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Prospecting begins at Woewodski Island Massive sulfide mineralization containing zinc, lead, copper, silver, gold found Patricia Jones Petroleum News Contributing Writer
Geological crews working for Bravo Venture Group Inc. started prospecting work the last week of July on Woewodski Island in Southeast Alaska, about 20 miles southwest of Petersburg.
The Canadian junior-sized exploration company, part of the Manex Group of mineral exploration companies, inked an exploration deal in late April with claim holder Olympic Resources, giving Bravo access to nearly the entire four-by-five-mile island.
“We were able to work out a reasonable deal with the vendor … we’re looking at a highly prospective belt of rocks with multiple mineral occurrences,” said Rob Macdonald, Bravo’s senior geologist.
Terms of the acquisition agreement for the roughly 10,300-acre claim block on Woewodski Island allow Bravo to earn a 100 percent interest in the property over a five-year period by spending $2 million on exploration and development, issuing 400,000 shares to the property owners and carrying the holding costs of the claims.
Bravo’s company and contract geologists planned to start surface prospecting and compiling for analysis available historical exploration data in late July, Macdonald told Petroleum News July 22. That work, which should continue throughout August, he said, will hopefully develop some new and deeper drill targets that could be completed later this year.
“We’re really enthusiastic about the whole program. Every time we get a little bit more information about the island, it looks more and more promising,” Macdonald said. “We hope to bring all that together, step back and have a good look and see where it leads us … we’ll see if we can get at a full-blown drill program in the fall.” Recent exploration While it is Bravo’s first year of exploration at Woewodski, the island has seen numerous prospectors and mining companies come and go. Gold was first produced at Woewodski in the late 1800s and the early 1900s, including operation of a 20-stamp mill on the island starting in 1904.
Most recently, the privately held Olympic Resources, consisting of mostly locals in the 60-member group, compiled federal mining claims covering the island and prospected various targets containing polymetallic mineralization. (See related story.)
Working mostly on weekends in recent years, Olympic Resources conducted surface sampling and shallow-depth core drilling using a portable, lightweight Winkie drill, said Phil Beardslee, a Petersburg dentist and a founder of Olympic Resources.
“It’s an excellent exploration drill … you can move it around easy,” he said.
With more than 30 drill holes completed on the island, Beardslee said there is “potential for five different deposits.”
Olympic Resources discovered new mineralization traced laterally for 6,000 feet on the southern part of the island in 2002, according to the Alaska Mineral Industry report.
Two of five holes in the Brushy Creek area contained mineralized intercepts — the best was an 81-foot section grading 1.65 percent zinc, 0.35 percent lead, 0.97 ounces per ton of silver and 0.007 ounces per ton gold.
Copper has also been found in other mineralized areas on the island, Beardslee said, as well as higher values of gold in quartz veins.
“It’s a rather amazing geologic happening, for the size of the island,” he said. “This is where you would like to bring a graduate geology class, because there’s so many different things to see.” Similar to Greens Creek The mixture of base and precious metals is one attraction for Bravo, Macdonald said.
“You have a good base metal deposit with good precious metals on top of it,” he said. “The belt of rocks has the right metal signature to Greens Creek, an incredible well-developed mineral deposit.”
The polymetallic Greens Creek mine, some 130 miles northwest of Woewodski Island, is one of the few producers in Southeast Alaska. Greens Creek milled a record 733,507 tons of ore in 2002, according to the state report. Head grade of the ore was 12.52 percent zinc, 4.73 percent lead, 19.73 ounces per ton silver and 0.203 ounces per ton gold.
The workforce of 262 people at Greens Creek produced concentrate containing 80,306 tons of zinc, 27,582 tons of lead, 10.9 million ounces of silver and 102,000 ounces of gold, according to the 2002 state report.
Similar to Greens Creek, Woewodski Island offers several deepwater access points, important for shipping in supplies and exporting mineral concentrate in the near-roadless region of Southeast Alaska.
In addition, the island could access excess power from Petersburg and Wrangell, Beardslee said. Both communities could provide labor for a mine, with forestry and fishing industries suffering in Southeast Alaska. “Talk about economic geology — this place is a dream,” he said.
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