The prolonged downturn in the metals market is like Black Friday for project generators such as Millrock Resources Inc. The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior has added a dozen gold and base metals projects to its exploration portfolio during the past six months. The most recent of these acquisitions gives the mineral explorer a foothold in the Golden Triangle region of Northwest British Columbia.
“This is the exact time Millrock has been waiting for all along,” Gregory Beischer, the company’s president and CEO, told Mining News. “We have stuck rigorously to our model, and here we are now … taking advantage of the tremendous opportunities that are in front of us.”
On Dec. 14, Millrock announced it had orchestrated a series of deals to acquire three properties – Todd Creek, Poly and Oweegee Dome – that blanket more than 600 square kilometers (230 square miles) of the Golden Triangle near the Brucejack and KSM properties.
“It has taken substantial effort, coordination and cooperation by all parties to execute eight different agreements simultaneously with six different claim owners, royalty owners and creditors. However, the result is that we have assembled three large, cohesive mining claim blocks covering highly prospective lands in a very attractive and active exploration and mine development district,” Beischer explained.
While a number of companies held various interests or royalties in these properties, Geofine Exploration Consultants Ltd., a geological consulting firm with vast experience in Golden Triangle, is a common denominator.
“The Golden Triangle is truly one of the world’s most prolific and best-mineralized slices of the earth’s crust,” said Beischer. “By merging our exploration approach with the institutional knowledge and local operational ability of Geofine Exploration Consultants, we intend to assert ourselves as the premier generative exploration company in the district. These three main projects will be a great start.”
Golden Triangle properties
Todd Creek, which covers 20,276 hectares (50,103 acres) of land immediately south of Pretium Resources Inc.’s Brucejack project, is the most advanced of the three Golden Triangle properties acquired by Millrock.
The property shows the potential for precious metals-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits similar to the historic Eskay Creek Mine located 60 kilometers (37 miles) to the northwest.
Beischer said Todd Creek “is probably the best volcanogenic massive sulfide property” he has come across in his more than 30 years as an exploration geologist.
One hole drilled by Noranda Exploration Company at the Fall Creek Zone at Todd Creek in 1988 cut 5.95 meters averaging 14.5 grams per metric ton gold and 2.06 percent copper.
In its annual report for 1988, Hemlo Mines Inc. reported an historical resource of 207,000 short tons averaging 5.85 g/t gold at the South Zone deposit, which is situated about five kilometers (three miles) south of the Fall Creek zone.
While South zone has the potential for expansion, Beischer is particularly intrigued by the deposit’s gold enrichment and what that could mean for a large VMS deposit in the area.
“I view it as a really good sign that any VMS there is going to be precious metals-enriched,” he said. “There are enormous alteration zones nearby that tell me this is a really big system.”
Fall Creek and South Zone represent two of eight zones identified along an eight-kilometer (five miles) trend at Todd Creek.
Poly, located about 10 kilometers (six miles) southeast of Todd Creek, is prospective for both volcanogenic massive sulfide and epithermal gold deposits.
A number of mineral outcrops and geochemical anomalies have been identified along an eight-kilometer (five miles) fault structure that localizes mineralization on the Poly property.
Oweegee Dome, also known as the Stewart property, is geologically similar to the Brucejack property that lies immediately to the east. Past work on this 32,000-hectare (79,000 acres) is prospective for the gold-vein, porphyry copper-gold and polymetallic VMS deposits for which the Golden Triangle is renowned.
The Millrock team’s first order of business is to compile, digitize, organize and do quality control on all the various data available for these properties.
“That is going to be a big job in the coming months,” Beischer said.
The Millrock CEO said the project generator would welcome a partner seeking exclusive rights to these newly consolidated properties, even at this early stage. For a very modest investment, such a company would have its choice of properties that it might want to joint venture once the data is compiled and the first-pass field work is completed.
“We can’t wait to get out there next summer and see what might be lying right there on the ground,” Beischer said.
All three of the properties also have the distinct advantage of being transected or very close to paved highways and 287 kilovolts of industrial grade electricity being delivered by the recently energized Northwest Transmission Line.
They are also located in a jurisdiction that appreciates its mining sector.
“They get it in B.C.,” Beischer told Mining News. “They make explorers and miners feel welcome, and we want to be there.
Growing portfolio
In order to acquire the Golden Triangle and other properties, Millrock raised C$1.33 million through a non-brokered private placement that involved the issuance of 8,321,509 priced at C16 cents apiece.
Millrock only needed to pay out C$313,000 of the raised cash to consolidate ownership of the three northwestern British Columbia properties, but did issue an additional 2,732,998 shares to the various parties holding various interests and royalties.
Management believes the potential of its expanded portfolio more than offsets the additional shares now in the market.
Beischer explained to shareholders in November, when the company announced plans to raise the funds, “While we are cognizant of the dilution this strategic financing will cause, we believe that the property acquisitions that we intend to make with the proceeds of this financing will ultimately pay off for all Millrock shareholders.”
In addition to the Golden Triangle properties, Millrock has picked up six gold and copper properties in Mexico since the Nov. 10 financing announcement, adding to a dozen such projects the company acquired there last year. The company also acquired three Alaska gold and copper properties since late July. All told, the company has added two dozen gold and copper properties to its portfolio during the past 18 months.
Beischer said future property acquisitions are likely.
“We are being very aggressive in our property acquisitions,” he said.
Sticking with its project generator model, Millrock is seeking joint venture partners to unwrap the potential of the projects that the company has found during the mining sector’s equivalent of Black Friday sales.
