I get the odd email once in awhile from readers of the site asking what's happening in northern BC. Now of course since we had a sort of failed election where the government will be a minority type of government run by the NDP and helped along by the greens, there is even more questions asked as to how things will play out in regards to exploration in the junior mining sectors. From talking to a few people who seem to be in the know, what I'm hearing is some mining companies are a bit nervous due to uncertainty and some companies from what I've been told have reduced their exploration budgets in the province for while and are in the wait and see mode.
But if you've got a project that has millions in the ground, you're not going to walk away from it and besides all governments need money so even though there might be a lull in activity for a while, money will move back in the area eventually.
Getting back to what's happening here though. In Atlin aside from placer operations on the go, African Queen AQ is sampling and doing some ground geophysics along with an aerial survey. They issued a news release stating that a diamond drill program of up to 2000 m to test the area below the existing Yellowjacket pit as well as a few other targets.
This project is just 10KM or so outside of the town of Atlin. Also a bit further out of town Gray Rock GRK is doing some exploratory work in the Otter Creek area and from a mid June news release, the company has acquired 11 mineral claims in the Dease Lake region covering a total area of 3,634.4383 hectares. This area is known for it's copper gold showings.
Another area explorer is Brixton Metals BBB. Brixton has a property called the Thorn property which is about 100KM south of Atlin. Total drilling to date is 22,927 meters within 164 holes property wide. This also includes past owner drilling. Brixton also has a property closer to Atlin called the LD property. Several of the creeks crossing Brixtons claims have seen historic placer production up to 44,109 oz Au on McKee Creek. Highlights from the work on the LD property includes 330 g/t Au (bulk sample), 1615 g/t Au (rock sample) and 3m of 9.39 g/t Au (drill core).
Closer to where Brixton's Thorn property is, Doubleview Capital DBV has their Hat copper project. This project is comprised of 4,655 hectares in ten mineral tenures. Further south of Dease Lake the company also has the Red Spring property which has a historic non NI43-101 compliant resource of 5,000,000 tons grading 0.5% copper and 11.9 grams/ton silver (4,500,000 tonnes of 0.5% copper and 0.38 troy oz/tonne silver, which equates to 49.6 million pounds of Copper and 1.71 million Oz Silver ).
When it comes to market excitement though, you can't beat GT Gold GTT. GT Gold has drilled out some very nice high grades like 10.67 m of 13.03 g/t gold including 41.60 g/t Au & 144 g/t Ag over 1.52 metres on their Saddle project located between Iskut and Tatogga.
Getting further south and closer to Stewart BC is American Creek AMK with their Electrum property. The Electrum Property has a rich history with some of the highest grade ore hand-mined in North America with average grades of 1,661 grams of gold per tonne and 2,596 grams of silver per tonne. This project is in the same area as Pretium Resources PVG which has just put it's Brucejack property into production.
About 15 KM away from Stewart, IDM Mining IDM has the Red Mountain project inside the triangle. This project is currently in the Environmental Assessment Process. Just a week ago the company issued news stating they had drilled 14 m of 10.65 g/t Au at Red Mountain.
Teuton Resources TUO started a drill campaign at it's Treaty Creek property which is located in the same vicinity as Pretium and Seabridge. American Creek Resources holds a 20% interest in this property also.
Getting away from metals for a bit, Electra Stone ELT is in the business of mining and exploration jade in the Dease Lake region. Jade being called the new green gold due to it's appeal to Asian buyers is becoming a highy sought after commodity. Some of the highest grades of nepherite jade in the world are supposedly mined in the Dease Lake region. There are a few other private jade mining and exploration operations but Electra Stone is one of the first public jade miners in this region.
On the more eastern side of the province, Canadian Zinc Metals CZX has the Akie claims that consist of 46 contiguous mineral claims and covers about 116 square kilometres. The property has an NI 43-101 compliant Cardiac Creek deposit with a revised resource estimate which consists of an indicated category of an indicated resource of 19.6 million tonnes grading 8.2% zinc, 1.6% lead and 13.6 g/t silver (at a 5% zinc cut-off grade) and an inferred resource of 8.1 million tonnes grading 6.8% zinc, 1.2% lead and 11.2 g/t silver (at a 5% zinc cut-off grade).
Aben Resources ABN has the Forrest Kerr project which is located in the golden triangle and has Pretium (Brucejack), Nova gold Galore Creek, Seabridge gold KSM and Imperial Metals Red Chris surrounding it. The property is 23,000 hectares and past drilling has returned some impressive grades to date such as 9.867 g/t Au over29.3m, 33.4 g/t Au over 11m and 01.0 g/t Au over 1.95m and 137.8 g/t Au over 0.85m.
Also inside the triangle is Metallis Resources MTS which owns the Kirkham property, stated in February 2017, the company was planning to drill a couple of holes.
That's a quick breif overview of what is happening now. I know for certain that there are other projects that I have missed out on and if you're involved in a project that I didn't mention, let me know so I can update.
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