Teck eyes Moosehead

In hopes of finding an epithermal gold deposit in the midst of what is now road-accessible moose pasture, Teck (TEK-T) has signed an option agreement to earn up to a 60% interest in the Moosehead property in central Newfoundland.

To earn the interest from Altius Minerals (ALS-A), the diversified producer must spend $1.8 million on exploration and pay $350,000 in cash to Altius.

Moosehead is one of five properties that make up the junior’s Botwood Basin project, a newly recognized epithermal gold camp. Altius recently optioned its Mustang property to Sulliden Exploration (SUE-M), and now hopes to attract partners for the remaining three properties.

The 2,950-ha Moosehead property covers an extensive epithermal mineralized system hosted by sedimentary and lesser volcanic and intrusive rocks. Previous prospecting and sampling revealed a wide zone of altered sedimentary rock with anomalous gold values, including a quartz vein that returned high-grade gold over a narrow width.

Work to date has defined an area measuring 700 by 300 metres, characterized by anomalous gold-in-soil and till, and by numerous large angular mineralized boulders.

These boulders are thought to represent examples of both quartz vein and hydrothermal breccia material, and typically return values ranging from 15 to 400 grams gold per tonne. Among the minerals observed are bournonite, galena, sphalerite, pyrite and native gold. These anomalies coincide with both electrical and magnetic anomalies.

Elsewhere on the property, other targets have been identified by reconnaissance prospecting and geochemical sampling.