Mining News: Miner eyes Yukon, northern B.C. projects

Despite tough times, Copper Ridge Exploration clings to decade-long dream of beating the odds to generate a major metal discovery

Rose Ragsdale

For Mining News

If it were entirely up to Copper Ridge Explorations Inc., the project generator would explore most of its mineral properties in Yukon Territory, northern British Columbia and Alaska this summer. But tough economic times have forced the Vancouver, B.C.-based junior to pick and choose among its 12 key projects, betting precious dollars on a handful of ideas that could pay off with additional exploration by catching the eye of future partners or investors.

Fortunately, some of Copper Ridge’s projects have already hit that magic turning point when potential partners become eager to follow up on resources that the junior has already brought to light. This gives Copper Ridge the ability to stretch the impact of its exploration program far beyond the company’s modest budget.

Copper Ridge President and CEO Gerald Carlson told Mining News May 13 that his company is gearing up for a relatively “quiet” 2009 exploration season with a budget of about $500,000.

“I’m afraid it’s not going to be as exciting as it was last year,” Carlson said. “We’re kind of lucky because we have cash in the treasury. We’re planning a modest program spread over three projects.

“We raised money from investors to explore, and it’s not right to just sit on our hands,” Carlson said. “But we’re not being as aggressive as we would if we had a larger treasury.”

Work already earmarked by Copper Ridge includes further exploration of volcanic massive sulphide mineralization at Clear Lake in the Yukon and copper-gold deposits at Yukon’s Lucky Joe and northern B.C.’s Babine projects.

Priority target at Clear Lake

Copper Ridge acquired 100 percent interest in the project in January 2008, but the vendor retained a 2 percent net smelter royalty, 75 percent of which can be purchased for $1.5 million.

Copper Ridge has expanded Clear Lake’s initial seven claims to a total of 55 claims covering about 1,200 hectares, or 2,892 acres. A barite-associated, shale-hosted sedimentary exhalative massive sulphide deposit that occurs in Devonian-aged Earn Group sediments within the Selwyn Basin, the Clear Lake mineralization is a pyritic massive sulphide body that is S-shaped, about 1,000 meters long and up to 120 meters wide. Zinc-lead-rich lenses are 5-30 meters thick, 450 meters long and extend at least 300 meters down dip.

Copper Ridge has said it believes the property has excellent potential for the discovery of additional zinc-lead-silver mineralization.

Exploration in the 1970s and 1990s resulted in a total of 18,219 meters in 71 drill holes in the property.

The Yukon Geological Survey Minfile database has reported a “geological reserve” of about 5.57 million metric tons with an average grade of 11.4 percent zinc, 2.0 percent lead and 38.01 grams per metric ton silver.

In 2008, Copper Ridge flew a VTEM airborne electromagnetic and magnetic survey over the Clear Lake deposit and adjacent ground. Subsequent analysis of the geophysical data by Condor Consulting of Lakewood, Colo., noted that the electromagnetic survey outlines the Clear Lake deposit as a weak but clearly defined conductive body. Condor also identified three other targets on the property that have similar geophysical characteristics to the Clear Lake anomaly, that appear to lie within the favorable Clear Lake stratigraphy and are recommended for drill testing.

“Clear Lake has high zinc grades of 13-14 percent and a resource of 5 million tonnes,” Carlson said. “If we’re able to increase that, we will have an economic project on our hands.”

Lucky Joe: Another Minto?

Drilling on the original Lucky Joe deposit in the 1970s gave values of 0.3 percent copper to 0.6 percent copper over thicknesses of 20-30 meters, with values up to 0.95 percent copper over 5.2 meters. Gold was shown to have close to a 1:1 correlation with copper. Soil sampling to the north of Lucky Joe has defined a strongly anomalous target: The Papa Bear or Lucky Joe trend is 11.3 kilometers long and is defined by copper and gold with soil values for copper up to 3,060 parts per million and for gold of up 235 parts per billion, with associated silver and molybdenum. The copper-gold zone extends outward into a lead and zinc halo that together outline a hydrothermal system over 21 kilometers long and up to 3 kilometers wide. The Ryan’s Creek trend parallels the Bear Cub trend, about 4 kilometers to the southwest. It has a strike length of 7.2 kilometers and is more strongly enriched in gold relative to the Lucky Joe trend, with high soil values for copper and gold of 4,400 ppm and 611 ppb, respectively.

Copper Ridge completed a mapping and soil sampling program at Lucky Joe in 2008 over a portion of the Ryan’s Creek trend, where drilling in 2006 and 2007 encountered copper values up to 0.75 percent over 3.0 meters and gold values up to 3.0 g/t over 2.4 meters, including 7.3 meters at 0.905 percent copper and 0.5 g/t gold in hole LJ07-19 and, 1,700 meters farther south, 12.05 meters at 0.37 percent copper and 0.8 g/t gold in hole LJ06-09.

Geophysical and soil geochemical surveys completed over the past three years have shown that mineralization is likely continuous between these two drill holes. Previous drilling has shown that gold and copper values and the gold-copper ratios are increasing toward this portion of the Ryan’s Creek zone.

Copper Ridge believes there is a good chance of defining a gold-copper resource in this area and is proposing a five- or six-hole drill test. The company is also seeking to farm out an interest in this property.

“We started out as a gold exploration company but expanded into other metals. We’re looking at copper-gold properties now. We believe base metals will continue to be important and hold value,” Carlson said. “There have been cases where projects have started as a copper mine but turned into a gold mine. By looking for good base metal projects with good precious metal credits, you cover both sides of the street.”

Copper-gold target in B.C.

The Babine project includes the Nak and Dorothy porphyry deposits, located in the Babine copper-gold porphyry belt that includes the Bell and Granisle mines, the Morrison deposit and numerous undeveloped prospects. The Bell and Granisle mines together produced 130 million metric tons of ore grading 0.4 percent copper, 0.15 g/t gold and 0.75 g/t silver.

The Nak property hosts a copper-gold porphyry deposit related to the Tertiary age Babine intrusive suite of rocks. The primary host rock for copper-gold mineralization in the region has distinctive “crowded” biotite feldspar porphyry of granodiorite composition. The main zone of mineralization on the Nak property is in an area of low relief situated between two northerly trending ridges and is open to the southeast and east. This area has extensive glacial till overburden cut by intermittent streams flowing in roughly east-west and northeast-southwest directions.

The Dorothy property is host to porphyry copper mineralization also associated with a biotitic-feldspar porphyry intrusion. Geophysical surveys suggest that the porphyry has been bisected and offset by a fault. If this interpretation is correct, the entire western half of the deposit has yet to be tested by drilling. Previous work also indicates the possibility for discovery of associated breccias-style copper-gold mineralization.

Copper Ridge agreed in 2007 to earn 100 percent interest in both the Nak and Dorothy properties over 6.5 and four years, respectively, through a combination of cash payments, stock issues and exploration spending. The vendor retained 3 percent NSR royalties on both properties, with provisions for Copper Ridge to purchase most of them for cash.

Historical drilling at Babine has included 98 core holes for a total of 15,629 meters. The Dorothy deposit was tested by a 29-hole, 2,973-meter drill program in the early 1970s.

In 2008, Copper Ridge completed a five-hole, 1,265-meter drill program. Best results are from hole BB08-04, drilled in the Southern Zone of the Nak deposit. The hole was drilled to 324 meters and averaged 0.12 percent copper and 0.329 g/t gold throughout its length, including 98.04 meters averaging 0.20 percent copper and 0.51 g/t gold and 16 meters averaging 0.23 percent copper and 0.76 g/t gold.

Exploration potential within the Babine project remains high and Copper Ridge believes additional drilling could expand both the Southern Zone of the Nak deposit and the Dorothy deposit.

Key role for exploration partners

“Scheelite Dome is a gold project, and we’ve had a lot of interest in it. We’re in discussions to farm it out. If so, we’ll see a fairly strong exploration program this season,” Carlson said.

Scheelite Dome previously was under option to Riverside Resources Inc., but it was returned to Copper Ridge.

The property hosts bulk tonnage and high-grade skarn and vein gold targets. The gold-arsenic-bismuth-antimony soil geochemical anomaly at Scheelite Dome is one of the largest and strongest in the Tintina Gold Belt, according to Copper Ridge.

At the Aorta Structure, a large zone of low-grade gold mineralization has been defined. The zone is open along strike and at depth. At the Tom Zone, drilling in 2003 encountered high-grade gold mineralization of 7.09 g/t gold over 6.4 meters, including 24.42 g/t gold over 1.7 meters. The zone is open for expansion.

At the Toby Creek Zone, in 2006, Copper Ridge defined a 2-kilometer-by-1-kilometer area of anomalous gold in soils with the strongest bismuth-arsenic-antimony soil anomaly on the property. A trenching program exposed large areas of intense alteration in the metasediments surrounding discrete 1- to 3-meter-wide zones of quartz-arsenopyrite-bismuthinite veining. Assay highlights from chip samples include 4.2 g/t gold over 2 meters and 8.1 g/t gold over 1 meter in continuous chip samples.

Copper Ridge also farmed out its Willoughby gold-silver property in 2007 to Bonterra Resources Inc. Bonterra, which reported plans to merge with Symphony Resources Inc. in April, has the right to earn up to 100 percent interest in Willoughby, which is located 26 kilometers, or 17 miles, east of Stewart, B.C. within a well-mineralized trend of the Hazelton Group volcanic rocks in the Stewart-Iskut-Eskay Creek gold district.

If a new junior, Richmond Capital, can get listed as a public company, it will explore Copper Ridge’s Yukon Olympic IOCG property north of Dawson City this summer, Carlson said.

Copper Ridge also farmed out the Kalzas tungsten project to Prospector Consolidated Resources Inc. The property consists of 8 claims in the Mayo Mining District located 290 kilometers, or 180 miles, north of Whitehorse.

Kalzas is a large, low-grade tungsten deposit with bulk tonnage potential. Within the roughly 1.5-square-kilometer zone of disseminated tungsten mineralization, higher grade zones occur in competent quartzite and siliceous conglomerate beds that are steeply dipping and strike northwesterly across the property.

Drilling and trenching at Kalzas was completed by Union Carbide in the 1970s and by Copper Ridge in 2002 to 2005. In 2008, Prospector Consolidated completed a drill program of 500 meters in four holes.

Prospector Consolidated had said it intended to complete a resource calculation in anticipation of continued drilling in 2009, but Carlson said he wasn’t certain that the junior would explore the property this year.

Junior diversifies to improve odds for exploration

Copper Ridge Exploration Inc. got its start 10 years ago when Gerald Carlson and Mark Fields organized the company.

Prior to forming Copper Ridge in 1999, Carlson was president and CEO of La Teko Resources Ltd., which held gold claims near the Fort Knox Mine in Interior Alaska.

Fields also worked for La Teko until Fort Knox owner Kinross Gold Corp. acquired that junior. The geologist also was involved in the acquisition and development of the Diavik diamond mine for Rio Tinto Ltd., and has since moved on to other ventures. However, he still is a member of Copper Ridge’s board of directors.

Copper Ridge is considered a project generator, sort of a middleman between prospectors and well-capitalized companies that can develop mines on their own or in partnership with others.

“We like to retain 30-50 percent interest in our projects, but sometimes we sell a larger interest,” Carlson said. “But we obtain shares in the acquiring company or a net smelter interest to get some value for shareholders if there is a discovery.”

The company operates in four jurisdictions: Yukon Territory, British Columbia, Alaska and Mexico.

A publicly held junior with Canadians holding up to 90 percent of its stock and Americans and Europeans owning its remaining shares, Copper Ridge’s focus has evolved over the years with the opportunities that have come its way.

Today, it is focused on acquiring, exploring and developing diversified mineral resource properties including base metals, precious metals, uranium and tungsten. By exploring a broad array of projects and focusing on the right commodities, in areas of high mineral potential, in mining-friendly jurisdictions, the junior believes it has a greater chance for discovery to maximize shareholder value.

Part of the Vancouver, B.C.-based junior’s attraction to Yukon Territory is the mining-friendly jurisdiction’s low political risk and high mineral potential, Carlson said.

For Copper Ridge, the Yukon government’s mining incentive programs are very important.

“They have been very effective in keeping exploration going in Yukon by supporting the prospectors. A number of them have brought us some good projects,” Carlson said.

“We find Alaska a little more expensive to explore, but it also has great mineral potential,” he observed.

Carlson said British Columbia, the other jurisdiction where it operates, has its challenges with First Nations disputes.

Persistence can pay off

The Ogopogo property is located in the Goodpaster mining district, 90 air miles east of Fairbanks and about 4 kilometers, or 2.5 miles east of the 5.5 million-ounce Pogo gold mine, which is owned by Sumitomo Corp. Copper Ridge holds a 100 percent interest in seven mining claims and various prospecting sites in east central Alaska, including the Ogopogo project, which consists of 114 State of Alaska mining claims covering 8,040 acres.

No significant mineralization has been identified within the Ogopogo claim block. The target is gold within quartz veins as identified in the Pogo deposit or similar to the gold occurrences demonstrated by a number of deposits within the Tintina Gold Province, associated with auriferous Cretaceous intrusions, such as Fort Knox, True North or Ryan Lode. Copper Ridge recently completed a NI 43-101 report on the property, which concludes that potential exists on the Ogopogo property for significant grade-tonnage accumulations of intrusive and/or gneiss-hosted gold mineralization similar to that currently being mined in the Fairbanks District and at the Pogo Mine. The report recommended an IP geophysical survey and soil sampling followed by a 1,000-meter drill program.

Carlson said Copper Ridge is considering the possibility of another company coming in and doing exploration work at Ogopogo this year.

In addition, the junior will scout the state for other opportunities.

“We always have our eyes open and we probably will look at potential acquisitions this summer in Alaska,” he said.

“It’s interesting that it often takes 10s of years for a project to come together,” observed Carlson. “A good example is the Pebble deposit in Southwest Alaska. Cominco Ltd. drilled it and identified 1 billion (metric) tons of resource. Then it was farmed out to Hunter Dickinson and now it has 9 billion tons of resource.

“Sometimes it just takes persistence and knowing where to drill the next hole,” he added.

—Rose Ragsdale