Going underground at Cliff Mine

Calgary-based Western Warrior Resources Inc. plans to conduct underground geological mapping and additional drilling this year at the company's Cliff Mine gold exploration project at tidewater near Valdez, Alaska.

"As soon as the snow goes out, we'll start more geological mapping and sampling," company President Bruce Evans told Mining News in early March. "We plan to go underground to do some of the mapping and we will conduct more drilling."

Western Warrior holds a 100 percent interest in the historical Cliff Gold Mine, seven miles west of Valdez on a steeply sloping cliff rising directly from the sea. Access is by boat or helicopter.

More than 50,000 ounces of gold were mined from the high-grade underground lode deposit between 1910 and 1942, with an average recovered grade of 1.74 ounces of gold per ton of rock.

Western Warrior punched the first-ever exploration drill holes on the property last fall, completing 4,855 feet of core drilling in six holes. Results were released in a company press release in early January, and Evans said he was "pretty encouraged by what we saw. It's definitely time to follow up on it."

Intercepts reported ranged from 0.2 to 32 grams of gold per ton of rock, in holes drilled more than 800 feet deep. "I would have liked to get more higher grade intercepts … more splashy intercepts, but that's the way it shook out this time."

The company is currently working on a three-dimensional model of the deposit's structure and mineralized veins, Evans said, and information about that modeling will soon be released.

Spring mapping planned

No budget has been set yet for exploration work at Cliff this year, Evans said. Initial work will consist of inexpensive geological sampling and mapping, both from the surface and from accessible underground workings.

"Quite a few of the workings are above the water table, so we can get in there and have a look at the veins and the vein structure," he said. "The structure that hosts the veins - understanding its geometry is paramount in understanding where to drill."

Last fall's drilling provided valuable information about the geological setting that hosts the high-grade mineralization.

"We see distinct geochemical zones or halos around the gold mineralization zones and we can use that tool to help continue exploration at Cliff," Evans said.

Those geochemical signatures can help geologists trace mineralization in the underground deposit.

Following the geological mapping work, Western Warrior will kick off a "major program" of diamond core drilling at Cliff later this year. How many feet will be drilled has not yet been determined, but it will be considerably more than last year's 4,800-foot program, Evans said.

"It depends on the markets," he said. "Last year we were just taking a peak at it."

Western Warrior spent about $285,000 on the 2003 drill program, considerably less than the $350,000 Evans planned to spend. That's because he planned for expensive helicopter time to move the drill rig, a cost that was lowered as the company's landing craft contractor, Valdez Fuels, was able to move drilling equipment.

Acquisition mode

Western Warrior has also been working to acquire more exploration property, Evans said, not just land surrounding Cliff, but in the Southcentral region of Alaska and in other areas of the state.

"We're on an acquisition trend and are looking for more ground all over Alaska," Evans said. "There are acquisitions in all sorts of forms."

According to the company's Jan. 8 press release, Western Warrior is in the process of staking additional ground in the general area of the Cliff Mine, due to the success of the initial exploration program.

Western Warrior owns six patented and two unpatented mining claims at Cliff, for a total of 121 acres.