morning notes wednesday 8/18 Michael A Berry, Ph.DOn Monday I wrote on Quaterra Resources significant 43-101 announcement of 85 million ounces of silver and 142,000 ounces of gold (5 gram / tonne silver cutoff). I have a big correction to make. The 85 million ounces of silver and 142,000 ounces of gold were in fact at a 15 gram /ton of silver cutoff rate.
What does this mean? It means that I underestimated the amount of silver at Nieves, probably significantly. At 5 grams (instead of 15) it is likely that the resource will approximate closer to 100 million ounces of silver and 150,000 ounces of gold. Sorry about that.
This Nieves resource seems like it could become an open pit whose economics are highly desirable. More important, only about 1/3 of one of three major vein systems has been fully explored and a recent IP survey indicates that this near surface resource will grow larger.
Today I write from Juneau, Alaska where I am visiting the Grand Portage / QMM joint venture (65/35) which is now drilling the Herbert Glacier gold target. This mesothermal vein system (~6 veins) was discovered at the turn of the century was drilled in the 1980s by Echo Bay. Intercepts of 3 to 5 feet of 1 ounce of gold were quite common on the single vein drilled at that time. Herbert Glacier has receded 540 meters since 1948 continually exposing mesothermal, gold silver and tungsten carrying veins.
Yesterday we viewed samples of ore from the Herbert Glacier property at the company's core shack. These might have assayed between 10 and 50 ounces gold per ton. This is what is called visible gold or "VG."
It is very exciting to see such samples and grades but to be realistic the exploration teams from GPG and QMM are looking for 1 ounce per ton gold. Does this exist in Juneau? Few people realize that between 1881 and 1920 the Treadwell mine was the largest goldmine in the world. It produced 3.1 million ounces of gold and was critical in the building of wealth in the country.
Yesterday we panned gold from the beach at Juneau that is a remnant of the mining waste rocks from the early days of mining. There is an estimated 300,000 ounces of gold still remaining in Juneau's beach sands. Today we will visit the drilling on the Herbert Glacier property and also the famous AJ mine.
Incidentally a local historian, born and bred in Juneau, who led us on the famous Treadwell Trail said that during the Great Depression Juneau's economy was virtually untouched, a by product of its gold production.
Do you need any more convincing? Juneau is full of cruise ships, beautiful scenery, wildlife and, of course, glaciers.