Better driving on refractory gold deposit in B. C.

At present gold prices it’s not surprising that companies are taking a second look at refractory mineral deposits. Twelve miles west of this Vancouver Island coastal community, one such company, Better Resources, has outlined a significant gold deposit on its Mt. Washington claim group. The property is now the subject of an underground exploration and development program.

The flat-lying deposit generally has a high arsenic content which will weigh heavily in project feasibility. But a significant upgrading of drill-indicated reserves has been suggested by recent development work. The first 75 ft of advance in the program (which was actually more of a trench to establish a portal) averaged 0.63 oz gold based on 36 samples. When The Northern Miner visited the property, the company was preparing to collar its first hard rock round into the mountainside into which the mineral deposit was dipping.

What is particularly intriguing about these results is the fact they grade approximately twice that indicated by previous drilling. As an example, ddh-42 drilled earlier near the face of the adit returned 11.6 ft of 0.33 oz gold and 2.5 oz silver.

According to Dennis C. Baxter, a company director, the entire 1,000-ft-long incline will be “driven in the ore zone.” The adit will be driven nine feet high so there will be some ore at the floor elevation over the entire length, he notes.

This year’s exploration budget is $1.3 million and the company has spent almost half that already. The underground program should cost $300,000 to $400,000 but there will be another 20,000 ft of surface drilling as well. A bulk sample will be taken for metallurgical test purposes, none of which has been completed to date. The adit level will help determine mining conditions and assist in correlating surface drill results with underground bulk samples.

At the end of June, the company had $2.2 million in working capital, about $1 million of which was flow- through. Approximately $1.7 million is left which will get them through this year’s program with about $800,000 to spare. The company has a commitment from nim for $1 million in flow-through funding next year.

Better has been exploring the property since 1983. To date approximately 235,900 tons have been outlined in the Lakeview-Domineer zones. Better has an impressive land position, a total of 230 claims and units, most of which has not been explored in any detail. Several majors had previously looked at the property including Cominco and Esso Minerals but they were less successful.

During 1983, Better drilled two holes immediately west of the Domineer vein and completed a soil sampling program for gold on the West Grid-Lakeview zone. This work extended the gold mineralization in the Domineer vein to the west, besides outlining a large gold geochem anomaly coincident with a previously known anomaly.

The following year, 16 holes were drilled into the West grid area which confirmed the presence of gold mineralization. Another 49 holes were put down in 1986 following a trenching program and the gold mineralization in the West grid was extended south into the Lakeview zone. The Domineer vein was also extended and anomalous values were found in other zones.

The Domineer-Lakeview zone is the most extensively mineralized so it has received the most work. It has a strike length of about one mile and preliminary reserves of 235,900 tons grading 0.23 oz gold and 1.2 oz silver. A lower grade portion of this zone is open pittable, the company believes. These two zones are thought to represent a continuous body.

Mineralization consists of a tabular stockwork zone of quartz- pyrite-arsenopyrite veins, dipping at a slight angle to the west. Enveloping the quartz-sulphide veins is a broad alteration zone which is up to 100 ft wide. In general the centre of the alteration is a 6.5-16.5-ft- thick zone of hydrothermal breccia. Pyrite and arsenopyrite are the dominant sulphide minerals.

This seasons’s work has concentrated on filling in the areas between the Domineer and Lakeview zones. Snow was plowed at considerable expense so the program could start early; angled and vertical holes were drilled into the hillside to better delineate the zones.

There is good infrastructure in the area including power at a nearby ski lodge about one mile away; and road access from Courtenay is less than an hour away.