Prospectors Making NEW Discoveries

Transcription

1 Prospectors Making NEW Discoveries Hans Smit Minerals North 2012 Burns Lake, British Columbia May 2012

2 BC Needs New Discoveries BC mines and most advanced mineral projects were found decades ago

3 To ensure the mineral industry continues to provide economic benefits to British Columbia in the future, the inventory of grassroots properties needs to be replaced. But who is looking for new discoveries?

4 Mining Companies Mine

5 Mining Companies Produce Metal Mining companies do little exploration away from their operations

6 Junior Companies Explore

7 Junior Companies Develop Projects

8 Junior Mining companies need an interesting find in order to raise risk funding

9 Governments Provide Information

10 Geoscience BC Mandate: To attract mineral and oil & gas exploration and investment to B.C. GBC delivers on its mandate through: Major multi-year, multi-disciplinary data acquisition projects (e.g. QUEST Project: regional geochemistry and geophysics surveys) Adding value to existing datasets (e.g. putting MDRU s Iskut maps in GIS format) Targeted applied research projects (e.g. sponsor university research projects) Partnerships to stimulate exploration (e.g. SEEK, a partnership with the EKCM to capture and highlight existing geoscience knowledge in the region) Education and Outreach (short courses, presentations) Results and information (including maps, technical reports, data sets) on all Geoscience BC Projects are available for free from Geoscience BC s website:

11 Who Will Make the New Discoveries?

12 The Easy Minerals Have Been Found

13 Prospectors are still Key to the Mineral Industry Prospectors look for new discoveries

14 Green Gold Project A prospecting Success 30 km Southwest of Prince George

15 Good Geological Potential Major structures Known deposits in same geological environment

16 Bedrock is Sparse Lack of rock exposure makes exploration difficult

17 Rupert Seel staked the ground in 2004 based on a few anomalous samples in a BC government geochemical survey

18 Rupert collected close to 1,000 samples over 6 years. A number of soils had anomalous gold content. Lack of outcrop made it difficult to find where the gold came from.

19 Persistence led to the discovery of low grade but anomalous gold in a small outcrop in 2010

20 Further persistence and excavator trenching discovered significant gold values in a small trench

21 Thick overburden limited the ability to explore the extent of mineralization

22 Optioned the property to a private company in 2011 to facilitate financing of continued exploration

23 2011 Geophysics Discovery Area Au N 250m IP Resistivity (50m) February 2012

24 Additional Trenching 1.64 g/t Au, including 4.0 g/t Au in trench Last sample in trench was 8 g/t Au

25 A New Discovery New grassroots gold discovery in central interior plateau near Prince George no metal mine or advanced project nearby Excellent Infrastructure 1.64 g/t Au, including 4.0 g/t Au in trench Last sample in trench was 8 g/t Au Extent of mineralization unknown Multiple areas with anomalous gold-in-soil samples Prospective geology including altered volcanic & ultramafic rocks (listwanite) Major faults provide potential deep-seated plumbing system Very limited outcrop could mask a large deposit Next phase estimated at $420,000

26 No entity except a determined prospector would have made the Green Gold discovery Major companies do limited grassroots exploration Junior companies would never have been able to raise funds for several years of soil sampling

27 Prospector s Success Leads to Economic Activity 2011 expenditures - $100,000 Next Phase - $420,000 Additional expenditures are dependent on exploration success, but could be significant Most of these expenditures are for supplies and services in Northern British Columbia

28 Mt. Milligan Another Prospector Success Story Discovered by Richard Haslinger in 2003 Prospector from Ft. St. James

29 The geologists were wandering the high country while Richard was slogging through the low country where the deposit is located

30 Prospecting can be a Tough Road

31 The Number of Active Prospectors Has Been Steadily Declining in BC 1958 prospecting course - Vancouver

32 Prospecting can provide a rewarding full-time or part-time career

33 First Nation people have a long history in prospecting Could continue to provide economic benefits Mike Vincent Wet suwet en prospector David Dennis Wet suwet en prospector

34 Prospectors Find NEW Discoveries Discoveries lead directly to significant economic activity in exploration. Discoveries have the potential to become new mines. We Need to Support Prospectors!

35 Governments Has a Role in Helping Prospectors Ensure regulations consider and facilitate low impact exploration by prospectors Keep claim tenure regime fair Continue to provide access to high-quality exploration data Provide technical expertise Assist in promoting properties

36 Industry Needs to Support Prospectors Industry generally only supports prospectors when they have made a discovery Providing prospectors with technical expertise and assistance with analytical costs can be very beneficial for both parties Hiring prospectors for company exploration efforts helps prospectors pay the bills Bring back the grubstake

37 We can all support Education technical regulatory best practices safety First NWCC School of Exploration and Mining Course

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39 Thanks to the Prospectors