Stuhini Exploration Ltd. [STU-TSXV] reported assays from its spring 2020 prospecting reconnaissance program on the Ruby Creek Project located 20 km east of Atlin, far northern British Columbia. Highlights include visible gold and values of up to 78.6 g/t gold and 1,282 g/t silver from quartz boulders in the Boulder Creek drainage.
The initial prospecting program occurred at lower elevations of the property where the winter snowpack had melted. Traverses were conducted in the Boulder Creek, Lakeview and Ruby Creek areas. A total of 58 rock samples were collected.
Boulder Creek
The highest gold assays were from Quartz Creek, a tributary of Boulder Creek. Eleven float samples of sub-rounded quartz vein material were collected. Some of the samples had visible fine-grained gold and silver. Assays from five of these samples varied from 2.4 to 78.6 g/t gold and 37 to 1,282 g/t silver. These samples were only weakly anomalous in lead and bismuth. Metallic screening showed significant gold concentration in the plus fraction (>150 mesh). Although all the samples were from float, they are believed to be reasonably close to source. The Boulder Creek area is considered a high priority target as the creek is one of five major placer gold creeks located in the heart of the Atlin Gold Camp. It is also an extension of the Otter Creek fault where lode gold has been discovered in graphitic, quartz-rich phyllite beneath the Otter Creek placers in both 2016 and 2018.
Also, in the Boulder Creek drainage, 10 samples were taken in the vicinity of the historic 1904 Sunbeam Trench. Three of these samples assayed from 295 to 423 g/t silver, 1,240 to 1,350 parts per million (ppm) copper, 710 to 1409 ppm lead, 60 to 2,400 ppm tungsten, and 867 to 1,935 ppm bismuth. Five of the remaining samples assayed 4.2 to 15.9 g/t silver and were anomalous in copper, lead, zinc, molybdenite, tungsten, and bismuth.
Six samples were taken from an outcropping skarn in the Boulder Creek drainage. Five of the samples had assays ranging from 2.7 to 85 g/t silver, 134 to 15,420 ppm (1.542%) copper, 27 to 582 ppm lead, 131 to 3,664 ppm zinc, 170 to 6,300 ppm tungsten, and 52 to 820 bismuth.
Of the remaining 11 samples taken in the Boulder Creek drainage, one sample assayed 29.5 g/t silver, 1.4 g/t gold, 210 ppm copper, 526 ppm lead, 101 ppm molybdenite, 1,100 ppm tungsten and 3407 ppm bismuth. Two other samples had significant molybdenite values of 302 and 79 ppm.
Lakeview
Five samples were taken from the historic Lakeview vein. Assays varied from 0.22 to 1.27 g/t gold, 2.5 to 7.0 g/t silver and 3 to 508 ppm lead.
Ruby Creek
Three samples were taken from a skarn in Copper Valley, a tributary of Ruby Creek. Assays range from 1.9 to 19.0 g/t silver, 595 to 1,358 ppm copper, 7 to 2,250 ppm lead, 157 to 7,020 ppm zinc, 27.5 to 200 ppm tungsten and 3 to 73 ppm bismuth.
David O’Brien, President and CEO of Stuhini stated; “We are very encouraged by these preliminary results as they confirm the lode gold potential at Boulder Creek which lies on the same structure as nearby Otter Creek where Decoors Mining Corp. has found visible gold in the bedrock on multiple occasions. The silver grades are also encouraging, not just in the Boulder Creek area, but elsewhere on the property.”
The Company is presently compiling historic data, interpreting the recently flown SkyTEM geophysical data and reviewing its silver and gold targets on the tenures. Field work is ongoing.
Ruby Creek Project: The 26,735-hectare Ruby Creek Project is road accessible and located 20 km east of Atlin. There are 48 different documented mineral occurrences on the property, of which 16 are gold-related, with four active gold placer creeks. The property also hosts the historic Ruby Creek Molybdenum resource as well as the past producing Ruffner Silver Mine. Stuhini has an option to acquire 100% of the Ruby Creek Project subject to a 1% Net Smelter Royalty.
Stuhini Exploration holds the Metla property in northwestern BC approximately 150 km south of Atlin, the Ruby Creek property and the Que Property approximately 70 km north of Johnson’s Crossing in the Yukon Territory.