From a major investment by Goldcorp Inc. to bonanza-grade gold intercepts at its KSP property in northern British Columbia, 2017 has been a golden year for Colorado Resources Ltd.
In August, Goldcorp Inc. made a strategic investment that gave the major a roughly a 14 percent interest in Colorado, a stake that could increase to around 19 percent if the major exercises all of the Colorado warrants it holds.
This investment was part of a larger financing completed by Colorado.
“With the recent completion of the $7.3-million financing we are well positioned to continue to advance KSP and our other high-quality Golden Triangle projects,” said Colorado President and CEO Adam Travis.
Colorado invested C$1 million of the funds to acquire full ownership of KSP – a property in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle that blankets both high-grade gold veins and bulk tonnage copper-gold targets – from Seabridge Gold Inc.
Travis hailed full ownership of KSP as “one of the most important milestones in Colorado’s eight-year history.”
Bonanza gold at KSP
Colorado optioned, KSP in 2013 and in the ensuing years this property about nine miles (15 kilometers) southeast of the former high-grade Snip gold mine has emerged as the flagship property for the Golden Triangle explorer.
In 2016, Colorado carried out a C$6 million program at KSP that included 53 holes drilled at Inel, a high-grade target where historical surface and underground drilling cut intercepts as high as 20.93 grams per metric ton gold over 7.3 meters; 41.1 g/t gold over 7.4 meters; and 423.8 g/t gold over 3.5 meters.
The 2016 program continued to find similar high-grade gold zones, such as 1 meter of 165.5 g/t gold; as well as broad zones of lower grade mineralization, such as 99 meters of 2.11 g/t gold and 52 meters of 4.93 g/t gold and 2.7 percent zinc.
With more than 60 percent of the holes drilled in 2016 cutting intercepts exceeding 5 g/t gold, Colorado is encouraged that it could be closing in on a high-grade deposit similar to the one that fed the nearby Snip Mine, which recovered 1 million ounces of gold in 1990s.
After reviewing what it learned from the 2016 drill program, which tested a 300- by 600-meter central core area of Inel, Colorado identified very strong gold-in-soil anomalies to the west and north as primary targets for its 2017 program.
“Great exploration projects just keep getting better with continued exploration, and KSP is no exception,” said Travis.
Given the bonanza-grade intercept drilled at KSP this year, this exceptional trend continues.
In September, Colorado released results from half of 40 holes drilled during its first phase of 2017 drilling at KSP.
One hole, INDDH17-081, cut a thick chunk of gold that averages 130.38 ounces per metric ton gold over 0.5 meters at Inel Ridge
Seeing this thick vein of coarse visible gold smeared across the core, Colorado hand-delivered five samples to Vancouver for analysis. These samples averaged 1,670.5 g/t (53 troy ounces per metric ton) gold over 1.4 meters; including 4,470 g/t (143.7 oz/t) gold at the 0.5 meter center of this bonanza discovery.
As a result of the coarse visible gold encountered in hole 81, six holes were drilled over a 150-meter along strike to the north.
INDDH17-055 – drilled to test an area 50 meters below a 2016 intercept at Inel Ridge that returned 1 meter of 53.1 g/t gold – cut 2.6 meters of 31.59 g/t gold from a depth of 191.9 meters. Just above this high-grade zone, the same hole cut 73 meters of 1.71 g/t gold from a depth of 102 meters.
In addition to the high-grade gold zones, Colorado tested a porphyry target at the eastern edge of the Inel intrusion where an induced polarization anomaly coincides with the contact between volcanic and sedimentary rocks. One hole drilled here, INDDH17-054, cut 273.2 meters averaging 0.32 g/t gold and 0.08 percent copper from a depth of 5.8 meters to the bottom of the hole.
After receiving assay results from half the holes drilled during the 8,100-meter initial phase of 2017 drilling, Colorado launched a second phase of drilling that extended into the fall.
In addition to further drilling at Inel, Colorado plans to complete discovery drilling at Tami, a prospect about 5 kilometers to the southeast.
One trench at Tami returned roughly 3 g/t gold and 0.5 percent copper over 15 meters and one hole historical hole cut 208.2 meters of 0.32 g/t gold.
“Sound exploration by our team is being rewarded with significant new discoveries and a better understanding of the Inel system with high-grade visible gold discovered,” said Travis.
Northern expansion
North ROK, which hosts 142.3 million metric tons of inferred resource average 0.22 percent copper and 0.26 g/t gold, is among the Golden Triangle projects in Colorado’s portfolio.
In March, the company expanded the North ROK footprint by cutting a deal to acquire ROK-Coyote, a copper-gold property that spans the roughly 15 kilometers (nine miles) between North ROK and Imperial Metals’ Red Chris Mine property.
The ROK-Coyote porphyry prospect has been intermittently explored since the late 1960s. Work on the ROK portion of the property from 1976 to 1991, included mapping, geochemical surveys, geophysics, trenching and drilling. One hole drilled during this historical exploration cut 38.7 meters averaging 1.03 percent copper and 1.54 g/t gold.
Little follow-up exploration was carried out until the discovery of the North ROK porphyry in 2013.
Historical geophysical data suggests that the North ROK sulfide system trends onto the ROK-Coyote property for at least 1,200 meters. A number of other magnetic and induced polarization anomalies are noted along other separate historical grids and have not been drill-tested. Colorado’s technical group is applying what it has learned at North ROK to assess the potential of ROK-Coyote.
Colorado also is taking a closer look at Kinaskan, a copper-gold property about six miles (10 kilometers) west of North Rok.
While Kinaskan had previously been a lower priority target for Colorado, GT Gold Corp.’s high-grade gold discovery at Saddle, which lies between North ROK and Kinaskan, has stirred increased interest in the property.
Historical work indicates that the anomaly hosting the Saddle discovery trends west for at least 5,000 meters onto Kinaskan.
Drilling by a previous operator at Kinaskan in 2013 cut 174 meters of 0.47 g/t gold and 0.11 percent copper, including 4 meters of 4.88 g/t gold, 2.14 percent copper and 73.2 g/t silver.
Colorado’s portfolio also includes Heart Peaks, a Golden Triangle project about 30 miles (45 kilometers) northeast of the past producing Golden Bear Mine; Hit a gold-copper property in southern B.C.; and Green Springs, a Carlin-style gold property in Nevada.
