EXPLORATION ’95 — Drilling extends mineralization — Booker

Drilling has extended the stockwork porphyry copper-gold mineralization over 250 metres at the Hearne Hill project in British Columbia to the northeast, beyond the previously defined limits.

The deposit, owned by Booker Gold Explorations (VSE), is in the Babine Lake district, 65 km northeast of Smithers and 21 km north of Noranda’s former-producing Bell mine.

Hearne Hill is exposed along the Morrison fault, a major discontinuity separating older marine volcanics in the uplands from younger sediments in the lowlands. Porphyrytic intrusives affect both the volcanics and the sediments.

The deposit hosts a high-grade, elliptical, breccia body — known as the Chapman zone — within a low-grade, stockwork, biotized, feldspar porphyry. A drill-indicated and inferred resource is estimated at 60 million tonnes grading 0.16% copper and 0.1 grams gold per tonne, including 143,000 tonnes of 1.74% copper and 0.9 grams gold outlined for the Chapman zone. Calculations were based on 24 diamond drill holes from previous work carried out by Texas Gulf, Noranda and prospector David Chapman.

Since acquiring the property in 1992, Booker Gold has carried out geological mapping, trenching, magnetometer surveys, and percussion and diamond drilling — all in an effort to extend the stockwork porphyry and identify targets similar to the breccia zone. The percussion drilling confirmed the high-grade nature of the Chapman zone, with one of the more significant intersections returning 70.2 metres of 2.11% copper and 0.48 grams gold.

Sampling of breccia boulders, discovered in the overburden (up-slope from the known deposit), returned copper values of up to 20.6% and gold values as high as 5.01 grams. To determine the source of the boulders, the company drilled 8 diamond drill holes in the fall of last year, intersecting stockwork porphyry and a weaker style of breccia mineralization.

Selected drill results are as follows: 217.8 metres of 0.2% copper and 0.12 grams gold for hole 94-5; 125.4 metres of 0.12% copper, as well as 88.8 metres of 0.5% copper and 0.21 grams gold, including an interval of 18.3 metres grading 0.93% copper, for 94-7; 214.1 metres of 0.23% copper and 0.1 grams gold, including 25.6 metres of 0.65% copper and 0.15 grams gold, for 94-11; and 209.5 metres of 0.4% copper and 0.15 grams gold, including 44.2 metres of 0.7% copper and 0.29 grams gold, for 94-12.

Booker Gold plans to define the area further by means of additional geochemical and geophysical work.

The company has 4.3 million shares outstanding and working capital of $100,000.