Discovery made in Idaho Beartrack looks big for Meridian

What appears to be an important gold discovery has been made by Meridian Gold Company about 10 miles west of Salmon, Idaho. More than 100 holes have been drilled into the company’s Beartrack deposit and at this early stage a geologic reserve of 36.9 million tons averaging 0.055 oz gold (0.03 cut off) has been identified.

That works out to over two million ounces of contained gold, making it one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in North America. Given the thickness of the intercepts, there is a high probability a smaller but higher grade reserve can be blocked out, The Northern Miner gathers.

Many of the better intercepts began at or near surface and grades exceeding 0.06 oz gold per ton have frequently been returned. One of the longest gold-bearing intercepts yielded 0.068 oz gold over 899 ft and there were many more impressive intersections including 550 ft of 0.12 oz gold, 470 ft grading 0.08 oz, 415 ft of 0.099 oz, and 380 ft averaging 0.075 oz.

Most of the drilling has been reverse circulation which provides a large sample and is widely used in the western United States. There is a fair amount of snow on the property at the moment and the program is expected to wind down any day now. This core drilling program is for metallurgical and geotechnical purposes.

Drilling was concentrated along two miles of a mineralized trend located within Beartrack’s approximate 50 square mile land position. Two large stockwork disseminated gold deposits have been outlined in association with the Beartrack fault which likely provided a channel for the mineralization. No tertiary rocks have been noted in the project area to date and the gold mineralization extends for a strike length of 13,500 ft along the Beartrack fault.

Meridian says that the South or Gold Ridge deposit is hosted entirely by quartzite, siltite and meta- arkose; ore grade mineralization has been found here along 2,500 ft of strike length, across a width of 250 ft, and to 500 ft in depth. And the shallow nature of the reserves suggests open pit potential. The alteration associated with the gold mineralization here is pervasive in veined orthoclase and quartz, the company says.

The North deposit, located 3,000 ft north of Gold Ridge, is hosted within the porphyritic quartz monzonite on the east side of the Beartrack fault. In this area, the dimensions of ore grade mineralization are 3,400 ft long, 300 ft wide, and 500 ft deep. The deposit contains a phyllic assemblage that grades from quartz-sericite sulphide to an outward propylitic assemblage, says Meridian.

Meridian confirms that the mineralization in both deposits consists of disseminated pyrite and arsenopyrite associated with stockwork quartz veining. Accessory minerals are galena, molybdenite, cinnabar, stibnite and rare wolframite. Although the geochemical signature is indicative of many epithermal gold deposits with high values of arsenic, mercury and moderate antimony, the alteration pattern is more suggestive of a porphyry-type system, the company concludes. That being the case, the tonnage implications could be immense, The Northern Miner gathers.

Incidentally, the original Beartrack discovery was made in 1984 by Bob Perry, a geologist with Canyon Resources (NASDAQ) of Golden, Colo. Meridian later came in on a joint venture basis and mounted a follow-up drilling program last July; a subsequent program identified the two deposits.

Under Meridian’s original option agreement, the company had the right to earn a 60% interest in the Beartrack project through an expenditure of $3 million. (That commitment has or will be met shortly). Canyon and Minex, its partner, had the remainder.

Apparently the deal was revised after the latest results were announced. As a result, Meridian picked up another 11% and the partnership’s interest was reduced to 29%.

Meridian is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Burlington Resources (NYSE) which is being spun off from Burlington Northern Railroad. At the moment, about 20% of Burlington Resources issued capital is publicly held. In the next month, shareholders of Burlington Northern will receive 1.75 shares of Burlington Resources which will effectively make the latter public.

Meridian’s Royal Mountain King mine in Calaveras Cty., Calif., where reserves are estimated at 635,000 oz gold, is expected to be in production in the first quarter of 1989.

Canyon is producing gold from a new mine in Montana and it produces and sells diatomite, a soft siliceous sedimentary rock, from a Nevada plant.