The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Indicates potential Dolly Varden, Homestake Ridge connections North of 60 Mining News - December 21, 2021
Dolly Varden's 2020 and 2021 drilling has cut intriguing copper-gold mineralization within the Western Gold Belt area of its namesake project south of Stewart, British Columbia.
Dolly Varden Silver Corp. Dec. 20 said high-grade silver encountered during drilling at the Wolf deposit provides another encouraging sign that strong mineralization continues north from the high-grade deposits on its namesake property onto the Homestake Ridge property it is acquiring from Fury Gold Mines Ltd.
Situated 46 kilometers (29 miles) southeast of Stewart, the Dolly Varden property covers four historic high-grade silver mines – Torbrit, Dolly Varden, Wolf, and North Star – that date back to the early 20th century.
Four deposits associated with these historical mines host 3.42 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 299.8 grams per metric ton (32.9 million ounces) silver; plus 1.29 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 277 g/t (11.5 million oz) silver, according to a calculation completed about a year ago.
Wolf, the northernmost of the four deposits, hosts 402,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 296.6 g/t (2.1 million oz) silver; plus 9,500 metric tons of inferred resource averaging 230.6 g/t (70,000 oz) silver.
Hole DV21-273, which tested the southwest projection of the Wolf vein about 94 meters down-plunge from the resource, cut 1.22 meters averaging 1,532 g/t silver, 0.44 g/t gold, 2.11% lead, and 1.07% zinc within a 17.5-meter-thick breccia zone averaging 214 g/t silver and 0.47% lead.
The Wolf deposit, which has historical underground working but no reported production, lies about 2,000 meters north of Torbrit, which is the northernmost of the other three deposits that host the balance of current Dolly Varden resources.
"This high-grade silver intercept at Wolf demonstrates the excellent exploration and resource expansion potential on the property," said Dolly Varden Silver CEO Shawn Khunkhun.
Dolly Varden is also encouraged that the silver mineralization encountered in DV21-273 is associated with strong potassic alteration, indicating that the volcanogenic Torbrit deposit continues beneath the overlying sediment package. Dolly Varden Chief Geologist Rob van Egmond provides further impetus "to drill test several geophysical anomalies identified along the northerly trend towards the deposits at Homestake Ridge."
Adding to the exploration potential across the Dolly Varden property, three holes drilled in the Western Gold Belt area cut up to 303-meter-long intervals of stockwork quartz with strongly anomalous gold, along with silver and copper. The company says this mineralization hosted within early Jurassic volcanic rocks is similar to numerous porphyry gold-copper deposits and mines in British Columbia.
Khunkhun said this strong indicator of porphyry-related gold-copper-silver style mineralization is "potentially the most significant exploration breakthrough on the property in years."
The company plans to follow up on this discovery with geophysical surveys for porphyry-style mineralization and drilling.
Overall, Dolly Varden's 2021 program included 10,506 meters of drilling in 31 holes. So far, the company has received assay results from 10 of these holes that tested five exploration targets on the property.
The 21 remaining holes are part of the company's two-year strategy to aggressively expand and upgrade the Torbrit deposit and nearby satellite zones with the objective of advancing Dolly Varden to be the next high-grade silver mine in British Columbia.
The successful completion of Homestake Ridge, however, will open up the exploration and development potential for the company.
"The next phase of exploration drilling will prioritize connecting our historic mines and current deposits of the Dolly Varden Trend with the deposits at Homestake 5.4 kilometers (3.4 miles) to the northwest along the Kitsault Valley Trend that comprise the recently announced proposed acquisition from Fury Gold Mines," said Khunkhun.
Together, the adjacent Dolly Varden and Homestake Ridge projects encompass 4.7 million oz of silver and 166,000 oz of gold in the indicated resource category, plus 29.3 million oz of silver and 817,000 oz of gold in the inferred category.
More information on Dolly Varden's proposed acquisition of Homestake Ridge can be read at Dolly Varden to acquire Homestake Ridge in the December 10, 2021, edition of North of 60 Mining News.
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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