Redcorp launches $1.6 million program

Vancouver Redcorp (RDV-T) has a drill rig on site and ready to turn at the Tulsequah polymetallic project in northwest British Columbia.

The junior aims to find extensions to the existing resources at the Tulsequah Chief mine with 8,000 metres of surface and underground drilling. The initial target is the “F” anticline structure, which lies adjacent to the “H” Syncline that hosts most of the current resources. The program will test for additional mineralization down-dip of the fold structure.

An underground rehabilitation program is also underway to prepare the 120 metres level for the underground drilling program. About 2,000 metres of surface drilling is planned with the remaining meterage to be completed from the underground sites.

Tulsequah Chief is a past producer of gold, silver, copper and zinc. It hosts a historical measured and indicated resource of 5.9 million tonne grading 1.42% copper, 1.26% lead, 6.72% zinc, 2.59 grams gold and 107.4 grams silver per tonne. Some 3 million additional tonnes grading 1.1% copper, 1.19% lead, 6.38% zinc, 2.42 grams gold and 107.9 grams silver lie in the inferred resource category.

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.

The base and precious metals project has sat idle since June 2000, when the original project approval certificate was rescinded. The certificate provides the company with the authority to apply for and obtain specific operating permits required for construction, development and operation. Tulsequah originally received such a certificate in March 1998, after a 3.5-year environmental assessment review under the former New Democratic Party government. Subsequent litigation by the local Taku River Tlingit First Nation resulted in a decision by the British Columbia Supreme Court to quash the certificate on the basis of deemed procedural errors. The court ruled that the company had failed to consult adequately with the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, which maintains that the site is on its historic territory.

The province’s Court of Appeal later determined there had been no procedural errors and ordered the project remitted once again to the government for decision on a new certificate, including consideration of the potential for impact on the asserted rights and title of the First Nation.

The fate of the document had been in the hands of the provincial government since late May of last year. Under the guidelines of the Environmental Assessment Act, the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management had 45 days in which to render a decision. The decision was finally made after 196 days.

The ministries have now stated that the project can be constructed, operated and closed in a manner that minimizes the impact on the environment and accommodates the concerns and asserted rights of the Tlingits.

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 project’s projected revenue