Wolfden Resources (TSXV: WLF) is looking to repeat the success of its former namesake, and if it can do it, it will take the province of New Brunswick along for the ride.
The company has a presence in both the northern and southern reaches of the province with its flagship Armstrong Brook volcanogenic massive-sulphide (VMS) project, located in the north within the Bathurst mining camp, and its Clarence Stream gold project, in the southwest of Grand Bay–Westfield.
Armstrong sits 15 km from the Brunswick No. 12 deposit, mill and smelter. Now closed, Brunswick No. 12 was considered one of the world’s premier massive-sulphide deposits, with global reserves of 100 million tonnes grading 3.65% lead, 8.99% zinc and 110 grams silver.
And while Wolfden can only dream of such mineral wealth at this point, the company has $4 million in cash to prove some of it up.
Armstrong is made up of nine clusters of massive-sulphide boulders, all of which contain some high-grade zinc, lead, copper, silver and gold. The best of them assayed up to 24% zinc, 7.08% lead and 337 parts per million silver.
Upon acquiring the ground, the company carried out an airborne geophysical survey that registered conductivity that correlates with the clusters of massive-sulphide boulders. Wolfden of course is trying to find a local bedrock source for the boulders. It is common in the region that such a source can be 400 metres from the clusters.
In late October the company launched its first diamond-drill campaign totalling 2,500 metres to find this source.
Guiding the drilling is the company’s knowledge that the boulders are found adjacent to or close to the contact between sedimentary rocks of the Millstream Formation and the overlying mafic volcanic rocks of the Sormany Formation.
The sedimentary rock in the area are associated with outcrops of felsic volcanic rocks. Such features, Wolfden says, suggest that there could be a local occurrence of massive sulphides within the sediments, and below the mafic volcanics in a sedimentary-exhalative setting.
Drill testing will focus on three target areas, but the most interesting in terms of mineralized boulders is VMS Valley 5, which contains boulders with a highlight assay of 14.2% zinc, 6.1% lead and 1.2% copper.
The company recently acquired a land package adjoining Armstrong. The property hosts five non-National Instrument 43-101 compliant, massive-sulphide deposits and has 25 km of prospective stratigraphy.
The best of the five historically outlined deposits is Armstrong A, which has non-compliant resources of 3.4 million tonnes grading 3.26% zinc, 0.42% lead and 0.29% copper, 25.37 grams silver per tonne and 0.41 gram gold per tonne.
Backing both the growth and the exploration of Armstrong are some of the people that helped build up and eventually sell the previous Wolfden Resources to Zinifex for $360 million.
Chief among them is company chairman Ewan Downie. Downie is also the president and CEO of Premier Gold Mines (TSX: PG; US-OTC: PIRGF), and was the founder of the first Wolfden.
Running the day-to-day operation is president and CEO Donald Hoy, who was recently the vice-president of exploration and development for Cliffs Natural Resources (NYSE: CLF). He had occupied the same position with Freewest Resources before it was acquired by Cliffs in 2009 for $240 million.
On Nov. 28, Wolfden’s stock was up 27%, or 5¢, to 24¢ on 52,500 shares traded.
The company has 50 million shares issued and outstanding, with insiders holding 20% of the equity.
There are also 14.48 million warrants and options that have been granted.
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