Mountain Boy Minerals Ltd (TSX-V:MTB, OTCQB:MBYMF) has announced results from fieldwork on its Theia project in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle, with a follow-up to a copper occurrence identified in the 1990s outlining a 1.4 kilometre (km) trend, with copper values of up to 5.39% copper.
The resource projects developer said this area, known as the Bria Zone, is in the northeastern part of the property. Further work was also conducted around the Theia Silver Zone and a new copper occurrence was identified on the western part of the property.
"The widespread mineralization across the property appears to suggest several overlapping mineralizing systems,” Mountain Boy president and CEO Lawrence Roulston said in a statement. “There is scope for copper-gold and also for silver-dominant mineralization. Further work will focus on identifying specific targets for drill testing, with drill permits already in place."
READ: Mountain Boy Minerals discovers high-grade gold and copper samples at Telegraph project in British Columbia
The company noted that the 9,028-hectare (90 square kilometre) Theia property is located 15 km north of the historic Dolly Varden silver mine. The area was first explored in the 1960s by a unit of Kennecott pursuing a molybdenum occurrence near the Bria Zone. Work in the 1990s focused on gold following the discovery of the nearby Red Mountain deposit. The first comprehensive exploration began after Mountain Boy’s 2020 consolidation of the property.
Bria Zone
Mountain Boy said mineralization around the Bria Zone is spatially related to an intrusion which is contemporaneous with a Middle Jurassic age unconformity between the Lower and Upper Hazelton volcanic rocks. That period is metalogenically significant within the Golden Triangle; the Eskay Creek deposit occurs at this meaningful contact.
The company noted that three Minfile occurrences in the Bria Zone relate to the work from the 1960s through the 1990s. Mineralization is hosted in veins, which pinch and swell over considerable strike and downdip directions and can reach several metres in width. A 1995 grab sample (KK-51) assayed 0.62 gram per tonne (g/t) gold, 2.65% copper and 522 g/t silver.
In the 2022 field season, the company said 36 surface rock grab samples were taken from the Bria area. Those samples define a 1.4 km copper mineralized trend within the Lower Jurassic Hazelton volcanic rocks. Several samples yielded elevated silver and copper assays, including one of 5.39% copper.
Theia Silver Zone
Meanwhile, it said follow-up on the western part of the Theia Silver Zone extended the mineralization to the northwest. Samples E075281 and E075282 yielded 0.1% copper, 0.8% lead and 0.1% zinc and 1.1% lead and 1.8% zinc, respectively.
The company said this area appears to have a pervasive base metal mineralization event and a high-grade silver controlling feature. To the west, the system appears to be more zinc dominant. High-grade silver values, up to 39 kilograms per tonne occur in the eastern portion of the zone. Further work will focus on this area, it added.
New target area
Mountain Boy said initial mapping and prospecting by its geologists on the northwestern part of the claims returned a sample that assayed 5.2% copper. The area has no recorded historic work and will see further exploration in the coming season.
Location and adjacent properties
The company noted that the Theia project shares the southern claim boundary with Hecla's Kinskuch property, which according to Hecla's website (https://www.hecla-mining.com/kinskuch/) hosts potential for the discovery of epithermal silver-gold, gold-rich porphyry and volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits. Teuton Resources and Silver Grail's Konkin Silver property shares the northern claim boundary, where "Several silver-bearing structures have been discovered within an exhalative horizon" (http://teuton.com/properties/konkin-silver-property).
There are logging roads within 10 km of the eastern boundary of the claims and the proposed Homestake Ridge Road is 12 km to the west.
"With the focus last season on our Telegraph copper-gold project, Theia saw limited activity,” Mountain Boy vice president of exploration Lucia Theny commented. “That work generated significant results in three areas, extending the Bria and Silver zones as well as finding a new copper target. The property covers an extensive and well-mineralized geological system that has seen only limited exploration to date.”
Mountain Boy has six active projects spanning 650 square kilometres in the prolific Golden Triangle region of northern British Columbia. Its Telegraph project lies near several large porphyry deposits including Galore Creek (Teck - Newmont), Schaft Creek (Teck - Copper Fox), Big Red (Libero Copper and Gold), Saddle and Saddle North (Newmont), and the operating Red Chris copper-gold mine (Newcrest - Imperial Metals).
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com