Bonanza Ledge
Overview
The Bonanza Ledge, for which the Company received a positive a pre-feasibility study, in September, 2009, is a gold deposit on the southwest flank of Barkerville Mountain, about 2 km northwest of the Barkerville historic town site. The study involved the focused efforts of a team of independent qualified persons, professionals and consulting companies that included EBA Engineering Consultants Ltd. (Overall Report), F. Wright Consulting Inc. (Metallurgy), and Mintec (Resources and Reserves).
In March 2000, the Company discovered an entirely new style of mineralization from that previously exploited in the Camp; drill hole BC2K-03 identified a new zone beneath the BC Vein on Barkerville Mountain. The style of mineralization, although similar to previously recognized mineralization in the Cariboo Gold Belt, occurs within a different stratigraphic setting (age and lithology), comprising of gold-bearing massive, banded and stringer pyrite in the footwall of the B.C. vein/fault system, a northwest trending and steeply northeast-dipping quartz vein from which several pyritic ore shoots were historically mined from the Cariboo Gold Quartz Mine workings.
This discovery, which was first reported in a March 23, 2000 News Release, included intercepts of 24.5 ft grading 0.27 oz/ton, 28 ft grading 0.30 oz/ton and 18.7 ft grading 0.42 oz/ton. Subsequent drilling yielded additional encouraging drill intercepts that included 84.7 ft grading 0.72 oz/ton, 44.5 ft grading 1.25 oz/ton and 57.7 ft grading 0.61 oz/ton.
From 2000 to 2008, the Company completed 268 diamond drill holes totalling 33,158 m (including 6,213 m of underground drilling) on the Bonanza Ledge zone. In addition, as work progressed toward a pre-feasibility report, the Company completed the extraction and processing of a 13,000 wet tonne bulk sample in 2004.
Based on the successes of these previous drill programs, the Company expanded the planned drilling at Bonanza Ledge for 2010. An initial 20,000 meter diamond drill program to explore at depth, along strike and within the Bonanza Ledge deposit area has been budgeted.
In May 2010, Barkerville confirmed that Bonanza Ledge style disseminated gold mineralization is present at depth. Diamond drill hole BC10-03 intercepted up to 50% pyrite replacement below 500 ft returning 3.8 g/t gold from 505.6 ft to 510 ft. The current Bonanza Ledge NI 43-101 resource has only been defined to a depth of 250 ft. Further exploration is now planned to follow up on these new deeper targets with several more diamond drill holes to be drilled both at depth and along trend of the Bonanza Ledge deposit.
The discovery of Bonanza Ledge has implications for future exploration on the Island Mountain and Mosquito Creek claim group. Stratigraphy similar to that hosting the Bonanza Ledge zone occurs structurally below the metaturbiditic Rainbow sequence on the Island Mountain and represents a viable and previously unexplored exploration target.
