test the zone. Several of the holes will be deepened and the zone will be tested further along strike and to depth. Consolidated Silver Butte Mines (VSE) borders Calpine immediately to the south and Newhawk Gold Mines (TSE) is approximately 12 miles to the southeast.