RE:Resource World ..... Happy Creek Minerals Ltd. [HPY-TSXV] has recently completed a diamond drilling program at its 100%-owned, km2flagship Fox tungsten property located 75 km northeast of 100 Mile House in the South Cariboo region of south-central British Columbia. Seven drill holes totalling approximately 1,100 metres were completed primarily at the Nightcrawler zone.
Tungsten, valued at about four to five times the price of copper, is a strategic and critical metal used in tools and hard-steel applications. North America imports about 99% of its tungsten. Happy Creek is the only TSX-listed company actively exploring and drilling for tungsten in North America. The Fox property represents a rare, high-grade strategic and critical metal discovery that the company is working towards the development stage.
Happy Creek has explored the property from initial discovery to a current resource estimate of 582,400 tonnes of 0.826% WO3 (Indicated) and 565,400 tonnes of 1.231% WO3 (Inferred) that is open for expansion and among the highest-grade tungsten deposits in the western world. Other metals such as zinc, indium, bismuth, gold and silver occur with tungsten that are not included in the resource. The Fox property has tungsten in outcrop and drill holes in a 12 km by 5 km area with numerous surface showings, trenches and exploratory drill holes containing grades that are above the resource cut-off and the property remains under-explored.
At the road accessible Nightcrawler Zone, previous drilling returned highlights of 5 metres of 1.0% WO3 and 6.3 metres of 0.43% WO3. The objective of the continuing drilling effort for this area is to potentially outline an inferred resource to add to the current resource.
At low elevations around the southwest side of Deception Mountain, very recent reconnaissance work has identified tungsten in stream sediment, angular boulders and locally outcrop of marble-calc silicate host rock in which Ultraviolet lamping indicates the presence of the tungsten mineral scheelite [that fluoresces under UV light]. The new area of mineralization is approximately 4.5 km southeast of mineralization found earlier in the season. Company geologists are of the view that this area could potentially be a geological connection of the current resource-bearing marble-calc silicate unit located 5 km up-dip to the east. In light of these recent finds in a 4.5km long by 2 km wide area, a more comprehensive exploration approach is required. Analytical labs are slow these days, so results are anticipated in approximately 8 weeks.
The company is also preparing to mobilize a drilling program on the 240 km2 West Valley – Rateria copper project 35 km northwest of Merritt in southern British Columbia. The 100%-owned, road-accessible Rateria and West Valley properties adjoin to the east and west, respectively, the southern portion of the Teck Resources Highland Valley Copper mine property, Canada’s largest copper producer. It also adjoins to the north, the former Craigmont copper mine property.
Porphyry copper mineralization at West Valley – Rateria has been shown comparable with mineral systems found at other deposits in the Highland Valley. At Rateria, however, the Company’s Zone 2 discovery contains elevated rhenium and gold values that appear unusual in the district. Considerable exploration has been completed, including prospecting, geology, geochemical, airborne and ground geophysical surveys, LiDAR, 132 drill holes and metallurgy.
At the Zone 1 discovery, continuous copper mineralization has been defined over 1.2 km in length, 50-150 metres in width and from surface to 400 metres in depth and remains open. Highlights include 95 metres of 0.65% copper, 250 metres of 0.25% copper and 162.5 metres of 0.32% copper. At the Zone 2 discovery, a central, continuous higher-grade zone is 750 metres by 75-150 metres to 350 metres in depth. Highlights include: 126.0 metres of 0.46% copper, 0.10 g/t gold; 92.8 metres of 0.30% copper and 0.15 g/t gold; 152.5 metres of 0.35% copper and 0.06 g/t gold; 105.5 metres of 0.37% copper, 0.14 g/t gold and 0.63 g/t rhenium. A step out hole in 2017 returned 5 metres of 4.4% copper and Zone 2 remains open.
The drilling program will also include the first drill test of a new, fast-tracked, large scale porphyry copper target called the Pim on the West Valley property, located approximately 5.5 km southwest of the giant Lornex open pit.
Happy Creek Minerals also holds the Hawk (copper-gold-silver), Hen Art-DL (gold, polymetallic) and Silverboss (copper-molybdenum, gold, silver) properties – all the Cariboo region.
The company is favourably positioned going forward with its prospective Fox Tungsten Project and its West Valley – Rateria Copper Project – both with in-demand mineral commodities. Happy Creek has 105.7 million shares outstanding.