High-grade grab samples propel BCGold shares

VANCOUVER–Bonanza-grade gold and silver values from BCGold’s (BCG-V, BCGOF-O) historic Engineer mine, located 32 km west of Atlin, in northwestern B. C., has given the junior’s stock a big lift.

Shares of BCGold rallied more than 100% to 55 apiece in recent trading on word that underground grab samples from a narrow vein exposed in the 5th level of the mine assayed up to 860 grams gold per tonne and 1,774 grams silver. The stock closed the day up a dime at 35 per share.

The samples were taken more than 85 metres below any previous development on the Shaft vein, hinting at the structure’s depth potential.

Noting the vein is largely unexplored and has seen minimal historic development, BCGold is keen to continue to test the structure and hunt for further potential high-grade gold and silver-mineralized veins.

At surface, the Shaft vein is a steeply dipping, 30-cm-wide quartz-calcite vein with occasional coarse free gold, while 113 metres down — at the 5th level — the company says vein mineralogy consists of banded quartz with rare pods of allemontite (a mixture of stib-arsen and arsenic or antimony), electrum and roscoelite (a vanadium mica associated with epithermal gold systems of alkalic affinity).

BCGold believes the Shaft vein’s mineralogy is quite similar to the Engineer vein — about 215 metres southwest — suggesting the Shaft vein could be a faulted extension or telescoped counterpart of the main Engineer vein.

The historic Engineer mine produced about 18,000 oz. gold and 9,000 oz. silver from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s. Roughly 5,500 metres of underground development — on eight mine levels — targeted high-grade epithermal quartz-carbonate vein structures averaging 39.4 grams gold and 19.5 grams silver. All the past-producing veins are open at depth with no exploration conducted deeper than 200 metres below surface.

The company’s exploration plan this year includes drilling on Shear Zone A, a bulk-tonnage target where underground chip sampling has returned up to 45 metres of 5.1 grams gold. Additionally, dewatering of the lower three levels, underground rehabilitation, and mapping and sampling programs are planned. Some test mining and bulk sampling may also be undertaken on sections of the Engineer, Shaft and Double Decker veins.

BCGold has an option to earn 100% of the Engineer mine property for $850,000 in payments, 525,000 shares and 390,000 warrants. There are no underlying royalties on the project.