Mountain Boy Minerals Ltd (TSX-V:MTB, OTCQB:MBYMF) has announced further encouraging results from its 2021 field program on the BA project which included drilling, geologic mapping, prospecting, and channel sampling.
The Vancouver-based company said mapping and prospecting on the BA project beyond the area of drilling generated three new exploration targets which emphasize the unexplored potential of this prospective 10,658-hectare property.
The BA project, located in British Columbia's Golden Triangle, is 29 kilometres (km) by road from the deep-water seaport in Stewart. Highway 37A and a high voltage transmission line run through the northern end of the property. Drilling on the Barbara zone from 2006 to 2010 outlined an extensive zone of silver-lead-zinc mineralization.
READ: Mountain Boy confirms porphyry copper-gold mineralization, finds high-grade copper on its Telegraph project in British Columbia
The MJ target was identified through mapping and prospecting and was followed up with limited channel sampling. The zone occurs approximately 3 km to the northeast of the Barbara zone, which has been partially outlined by 182 diamond drill holes.
“Our work over the past couple of years has greatly expanded the scope of this well-mineralized property,” the company’s vice president for exploration Lucia Theny said in a statement.
“The earlier work focused on the Barbara zone, which we now recognize as being one aspect of a mineralized trend that we have tracked for 12 km. Our objective is to methodically work toward identifying zones prospective for hosting high-grade occurrences,” she added.
Mountain Boy noted that the new zone is at the contact of the underlying Lower Hazelton volcanic rocks and the overlying Upper Hazelton sediments. It said this is the same contact identified at the Barbara zone and is interpreted to be the same stratigraphic horizon as the famous high-grade Eskay Creek gold-silver mine.
Eskay Creek is also in the Golden Triangle and was the highest-grade gold mine in the world when it was in production. Mountain Boy said the new MJ target further demonstrates the prospective nature of the contact between the Upper and Lower Hazelton rocks, which occurs on both the company's BA and Surprise Creek properties. The MJ target as currently defined trends 500 metres (m) and remains open.
Additionally, it said polymetallic mineralization is hosted in a quartz-carbonate stockwork and as disseminations in the volcanic rocks. Several samples assayed high-grade silver values with multi percent combined lead and zinc values. It said the new zone is significant as it establishes another manifestation of the volcanic-hosted massive sulfide (VHMS) mineralization and highlights the potential scale of the system.
"This new target area will be the focus of follow-up work in the 2022 field season,” the company said. “Work will include detailed mapping, a drone survey and additional channel sampling.”
Apart from the MJ target, Mountain Boy said other new areas of interest include the North Nelson zone, also discovered in the 2021 field season and located approximately 4 km to the east from the Barbara zone.
It said the new discovery occurs along a structure that trends to the south, towards the Nelson Zone. The new zone is highlighted by two soil geochemistry lines that are anomalous in copper, lead and zinc and a grab sample that assayed 1157 grams per ton (g/t) silver, 0.35% copper, 0.79% lead and 0.42% zinc.
“Further mapping and sampling is proposed for the 2022 season with the objective of defining the extent of this prospective target,” Mountain Boy said.
An area located at the toe of the Nelson glacier, approximately 7 km east from the Barbara zone has returned a grab sample assaying 11.3 g/t gold and 0.2% copper. It said this sample and area will be further explored in the 2022 season.
Mountain Boy has six active projects spanning 60,398 hectares in British Columbia's prolific Golden Triangle.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com