The southwestern United States has a long history of mining and remains one of the nation’s top mineral regions. The region has good infrastructure, an established regulatory and permitting regime and prospective geological terrain. Here are eight companies active in the area.
BLUE MOON METALS
Examining drill core at the Blue Moon zinc-silver project. Credit: Blue Moon Metals.
Blue Moon Metals (TSXV: MOON; US-OTC: BMOOF) has big plans for the namesake Blue Moon zinc-silver project 35 km east of Merced in Mariposa County, California.
The property was mined from 1943 to 1945 when 20.5 million tonnes of ore grading 12.3% zinc, 0.36% copper, 0.48% lead, 128.6 grams silver per tonne, and 2.1 grams gold per tonne were excavated. Drilling by several operators continued sporadically until Blue Moon acquired the project in 1994.
The Blue Moon project currently has a 43-101 compliant inferred resource of 7.8 million tonnes grading 4.95% zinc, 0.46% copper, 1.4 grams gold per tonne, 45.6 grams silver per tonne, and 0.29% lead (8.07% zinc-equivalent). The resource contains 771 million lb. of zinc, 71 million lb. of copper, 46 million lb. of lead, 300,000 oz. of gold, and 10 million oz. of silver.
The company has digitized the historic data and found the deposit to be open at depth and to the south. Drilling in 2018 and 2019 were not included in the resource estimate and highlights included 9.1 metres grading 30.3% zinc, 1.7% copper, 1.67 grams gold per tonne, 71 grams silver per tonne (36.8% zinc-equivalent) in 2018 and 7.6 metres grading 25.6% zinc, 0.9% copper, 0.68 gram gold per tonne and 17 grams silver per tonne (28.5% zinc-equivalent) in 2019.
Additional drilling in 2020 traced the massive sulphide lenses for 900 metres along plunge, and the mineralization is open to the surface and at depth. Blue Moon bought out Australian partner Platina Resources in December 2020 and has a drill permit extension to June 26, 2023.
Blue Moon initiated the current phase of drilling in September 2021 with three or four step-out holes totalling about 2,400 metres. Targets have been chosen to extend mineralization in known lenses and the untested area beneath the historic workings at the American Eagle deposit. An untested area surrounded by a strong footwall and stringer mineralization is also to be drilled.
Blue Moon expects that conventional flotation will produce multiple concentrates. In 1988, drill core samples were provided for metallurgical testing and recoveries of up to 95% for zinc and lead, 93% for copper, 65% for gold, and 70% for gold were achieved.
Blue Moon is planning an underground mine to reduce the surface footprint of the project. It has hired environmental and engineering consultants to assist in the permitting. Since the property hosts a past-producing mine, it had an underground permit and reclamation plan approved in 1991.
Blue Moon also owns 100% of the Yava polymetallic property in Nunavut. A former owner produced a non-compliant resource estimate in 1991. The Main zone was believed to contain 1.3 million tonnes grading 4.96% zinc, 1.03% copper, 1.6% lead, 117 grams silver per tonne, and 0.27 gram gold per tonne.
Blue Moon has a market capitalization of $6 million.