Pezim ties up Grew Creek ground in the Yukon

Virtually all the ground on trend with the Grew Creek discovery of Noranda Exploration and Golden Nevada Resources has been tied up by Pezim Group companies including his fledgling merchant bank, Prime Capital. The group has locked up about 50 miles of some of the best ground in the Yukon Territory.

This impressive gold discovery, which received yet another boost with the release of hole No 87-30, has exhibited definite production potential although its exact size is still unknown. The latest hole, which was drilled 100 ft below No 87-29 (N.M., Jan 11/88), returned a very respectable 49.2 ft averaging 0.35 oz gold and 0.68 oz silver (uncut) between 377.8 and 427 ft.

Not surprisingly, that hole has important tonnage implications for the deposit both along strike and to depth. (An earlier news release erroneously located the intercept point for this hole as being 250 ft below 87-29.) But the zone is still open to depth and the chances of it reaching that horizon (or further) are still quite good, The Northern Miner gathers. “In my estimation you’re looking at a million tons plus and it’s wide open,” says Murray Pezim, who heads up Prime Capital.

Chet Idziszek, the president of Prime Explorations, a wholly- owned subsidiary of Prime Capital, notes that “the holes at the 200-ft vertical horizon have some pretty good thicknesses.” Indeed, the average true width is just over 51 ft based on 10 drill holes, he points out. The deposit, which in relative terms is sulphide poor (probably less than 5%), occurs in a very young group of volcanic rocks and is associated with a large graben.

“It’s near surface, we are getting good grade and thicknesses, and we should be able to strip the deposit off and open pit a lot of it,” Idziszek predicts, adding that for “some of the deeper stuff we will go in by decline.” He also predicts the deposit will make a lot of money because it has good continuity, grade and mining widths.

At one point, the joint venture thought the deposit was only open to the east along strike and to depth. But hole No 87-30 demonstrates that it’s open to depth and possibly to the west. He confirms that the latest hole “seems to break out another portion of the deposit.” A second drill, which was to arrive by mid-January, will be used for in-fill drilling and to trace the deposit along strike.

The joint venture will also be looking at the Tarn zone just over a mile to the east where some ip work is planned prior to diamond drilling. Earlier drilling by another company intersected 131 ft of brecciation and alteration with anomalous gold values. Several other targets exist which will also be looked at immediately, he claims. The large alteration zone continues through to the Tarn zone.

Prime Capital has farmed out ground it staked to several companies including Baywest Capital (164 claims), Norman Resources (136 claims), Hemlo Explorations (141 claims), Argo Development (284 claims), Halcyon Resources (149 claims) and Wildfire Resources (148 claims). With the exception of Baywest, all of these are Pezim Group companies.

They can earn a 50% interest in the properties from Prime by spending $1 million on exploration. A revolver-shaped property roughly two miles southeast of Grew Creek on trend was at last report still held by an independent prospector. The prospector was rumored to have been asking for a hefty up-front cash payment.

Ownership of the Grew Creek property is divided among Golden Nevada (50%), Noranda (27.8%) and Brenda Mines, subject to an underlying net smelter royalty to the property owner which Idziszek claims is “not onerous.”

Mintel International’s 100%- owned property, which bounds the Grew Creek discovery on either side, is under option to Noranda. Under its back-in agreement, Noranda can earn 50% by matching Mintel’s expenditures.

John Brock’s Welcome North Mines has staked about 1,400 claims southeast of Grew Creek in the “Tintina trench.” Brock says all the ground has been staked on targets the company has developed from past exploration activity in the area. Property work will begin when snow conditions permit and a minimum expenditure of $1 million is planned, he says.

There is one mine going into production in the area at present. The Ketza River project of Canamax Resources and Pacific Trans- Ocean Resources is located about 20 miles south of the eastern limit of the Golden Nevada/Noranda property; that portion of the property is bounded on either side by Argo and further to the east by Wildfire and Halcyon.

Grew Creek is 25 miles southeast of Faro. The Robert Campbell Highway to Ross River runs right through the property which basically parallels the Pelly River.