Juniors target ‘Sullivan’ projects

The search for the next Sullivan mine in British Columbia’s Purcell Basin has been frustrating and fruitless for most juniors, but three companies headed by Richard Hughes intend to give it another shot. Their efforts will hinge on geological modeling and other proprietary information gathered during the past several years.

“About $70 million to $100 million has been spent on this search already, mostly to drill geophysical targets,” Hughes says. “We’re going to try a different approach when we start our drill program in April.”

The program will be carried out by Klondike Gold (KG-V) on ground optioned from Abitibi Mining (ABB-V) and Sedex Mining (SDN-V). It will target “Sullivan-type” sedimentary lead-zinc-silver targets in the Creston-Cranbrook-Kimberly areas. (Cominco’s Sullivan mine, near Kimberly, has produced more than 150 million tons of 12% combined lead-zinc, plus 2 oz. silver per ton.)

Klondike Gold also plans to drill its wholly owned Crawford Bay project, north of Creston, where the target is a lead-zinc-silver manto-type environment. Drilling at the company’s gold project near Dawson City, Y.T., will focus on three gold-bearing shear zones in the Eldorado-Bonanza Creek basin. These shear zones are believed to be the source of most of the gold mined in the basin during the gold rush of 1898.

Toronto-based Aurogin Resources (AUQ-V) has initiated ground electromagnetic and magnetic definition surveys on anomalies identified by airborne time-domain electromagnetic surveys flown last year over three nickel-copper-platinum group metals properties in northwestern Quebec.

The Preissac and La Motte properties are being explored with partner Globex Mining (GMX-T) on a 50-50 basis. Situated 40 km northwest of Val d’Or, these properties are underlain by an ultramafic-komatiitic-basalt-sediment assemblage described as “comparable” to the highly productive Kambalda nickel-copper area in Western Australia.

At Preissac, six previously untested anomalies have been selected for follow-up work. At La Motte, work will be directed at the Cubric showing and adjacent Bison zone, where previous drilling and sampling returned encouraging values for nickel, copper and, in some cases, platinum group metals (PGMs).

Ground geophysics is under way on the Dana River claim block in the Lac Evans region. Four airborne electromagnetic survey anomalies, situated within a mafic complex with known nickel-copper-PGM mineralization, will be tested.

After withdrawing from the Wae Dara and Nggorang projects in Indonesia, Iriana Resources (IR-T) is seeking option and joint-venture agreements for remaining properties in Irian Jaya. In the meantime, the junior intends to focus its attention on the newly acquired Sun base-metal property in Manitoba’s Flin Flon mining camp.

The property was tested by 10 drill holes in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It hosts a resource estimated at 1.3 million tons (1.18 million tonnes) grading 0.56% copper, which includes 79,000 tons (71,653 tonnes) of 2.32% copper. The zone is open in all directions. Iriana has started a 600-metre exploratory drill program to test three gold zones on the Beresford-Gunnar property in the Rice Lake gold belt of southeastern Manitoba. This project is about 40 km east of the producing Bissett gold mine.

Following the withdrawal of a senior partner, Southern Africa Minerals (SAF-T) intends to resume drilling this year at the Caber and Caber North base metal properties, near Matagami, Que.

The Caber deposit hosts 484,000 tonnes grading 11.7% zinc, 1% copper and 15 grams silver per tonne, while Caber North hosts four massive sulphide deposits that, based on 12 widely spaced holes, “indicate the presence of 1.4 million tonnes grading 4.5% zinc, 1.5% copper and 18 grams silver,” plus an additional inferred resource of 1.7 million tonnes.

This year’s drilling is aimed at testing the potential for new base-metal discoveries and to conduct tighter-spaced drilling of the Caber North lenses. Airborne geophysical programs carried out last year helped identify drill targets elswhere on the Caber properties. Four of these will be tested by the Quebec Crown corporation Soquem, which can earn a half-interest in the project, exclusive of the Caber and Caber North deposit areas, by spending $700,000 on exploration.