The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Ocean Park cuts visible gold with inaugural drilling at B.C. property; shifts focus to newly discovered Golden Range in Alaska
Ocean Park Ventures Corp. - which emerged on the mineral exploration scene in 2010 with a US$6.2 million exploration program at the Chisna gold-copper project in eastern Alaska - has returned to the north with another aggressive exploration program in 2011.
While the Vancouver B.C.-based junior investigates an exciting new gold trend at Chisna with a C$2.4 million program, the explorer's primary focus is on Trapper, a previously disregarded gold property located in northern British Columbia about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Telegraph Creek.
Optioning Trapper from Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. in December, Ocean Park originally planned 5,000 meters of drilling at the gold prospect in 2011, but after an initial boots-on-the-ground geological evaluation of the property, Chris Taylor, the company's vice president of exploration, upped the ante.
"I very quickly hit the go-button on drilling on that project," The exploration vice president told Mining News. "We had contemplated a large budget because we were very impressed with the preliminary data but that has expanded after the work we did there, initially."
VG at Trapper
Prior to Ocean Park's program, Trapper had never been drilled. Most of the preliminary data Taylor had to work with came from geochemical investigations carried out by Chevron Minerals of Canada in the 1980s.
Chevron's work on the property (known then as Inlaw) included a grid-controlled soil sample program that outlined a gold anomaly that stretched for more than 1,000 meters. Out of the some 700 samples taken, 13 yielded values greater than 1 g/t gold and two sites yielded values greater than 8 g/t gold. A work program carried out in 2008 by Richfield Ventures Corp. validated these findings.
Prior to vending the property, Constantine completed its own mapping and sampling program, which extended Chevron's findings in the area known as the Main zone by 1,000 meters.
Taylor, who had negotiated the deal that landed Trapper in Ocean Park, felt he had a responsibility to personally investigate the property and target the 2011 program. After a site visit, the exploration vice president realized the project had more potential than what he saw on paper.
"It is very obvious when you do the walk around on the property that you are dealing with a larger hydrothermal, and probably magmatic-associated, mineralization system than anybody had recognized," he said. "We can see lots of areas that have different types of mineralization and some nice surprises in the types of host-rock that we have for the gold mineralization."
Results from 21 grab samples taken by Ocean Park geologists along the core of an iron-carbonate altered trend that includes the Main zone averaged 1.12 g/t gold, with one sample assaying 10.25 g/t gold. These results increase the footprint of gold-rich mineralization by over 1,000 meters and encouraged the company to expand the focus of its exploration to include flying an induced polarization survey over the entire 37-square-kilometer (14-square-mile) gold property and extending the scope of its geological coverage.
"We are doing an airborne geophysical survey, we have field crews crawling all over the place and we have got the drills turning," Taylor said.
He said the two rigs, which started drilling in July, are targeting five mineralized areas over a trend that has been extended to "several kilometers."
Though the core from this program is still awaiting analysis at the backlogged assay labs, up to 1-millimeter flakes of visible gold observed in hole TG-11-011 is a good indicator of the tenor of mineralization being tapped during this inaugural drilling at the northern British Columbia property, according to the company.
As of Sept. 15 Ocean Park had completed 36 holes at Trapper and the company plans to keep drilling until winter weather sets in.
Taylor said he would like to see 10,000 meters of drilling, or nearly 50 holes, completed by the end of the season, but with snow working its way down the mountains it is looking like 40 holes will be a more likely number.
Trapper neighbor
In August Ocean Park optioned Metla, a gold property located five kilometers (3 miles) south of the Trapper gold project in northwest British Columbia. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, Ocean Park paid C$25,000 upon signing and will issue 100,000 common shares to the vendors upon exchange approval.
Prospecting at Metla, which dates back to 1957, has identified several zones of gold-arsenic-antimony mineralization, and gold-based metal mineralization. Work conducted on the property by Cominco Ltd. in 1987 includes a grab sample returning 68 g/t gold. The average grade of 339 float samples collected by the company was 4.47 g/t gold.
"This acquisition further solidifies our land position in this emerging gold district in British Columbia," said Paul Matysek, acting president and chairman of Ocean Park. "Our Ocean Park team looks forward to rapidly exploring the extensive gold anomalies at Metla, with drill target identification at the main target and across the property's extensive recently deglaciated exposures."
Taylor said assays are pending from a suite of soil samples collected at the 5,280-hectare Metla property this summer.
New focus at Chisna
Though Ocean Park's primary focus in 2011 is on Trapper, the company is also conducting a respectable exploration program at the Chisna, a gold-copper project in eastern Alaska about 105 kilometers (65 miles) south of the town of Tok.
Under the terms of an agreement with Corvus Gold Inc., Ocean Park can earn an initial 51 percent interest in Chisna by spending US$20 million on exploration by 2015.
Last year's program - which included extensive geophysical surveying, a 5,000-meter drill program and geological reconnaissance conducted across the 900-square-kilometer (347-square-mile) property - was the first exploration under the agreement.
The 2010 drilling focused on Grubstake a porphyry copper-gold target, located on the southeast end of the Chisna land package
"The drilling (at Grubstake) was not of strong immediate interest. There were locally good gold-mineralized structures that cut that porphyry system, but it wasn't the type of target that we felt we wanted to put more drilling into at the moment," Taylor explained.
Although the drilling carried out in 2010 failed to tap the economically viable mineralization targeted, a reconnaissance team led by Nadia Caira, a geologist with more than 28 years of porphyry copper-gold exploration experience, turned up a number of other promising targets across the 65-kilometer (40-mile) long belt of gold and copper mineralization at Chisna.
Golden Range, a 9-kilometer (5.6-mile) long iron-carbonate zone with highly anomalous gold in bedrock and soils, is a target Ocean Park found particularly interesting.
The 2010 reconnaissance program also turned up the Southwest Grubstake prospect, a gold-rich base metal vein system that stretches for at least 600 meters. The average grade of 19 rock samples taken from in-place boulder trains and outcrop here averaged 7.38 g/t gold, 8.82 g/t silver, 0.91 percent lead and 0.16 percent zinc.
Though Southwest Grubstake and numerous other prospects across the vast Chisna land-package are promising targets for future investigations, Ocean Park has plenty of ground to cover at Golden Range.
"We like what we see at the Golden Range so much that my preference is to keep the drills focused there," Taylor said. "This year we plan to demonstrate that we have a very interesting, very significant gold-bearing system present on that target."
Golden Range of targets
More than 300 rock and grab samples collected from this prospect in 2010 average 0.6 g/t gold, with a high of 50.4 g/t gold. Out of 176 soil samples taken across the same area, 71 samples returned greater than 0.10 g/t gold with an average of 0.23 g/t gold and a high of 6.53 g/t gold.
To further refine targets for a 5,000-meter drill program that started in August, Ocean Park deployed a technical team to conduct a detailed geological and geochemical survey of Golden Range.
"What we have had the geologists on the project do is identify some of the most prospective intersections and other features that warrant the first phase of the drilling," Taylor said.
By September the company had assay results from 897 grab and chip samples taken from an eight-square-kilometer (three-square-mile) area at Golden Range. These assays have ranged from below detection limits to 79.8 g/t gold, with an average of 1.37 g/t gold. With this initial work, Ocean Park has outlined seven target zones to be tested with this year's 17-hole program.
Taylor said on Sept. 15 that nine holes have been drilled at Golden Range and he expects the rigs to keep turning there for a few weeks longer.
Once the winter weather marks a close to the 2011 exploration season at Chisna and Trapper, Ocean Park will turn its attention to Adelita, a porphyry copper-gold project in Sonora, Mexico.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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