African Queen Mines
Being as I live within the world renown historic gold camp of Atlin BC, I thought it best to maybe do an article on a junior miner that will be doing some exploration work in the area this year. There are not many junior miners that work here as most of the area here is active placer mining and most placer mining operations are either family owned or private companies. There has been some junior miners however in the past like Adanac Moly in the early 2000's and Chieftain Metals. Another company was Eagle Plains, who use to operate the Yellow Jacket property on Pine Creek. It is this property and junior that we will take a look at today.
The Yellow Jacket porperty is located 10 KM east of the town of Atlin BC on the Surprise Lake road. This location is right where the old town of Discovery once stood and that location is where the original discovery of gold that lead to the Atlin gold rush back in 1898. Some of the richest ground in North America is in this area. Neighboring Spruce Creek is world renown for some of the largest gold nuggets ever found.
In 1983, local area prospectors staked the Yellowjacket Property, and subsequently optioned the property to Canova and Tri-Pacific Resources. During 1984 and 1985 these companies conducted programs of ground geophysics, rotary and diamond drilling. In 1986 Homestake Mineral Development Company optioned the property from Canova and from 1986 to 1988 initiated programs of mapping, reverse circulation drilling and diamond drilling (52 holes totaling 8,057 metres).
Prize Mining optioned the property in 2003 and from 2003 to 2006 drilled 57 holes for a total of 6,873 metres. A number of impressive intercepts were encountered during drilling, with values ranging from no significant results to grades as summarized below. Some of the grades as you will see are astronomical values.
| Drillhole |
Interval |
Width |
Grade |
| YJ03-01 |
13.95m to 19.51m |
5.56m |
513.5 g/t Au |
| YJ04-07 |
48.85m to 54.45m |
5.6m |
40.1 g/t Au |
| including: |
53.95m to 54.45m |
0.5m |
588.9 g/t Au |
| TW05-02 |
10.67m to 12.79m |
2.12m |
853.0 g/t Au |
| including: |
10.67m to 11.58m |
0.91m |
2,397 g/t Au |
| TW05-02 |
20.05m to 41.50m |
21.45m |
11.5 g/t Au |
In 2008, Prize Mining processed 4200 tonnes of bedrock material in their onsite bulk sample mill. Of this material, 2880 tonnes were considered to be taken from the main mineralized zone and returned gold bars totaling 18.63 kilograms (599 ounces).
Fast forward to today and going by news releases the company has issued, there will be a placer operation taking place starting in the summer of 2016. This placer operation will run for five years and will provide cash revenue to the company. The company also has plans for additional sampling of the area which covers an area of approximately 460 hectares.
Although a light trading stock, there is about 80 million shares O/S and the stock at the time of writing is at it's 52 week high of 3 cents with a low of 1/2 cent.
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GAdams