Mining Explorers 2016: Colorado Resources Ltd.

Colorado Resources Ltd. owns or has options on five properties that blanket more than 1,000 square kilometers of northwestern British Columbia.

The junior’s 2016 exploration focused primarily on KSP, a property the company is optioning from Seabridge Gold Inc. (Seabridge acquired the property as part of its June purchase of SnipGold Corp.)

In June, Colorado kicked off drilling at the Inel zone at KSP, where the company’s surface geological work, along with a review of historical drill logs, indicate at least three more than 1,000-meter-long stacked target zones at Inel. Gold-in-soil anomalies upslope of the known mineralization show that other unidentified trends remain to be discovered.

Drilling began in June and by the end of August, Colorado had already drilled 59 holes at (8,865 meters) at KSP.

In early August, the company published results from the first 30 holes. A one-meter intercept in hole INDDH16-029 averaged165.5 grams per metric ton gold, 37.1 g/t silver and 2.5 percent zinc; part of a 25.7-meter section that averaged 9.24 g/t gold, 36.6 g/t silver and 3.3 percent zinc.

Despite meeting its annual work requirements for KSP by the end of July, the company kept drilling with the goal of earning an initial 51 percent interest in the property by the end of the 2016 program.

“The expanded and accelerated program will focus on follow up of the current drill results at Inel and also commence drilling on the Khyber target located 2 kilometers to the south of Inel,” explained Colorado President and CEO Adam Travis. “There’s plenty of room at Inel for more mineralization as our first-pass drilling has tested only about 13 percent of this impressive soil anomaly on a very broad pattern.”

Upon satisfying its initial earn-in requirements, Colorado has the right to earn up to 80 percent interest in KSP by investing another C$4 million on work there within a year.

In April, Colorado acquired KingPin, a large copper-gold property immediately southwest of KSP that consists of 29,425 hectares (72,709 acres) of staked claims and 3,400 hectares (8,401 acres) purchased from a third party. This land package, which stretches southwest from KSP to the past-producing Granduc Mine, covers 35 British Columbia Minfile occurrences.

Colorado’s 2016 program investigated four of these historical mineral occurrences: Max, a cluster of 15 porphyry, veins and skarn targets that Colorado believes may have been under-appreciated for their gold potential; KingPin South, which hosts three known polymetallic-gold targets located in areas that have undergone significant glacial retreat since last worked and offer new areas to explore for vein targets; Boulder Creek, a cluster of nine occurrences in the southwest portion of KingPin that shows promise for vein and skarn targets; and KingPin West, which includes more than 15 kilometers (nine miles) of promising geology on trend from the KSP property.

Colorado completed prospecting, mapping and sampling at KingPin this year.

Centerra Gold Inc., a Toronto-based company with two operating gold mines in Asia, funded a 2,000-meter drill program at Hearts Peaks, a high-grade gold-silver project located about 45 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of the past producing Golden Bear Mine. In the fall of 2015, Centerra entered into an option agreement to earn up to a 70 percent interest in this property that is also known as HP.

Colorado’s portfolio also includes North Rok, a copper-gold property about 15 kilometers (10 miles) northwest of Imperial Metals’ Red Chris Mine; and Hit a gold-copper property in southern British Columbia.

-SHANE LASLEY