Gold explorers scour historic BC camp

Vancouver — Undergound drilling by Tenajon Resources (TJS-V) on the Summit Lake gold project is one of many exploration programs under way in the rugged Stewart area of northwestern British Columbia.

Gold exploration and mining have always helped define the region. Indeed, the resource-reliant Stewart-Iskut-Stikine River area has undergone a gread deal of exploration throughout its history, and these efforts have resulted in the discovery and development of several major mines.

Mining in the Stewart area began in the late-1800s, when prospectors arrived looking for placer gold strikes comparable to those that had been found in the Klondike. Although the hunt for nuggets never really panned out, hard rock exploration began to encounter significant occurrences of gold and silver, as well as base metals.

One of the first major mining operations was the aptly named Premier mine, which was initially staked in 1916 by Pat Daly and began producing in 1919. Premier was one of the richest gold mines in North America; the grade was so high that the cost of the mine was repaid in its first two years of production. When operations reached their peak in the late-1920s, there were more than 800 men working in a series of tunnels that stretched 17 miles. The mine was equipped with a 12-mile-long aerial tram-system for hauling ore to the mill. Premier was closed in 1950, when the underground ore was finally exhausted.

It was a few decades before mineral exploration picked up again, the peak being the late 1980s/early 1990s, when drill hole 109 resulted in the discovery of the high-grade Eskay Creek gold-silver deposit. The discovery was made by Murray Pezim’s Prime Resources group of junior companies, which was acquired by Homestake Mining in 1998. Homestake, in turn, was merged into Barrick Gold (abx-t) in late 2001.

The Eskay Creek mine contained well over 3 million oz. gold and 150 million oz. silver. Much of the ore being mined currently is of such high grade that it is crushed and shipped directly to smelters, with no milling or concentrating required.

Prime was also involved in the development the Snip gold mine, about 90 km north of Stewart. Snip operated as a joint venture between Prime and Teck Cominco (TEK-T) from 1991 until 1996, when Prime acquired Cominco’s 60% interest for $53.5 million. Again, Homestake subsequently became involved through its acquisition of Prime. Production at the high-grade, vein-hosted deposit ceased in 1999 after most of the ore was exhausted and gold prices took a tumble.

Premier was reactivated as an open-pit gold mine in 1989 and into the 1990s by partners Westmin Resources, now part of the Swedish mining giant Boliden (BLS-T), and Pioneer Metals (PSM-T). Pioneer subsequently sold its interest to Westmin. The processing facility at Premier also carried out custom milling for other regional operations. Over its operating life, Premier, also known as Silbak-Premier, produced a total of 4.2 million tonnes, or 1.8 million oz. gold and 41 million oz. silver, plus substantial copper, lead and zinc.

Tenajon’s latest exploration push is centred around the past-producing Summit Lake mine, where the target is potentially high-grade gold mineralization adjacent to the mine workings, as well as along strike and downdip. The Summit Lake mine produced almost 100,000 oz. gold over its 4-year life (1981-85), with grades averaging just under half an ounce of gold per ton, or 16.3 grams per tonne. At the time of closure, Summit Lake had a resource of 120,000 tonnes averaging 19.2 grams gold. Tenajon recently began a 1,200-metre program of underground drilling.

Elsewhere in the area, Rimfire Minerals (RFM-V) is busy drilling on the Tide property, 36 km north of Stewart. Serengeti Resources (SIR-V) is earning a 51% interest in the precious and base metals project in return for spending $1.4 million on exploration plus cash and share payments over three years.

Pinnacle Mines (PNL-V) is drilling the Silver Coin property, 24 km northwest of Stewart. The junior is earning a 51% stake in the gold and base metals project from Mountain Boy Minerals (MTB-V) in return for spending $1.75 million on exploration over three years, and can increase its interest to 60% by advancing the project to production. Recently, a hole intersected 14 metres grading 11.65 grams (visible) gold per tonne in the newly discovered Perseverance massive-sulphide zone. Pinnacle’s earn-in on the project includes two other contiguous Mountain Boy properties, namely Dauntless and FR. About 90,000 tonnes of ore were previously mined from the Silver Coin property, then processed at the nearby Premier mill.

In the northern portion of the region, 150 km northeast of Stewart, NovaGold Resources (NG-T) is advancing its massive Galore Creek gold-silver-copper project toward feasibility. The deposit hosts an indicated resource of 285.9 million tonnes grading 0.44 gram gold and 5.7 grams silver per tonne, plus 0.73% copper. About 98.8 million tonnes grading 0.37 gram gold, 4.8 grams silver and 0.54% copper exist in the indicated category.