The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
VAZ: TSX-V
President and CEO: Michael Skead
Valdez Gold Inc. has turned north to seek gold near the legendary mining towns of Dawson City and Nome.
In January 2010, the Toronto-based junior signed an option to earn up to a 75 percent stake in Valley High Ventures Ltd.'s Flume Property in the White Gold District of Yukon Territory.
Valdez earns an initial 51 percent interest in Flume by spending C$1.5 million on the property and paying Valley High C$500,00 over a four year period.
The 3,900-hectare Flume property is located 60 kilometers southwest of Dawson City, Yukon, and 30 kilometers northwest of Underworld Resources Ltd.'s White Gold discovery.
The claims cover the headwaters of placer gold producing Ten Mile and Sestak creeks.
A 1,358-line-kilometer magnetic gradiometer and electromagnetic survey was flown at 50 meter line spacing.
Geophysical targets arising from this survey - especially those coinciding with soil geochemical targets previously defined by Phelps Dodge Corp. of Canada - were followed up with a detailed soil geochemical sampling and mapping program that began in June.
Staking the Flume property in 1998, Phelps Dodge completed property-wide investigation that defined two main targets, primarily characterized by elevated gold and arsenic soil anomalies with minor anomalous antimony and molybdenum. Valley High optioned Flume from the Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. subsidiary in 2009.
In April, Valdez closed a deal with Millrock Resource Inc. on the Bluff gold project located on the Seward Peninsula about 50 miles, or 80 kilometers, east of Nome. The Toronto-based junior can earn a 55 percent interest in this 35,000-acre land package by spending C$3 million on the project and paying Millrock C$300,000 and issuing 900,000 shares over the same time period. Millrock was the operator of a 4,500-meter drill program carried out at Bluff in 2010, which tested the both the strike and downdip extensions of the known Daniels Creek, Saddle and Koyana - three zones explored by BHP Billiton plc in the late 1980s.
The summer work program also included structural mapping and an in-fill soil geochemical sampling program in these prospective areas.
During its investigation of Bluff, BHP drilled several significant intersections in the three zones including 5.48 g/t gold over 10.9 meters, 4.19 g/t gold over 4.5 meters, and 1.93 g/t gold over 16.3 meters.
In a 1991 summary report, BHP detailed a non-NI 43-101 resource of 505,000 ounces for the three zones and indicated there was potential for gold resources exceeding 2.5 million ounces.
In 2008 Millrock confirmed the presence of gold on the property with a modest drill program, but due to the fractured nature of the rock core recovery was poor.
This year's reverse circulation drilling helped to improve recoveries.
In August, Valdez signed an agreement to sell two gold properties in Mexico to Gammon Gold Inc. for US$2.5 million.
Gammon will make escalating payments over four years, including US$50,000 paid upon signing the agreement.
Valdez said the sale will allow it to focus on its properties in Alaska and the Yukon.
Cash and short-term deposits: C$5.4 million (at June 30, 2010)
Working capital: C$5,172,580 (at June 30, 2010)
Market capitalization: C$15.73 million (at Sept. 9, 2010)
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Tel: 416-482-9038
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