Pacific Bay Minerals Ltd. [PBM-TSXV; PBMFF-OTC] said Tuesday September 17 that it is optimistic about the prospects for its 100%-owned Wheaton Creek Gold property in northern British Columbia.
The company said a review of historical exploration data has highlighted a number of significant and encouraging findings, including a 1986 drill hole (DDH 86-1) that returned 4.9 g/t gold over 3.05 metres. Additional drilling is warranted for a 1.5-km zone that is prospective for both high-grade and low-grade bulk tonnage mineralization, the company said.
Pacific Bay shares were unchanged at 6 cents on Tuesday and trade in a 52-week range of $0.055 and 20 cents.
Pacific Bay is a Vancouver-based exploration company with properties in B.C. and Quebec. They include a zinc-polymetallic property, two gold properties in B.C. and a uranium property in Quebec. The company’s Chairman Guilford Brett is best known for his work with Cusac Gold Mines Ltd., a company he founded in 1965. David Brett was a senior executive with Cusac from 1996 to 2008. That period included a four year spell as President and CEO.
Formerly known as the Boulder property, Wheaton Creek covers 2,850 hectares and is located south of the Turnagain River near Dease Lake. B.C.’s largest existing gold nugget, the 52 Troy ounce Alice Shea Nugget, was found in 1937 less that 2 km upstream from the property, along the Wheaton Creek drainage.
Based on the analysis of the gold grains found in the mined placer gold, previous geologists working on the property have concluded that the source of the gold is originating in the underlying bedrocks of the Wheaton Creek drainage system. However, to date, the source of the local placer gold has yet to be discovered.
“The highly under-explored Wheaton Creek Gold Property represents an excellent opportunity for Pacific Bay to make new gold discoveries,’’ said Pacific Bay CEO David Brett. “Situated in a famous placer gold camp, the Wheaton Creek property is an exciting opportunity to leverage the company’s gold assets at a time when gold prices have been rising,” he said.
Work carried out by Supreme Resources Ltd. in 1986 outlined highly anomalous soil geochemistry, with values ranging up to 32,300 ppb gold. Trenching in the most anomalous areas resulted in bedrock assays of up to 11.25 g/t gold. Supreme completed three holes to test the soil anomalies and trenching results. Hole 86-1 encountered (the previously mentioned) 4.9 g/t gold over 3.05 metres as well intercepts of 1.71 g/t gold and 3.14 g/t gold over 2.43 metres.
A series of major northwest by southeast fault structures transect the property within some highly prospective geological terrain. To date, less than 1,500 metres of drilling has been carried out on the property, with very limited follow up from the historic results, within the productive placer operations.
The company believes that further exploration is warranted and it intends to design and fund an aggressive program for the 2020 season.