Roundup highlights new discoveries in BC, Yukon and Alaska

With the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia celebrating its 100th anniversary at this year’s Mineral Exploration Roundup in Vancouver, it was only fitting that most of the projects highlighted in the Tuesday sessions had long histories.

The Jan. 24 technical session focused on a few notable recent discoveries from British Columbia, Yukon, and Alaska, with a packed house eagerly waiting for the latest updates on the projects.

Thompson Creek Metals‘ (TCM-T, TC-N) Mt. Milligan project first saw prospecting in the late 1930s, though it was not until 1987 that the Mt. Milligan copper-gold deposit was discovered. By 1991 the project had a feasibility study and in 1993 it was ready for development, but an economic downturn derailed construction.

Fast forward over a decade later and newly established Terrane Metals took over the project and brought the project to the construction stage by mid-2010. Shortly thereafter Thompson Creek took over Terrane in a $650-million deal.

Today Mt. Milligan is quickly taking shape with most of the concrete foundations in place, a 900-bed camp built, major mining equipment beginning to arrive and some 650 people active on-site. Over the planned 22-year mine life Mt. Milligan should yield roughly 194,500 oz. gold a year and 81 million lbs. copper.

With an estimated start of late 2013 the project should be British Columbia’s next major mine, ushering in a new era of mine development in the province.

Two earlier-stage B.C. projects highlighted in the session also have some history, with New Gold‘s (NGD-T, NG-X) Blackwater gold-silver project first seeing exploration in the early 1970s and Pretium Resources (PVG-T, PVG-N) Brucejack gold project first being explored in the early 1960s.

Both projects saw a major shift in the past couple years however, with new discoveries that totally changed the project dynamics. Pretium concentrated on high-grade gold and pulled some impressive intercepts including 0.6 metre grading 18,755 grams gold per tonne. At Blackwater Richfield Ventures – later taken over by New Gold – hit long intercepts including 329 metres grading 1.25 grams gold that led to a rapid expansion of the resource.

New Gold expects to release an updated resource on Blackwater any day now and Pretium should be releasing an updated preliminary economic assessment this quarter.

Farther north in the Yukon, Prophecy Platinum‘s (NKL-V) Wellgreen project has a history just as long, even being put into production briefly in the early 1970s. Following a thorough compilation of old and new data, and taking into account the significant platinum, palladium and gold values that weren’t factored in before, it was only last year that Prophecy released a significant resource that caught investors’ attention. The project now has a resource of 289 million inferred tonnes grading 0.38% nickel, 0.35% copper and 1.18 grams platinum, palladium and gold.

But there are entirely new discoveries, too. Atac Resources‘ (ATC-V) Osiris gold discovery has shown striking similarities to the bountiful Carlin gold trend in Nevada, and was discovered using telltale high-arsenic stream showings. The company has confirmed through drilling that the project hosts Carlin-type gold mineralization.

Atac plans to double its drilling at the project in 2012 to roughly 120 holes during the short June to October drilling season at the camp, which is only accessible by helicopter.

Golden Predator‘s (GPD-T,GPRXF-Q) Brewery Creek gold deposit was discovered in 1987. But with the oxide deposits turned into a mine between 1996 and 2002 the project still has a lot of history. Last year Golden Predator managed to make a few new discoveries on the project, hitting gold mineralization farther to the east and the south after conducting over 55,000 metres of drilling. Thanks to ready road access, the company will begin drilling again shortly, and will also shortly release an updated resource for Brewery Creek.

In Alaska, NovaGold Resources (NG-T, NG-X) is rekindling interest in the Bornite and Arctic copper projects in the northwestern reaches of the state. The projects saw early development in the 1960s, with a deep shaft sunk on the high-grade Bornite deposit but no sustained mining.

More recently NovaGold has pulled strong intercepts including 110.6 metres grading 2.6% copper and 178 metres averaging 4.01% copper. The company is now working to spin out the properties into NovaCopper, a subsidiary it is trying to list within months, to bring more attention and momentum to the project.

In southwest Alaska, Full Metal Minerals (FMM-V) is attracting interest in the Pyramid porphyry project that it is developing with partner Antofagasta Minerals (ANTO-L).

Last year the companies pulled several long intercepts at the copper-molybdenum-gold discovery, including 155.9 metres grading 0.97% copper equivalent and 310.3 metres grading 0.53% copper equivalent. Like almost all of the other exciting new discoveries highlighted at the session, the project has seen quite a bit of historic exploration, but is being looked at differently thanks to the recent drill hits.

Overall the message at the session was that, despite over a hundred years of exploration, there’s plenty more to discover in these geologically diverse regions.