Less than Happy Creek

Happy Creek Minerals (HPY-V) saw its shares fall off a table on Thursday after releasing drill results from its Rateria property in southern B.C.

In Toronto on Jan.18 the company’s shares were off 47% or 63 to 71 on 514,000 shares.

Of the 14 holes drilled, only 4 intersected mineralization of note. Assays from those four holes include:

• Hole 4 10 metres (from 35 to 45 metres) grading 0.163% copper
• Hole 8 84 metres (from 10 to 94 metres) grading 0.136% copper
• Hole 11 21.8 metres (from 38.3 to 60.1 metres) grading 0.13% copper
• Hole 14 156 metres (from 12 to 168 metres) grading 0.104% copper

Despite describing mineralization as a “new porphyry copper system”, the results failed to impress the market.

The 14 holes were sunk in portions of an induced polarization anomaly roughly 1.6 km long and 600 metres in width, with the 4 mineralized holes coming from the east-central portion of the anomaly.

The company says results from another 10 holes on the western and eastern side of the anomaly were low and erratic with 1 to 3 metre intervals containing trace to 0.18% copper.

Happy Creek describes the drill core as medium to coarse grained quartz diorite to granodiorite in composition with fine grained dikes also occurring.

It says the drill core is variably fractured, sheared and propylitic, phyllic and argillic alteration occurs. Bornite, chalcocite and digenite and chalcopyrite copper sulphide minerals occur dominantly in phyllic and argillic alteration along fractures or with quartz veins.

While the results were less than spectacular, the company says it will continue with its drill program as large areas of the anomaly remain untested.

It also says the prospecting of new logging roads identified new mineralized showings occurring near the Teck Cominco (TEK-T) and Happy Creek property boundary.

Rateria sits 10-km southeast of Teck Cominco’s Highland Valley mine concentrator.

With over $4 million in cash reserves the company says it still expects to complete its earn-in for a 100% ownership for the property by November 2007.