Mosquito finds mutiple metals at Pine Tree

Vancouver — Drilling by Mosquito Consolidated Gold Mines (MSQ-V, MQCMF-O) on its Pine Tree project, in central Nevada, has turned up wide, multi-element mineralized intercepts.

Hole PT06-04 returned a composite 273.4 metres (between 56.7 and 365 metres) grading 0.07% copper, 0.044% molybdenum (MoS2), 74.3 ppb rhenium, 0.04 gram gold per tonne, 2 grams silver per tonne, 0.28 gram indium per tonne and 17.5 grams gallium per tonne (giving a 0.87% copper-equivalent grade and a company calculated gross metal value of US$34.87 per tonne). The hole exhibited an oxide zone to about 150 metres depth, followed by a molybdenum-enriched zone.

Three other holes returned composite intersections of 117-181 metres averaging about 0.7% copper equivalent.

Mosquito worked out copper-equivalent grades and gross metal values for the mineralization containing copper and molybdenum plus potential byproduct gold, silver, rhenium, indium and gallium. It used metal values of US$2 per lb. for copper, US$25 per lb. for molybdenum trioxide, US$1,050 per oz. for rhenium, US$525 per oz. for gold, US$10 per oz. for silver, US$965 per kg for indium and US$425 per kg for gallium in its grade equivalents and gross contained values.

Pine Tree is a porphyry copper-molybdenum system that first saw exploration in the 1950s, including several hundred metres of underground drifting and limited drilling, plus mapping. Copper and molybdenum encountered in the recent drilling is within an argillic altered zone of pervasive silica and sericite, and occurs as disseminations and in millimetre- to centimetre-scale quartz veining and stockworks. Mineralization occurs in structurally complex Triassic sediments thrust over younger Jurassic sediments. Quartz porphyry dykes intrude the sediment units, which are separated by the major Cinnabar Canyon fault.

The company draws on Phelps Dodge’s (PD-N) Sierrita operation at Green Valley, Ariz., as a potential comparable example. Sierrita mines material averaging about 0.26% copper, 0.03% molybdenum, 0.03 gram gold, 1.2 grams silver and 57 ppb rhenium.

Shares of Mosquito lifted 18% to close at around $1.58 following the news. With its 22.2 million shares outstanding, the company posts a $35-million market capitalization.