Leonard W. Saleken, Chairman of Goldcliff Resource Corporation (TSX VENTURE:GCN), reports that Goldcliff has made the first significant porphyry copper ore grade discovery in the Copper Mountain mining district in decades.
With surface samples highlighted by 0.655% copper – almost double the current reserve grades at the Copper Mountain Mine – and 1.3 grams per tonne silver, the Trojan showing is part of the Bolas anomaly, which is located in the Whipsaw target on the Tulameen property in the Copper Mountain mining district near Princeton, BC, Canada. The Tulameen property is 100 per cent owned by Goldcliff.
The three-pronged Bolas anomaly also contains the Eagle showing, which is highlighted by 0.175% copper and 1.0 grams per tonne silver. The copper mineralization on both the Trojan and the Eagle showings is chalcopyrite with malachite, and the iron sulphides are pyrite and pyrrhotite along with magnetite. These showings are situated on surface, above the substantial Bolas deposit-style chargeability anomaly. The Bolas anomaly is 2,000 long by 1,200 metres wide, and merges to form an area of 1.5 square kilometres at about 300 metres.
The Whipsaw alkalic porphyry copper-silver target area is located along the Copper Mountain south-west copper trend, approximately seven kilometres south-west of the Copper Mountain ore bodies. The Copper Mountain mineral reserves are 232,776,000 tons grading 0.36% Cu, 0.09 Au and 1.25 g/t Ag. The Trojan and Eagle showings are associated with the Bolas anomaly, which contains disseminated sulphide mineralization in the 3 to 5% range.
Trojan Showing
Similar to Goldcliff's previous gold discovery at Panorama Ridge, the Trojan showing was discovered along a reclaimed logging road. It is located 350 metres west of the Eagle showing. Coarse grained, green gabbro float was found over a strike length of 110 metres along the road, with variable quartz-carbonate veining, epidote and fracturing. The chalcopyrite and malachite were found within the gabbro at a number of locations along the road, occurring within quartz veinlets, along fractures, and as disseminations. Pyrite was relatively rare, generally occurring in concentrations less than 1%.
The rock samples of local float collected along the road gave anomalous copper values ranging from 192 to 6549 ppm. The highest copper value of 6549 ppm (1201120033) was of gabbro with limonite, malachite and chalcopyrite occurring along fractures, along with pin pricks of disseminated chalcopyrite and malachite. This sample was also strongly magnetic, with magnetite occurring as fine grained disseminations and blebs. A sample of gabbro (1201120034) with malachite occurring along fractures gave a copper value of 4727 ppm, while a sample of a 6 centimetre wide quartz vein (1201120029) with malachite and chalcopyrite gave a copper value of 3970 ppm. A float sample (1201120041) of a light grey-green dyke located midway between the Trojan and Eagle showings gave an anomalous copper value of 527 ppm. The dyke contains 5% fine-grained disseminated pyrite along with rusty fractures.
Eagle Showing
Located on a prominent knoll at the end of an old mining road, the Eagle showing was discovered in 1972, at which time no sample values were reported. Two bulldozer trenches, each approximately 75 metres long, criss-cross the knoll, and a coarse grained, green gabbro is intermittently exposed in the trenches. Weak fractures within the gabbro contain limonite and 1 to 3% pyrite, along with rare 1 centimetre quartz-carbonate and epidote veinlets with pyrite. Disseminated pyrite was noted adjacent to some fractures. Malachite and chalcopyrite were rare. One sample (1201120040) of gabbro float, giving an anomalous copper value of 1753 ppm, had limonite, malachite and chalcopyrite occurring along fractures.
Bolas 3-D IP Anomaly
The deposit-style Bolas chargeability anomaly is a disseminated iron sulphide body that is located near surface and extends to an estimated depth of 500 metres in Upper Triassic Nicola Group rocks. The Bolas anomaly measures approximately 2,000 meters in a northwest direction by about 1,200 meters southwest. At a depth of around 300 meters, the anomaly merges to form a chargeable body of the order of 1,800,000 square meters or 1.8 square kilometres in size. The iron sulphide content of the rocks within the Bolas anomaly is estimated to be 3 to 5%.
Chargeability
The Bolas chargeability anomaly is a three-pronged star feature with a vertex centre and three end nodes that are referred to as the Whip, Elk and Eagle node areas of chargeability. Close to the surface, the chargeability response millisecond (ms) levels are weak to moderate. With increasing depth, the chargeability response millisecond levels become stronger and begin to merge at about 150 meters in depth. As depth continues to increase, the chargeability star features ultimately merge to form the continuous chargeability anomalous area. The chargeability values in the Bolas anomaly reach their maximum (25 to 30 ms) at about 300 meters below surface and then begin to fade to around 20 to 25 ms at 500 meters.
Whipsaw Target Area
Magnetic Environment
The most visible magnetic feature of the Whipsaw Target is a strong, broad, crescent-shaped magnetic high that fills more than half of the area. Inversion of the ground magnetic indicates that the deep-seated, crescent-shaped magnetic high is consistent with a deep-seated magnetic intrusive rock. A similarly intense, broad crescent-shaped magnetic high in the Copper Mountain area corresponds with mapped diorite intrusive rock and suggests that the magnetic high in the Whipsaw area may well be caused by the same rock type at depth.
The Whipsaw crescent-shaped, magnetic high partially surrounds a subcircular magnetic feature that is low, compared to the crescent-shaped high, but higher relative to magnetic background seen to the north. Once again, a similar pattern can be observed in the Copper Mountain area. There the subcircular magnetic feature corresponds with rocks mapped as monzonite and syenite, suggesting that the deep subcircular magnetic feature at Whipsaw may also be caused by a similar, less magnetic rock type. Strong chargeability anomalies occur within the subcircular magnetic feature.
Resistivity Data
Analysis of inverted resistivity data, with help from chargeability and magnetic inversions as well as magnetic intensity, indicates that the Princeton/Nicola contact may be vertical to sub-vertical and that the Princeton Group rocks could vary from about 150 to over 500 meters in depth, possibly over Nicola Group rocks. This may mean that the area of Princeton rocks could be down-dropped relative to the Nicola rocks across a fault-forming graben. If this is case, the deep moderate to weak chargeability anomalies seen in the area of Princeton rocks may then reflect the tops of chargeable material buried within Nicola rocks.
Grant F. Crooker, P.Geo. (geologist), and Edwin R. Rockel, P.Geo. (geophysicist), are the qualified persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101 who supervised the preparation and verification of the technical information in this release.