Redcorp hits new zone at Tulsequah

Vancouver — An ongoing 8,000-metre drill program has hit a new gold-rich zone some 90 metres west of the current resource on the Tulsequah Chief massive sulphide property in northwestern British Columbia.

Redcorp Ventures (RDV-T) discovered the zone while testing for the western extension of the main Tulsequah deposit. Hole 3077 cut 16.26 grams gold and 510.7 grams silver per tonne, plus 1.22% zinc, 0.73% lead and 0.08% copper over 7.6 metres. Lower down in the hole, a base metal sulphide zone yielded 1.47% zinc, 0.2% lead, 0.34% copper, 14.14 grams silver and 0.4 gram gold over 11.6 metres.

The junior tested the down dip extension of this mineralization with holes 3078 and 3079 intersecting narrower zinc-rich zones with traces of visible gold. Assay results are pending.

Moving 200 metres west of the main deposit, three holes targeted a new mineralized lens discovered earlier this year. Dubbed the F zone, holes 3075 and 3076 tested the down dip extension of mineralization hit in hole 3072 (8.1 metres grading 2.56% zinc, 0.22% lead, 0.55% copper, 19.65 grams silver and 1.26 gram gold). Both holes intersected a thick section of intensely altered, mineralized pyrite-rich rhyolite, but the only significant values came from a 0.9 metre section in hole 3076 that returned 12.8% zinc, 2.06% lead, 0.27% copper, 256 grams silver and 3.23 grams gold.

Redcorp believes that this mineralization marks the distal equivalent of the main deposit and that the F zone lies on the west side of a fault dubbed 4000E, which has offset the mine stratigraphy by about 100 metres.

Underground drilling is expected to continue until late October with the rig testing the F zone target across the 4400E fault, as well as more holes targeting the western extension of the main deposit.

The 150-sq.-km property consists of two past-producing underground mines, Tulsequah Chief and Big Bull, which lie alongside the Tulsequah River, 100 km south of the town of Atlin, B.C., and 65 km northeast of Juneau, Alaska. It hosts a historical measured and indicated resource of 5.9 million tonnes grading 1.42% copper, 1.26% lead and 6.72% zinc, plus 2.59 grams gold and 107.4 grams silver per tonne. Three million additional tonnes grading 1.1% copper, 1.19% lead, 6.38% zinc, 2.42 grams gold and 107.9 grams silver are in the inferred category.

Based on the previous feasibility study, completed in December 1995 by Rescan Engineering, Redfern envisages a 2,470-tonne-per-day (900,000-tonne-per-year) underground mining and milling operation capable of producing a gold-rich gravity concentrate, as well as zinc, lead and copper concentrates. The study used metal prices of US53 per lb. zinc, US25 per lb. lead, US90 per lb. copper, US$300 per oz. gold, and US$5.80 per oz. silver. These prices projected a 3.6-year payback and annual operating profits of $50 million. Zinc production accounts for half the projected revenue.