Vancouver — With mining equipment on site and a water licence in hand,
Crews will drive a decline from surface to the deposit to assess the underground conditions and collect material for metallurgical tests. Lateral underground work will provide a platform from which to conduct deeper drilling into the massive sulphide zone. The $14-million program is designed to precede a bankable feasibility study.
Wolverine is a tabular, steeply dipping, high-grade volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit. The average thickness is 5.1 metres; the strike length, 700 metres. The deposit has a 400-metre downdip extension and remains open at depth.
In 2000, a prefeasibility study by Hatch Associates estimated a reserve of 3.4 million tonnes grading 12.4% zinc, 1.44% lead, 1.37% and copper, plus 337 grams silver and 1.59 grams gold. There were also unusually high amounts of selenium, which were seen as an impediment to the deposit insofar as smelters levy penalties against selenium-laced ore.
However, prices for selenium have since increased, and its presence is now seen as a plus.
Resources stand at 6.2 million tonnes grading 12.6% zinc, 1.55% lead, 1.33% copper, 371 grams silver and 1.76 grams gold per tonne.
Yukon Zinc was spun off from Expatriate Resources late last year.
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