Quesnel–Stikine Terrane
The Quesnel–Stikine Terrane is a large regional depositional belt extending over 1500 kilometers through the central part of the province of British Columbia, Canada. It encompasses most of the operating mines in the province as well as most of the projects at the pre-feasibility and feasibility stages of development.
Used with permission from Cariboo Rose Res TSX.V - CRB
The lion’s share of exploration dollars in the province is being spent in this geological belt. The Quesnel–Stikine Terranehas become one of B.C.’s most sought after exploration/developmental targets.
In the central portion of the province there are currently two types of deposits attracting the lion’s share of interest:
·Porphyry copper/gold deposits
·Sediment Hosted Vein (SHV) deposit’s
Porphyry Copper/Gold Deposits
Porphyry copper/gold targets are becoming increasingly important in the global quest to replace declining copper and gold production.
Porphyry copper deposits yield about two-thirds of the world’s copper and are therefore the world’s most important type of copper deposit.
In Canada, British Columbia enjoys the lion’s share of this type of deposit, and they contain the largest resources of copper, significant molybdenum and 50% of the gold in the province.
Porphyry copper deposits are copper orebodies which are associated with porphyritic intrusive rocks and the fluids that accompany them. Porphyry orebodies typically contain between 0.4 and 1 % copper with smaller amounts of other metals such as molybdenum, silver and gold.
There are two factors that make these kinds of deposits so attractive to the world’s major mining companies – firstly by focusing on profitability and mine life instead of solely on grade your other inputs of scale/cost can offset the lower grade and this results in almost identical gross margins between high and low grade deposits. Low grade can mean big profits for mining companies - Copper-gold porphyries can offer both size and profitability.
The second factor affecting profitability of these often immense deposits is the presence of more than one payable metal ie for gold miners using co-product (copper) accounting the cost of gold production is usually way below the industry average.
So not only are the traditional miners of these scarce and often immense ore bodies in competition for them but increasingly yesterdays gold only miners are becoming interested as well. These kinds of deposits are one of the few deposit types containing gold that have both the scale and the potential for decent economics that a major gold mining company can feel comfortable going after to replace and add to their gold reserves.
Sediment Hosted Vein (SHV) deposit’s
The term Sediment Hosted Vein (SHV) deposit is used for a family of gold deposits that consist of gold in quartz and quartz-carbonate veins hosted by shale and siltstone sedimentary rocks. These deposits occur throughout the world, but are most prolific in size and number in Asia. Most are poorly known to westerners because of their location in the former Soviet Union.
Similar deposits are among the world’s largest gold sources, including Muruntau, Uzbekistan, Kumtor, Kyrgystan, and Sukhoi Log, Siberia, and Ballarat and Bendigo in Australia. Large placer gold fields are commonly found close to such deposits, as is the case in BC’s Cariboo region.
Tiex Inc. (TSX: V.TIX, Stock Forum)
Tiex has approximately 137,651 hectares of mineral tenures in BC’s Cariboo Region.
TIX’s Copper/Gold PorphyryProperties
Bullion - The property adjoins the Gold Fields, Fjordland and Cariboo Rose Woodjam JV. The southeast Au/Cu Porphyry zone located in the northern Tokomkane Batholith has attracted interest to the area. Tiex’s claims are staked along the favourable Tokomkane Batholith contact
Viewland - This property is a priority exploration project due to size, strength, and correlation with aeromagnetic features. Elevated to anomalous gold-copper-molybdenum values occur in this area.
The property was staked because of an aeromagnetic anomaly and the underlying geology. The aeromagnetic anomaly was interpreted to be reflecting a syenitic intrusive which could be mineralized in similar fashion to the Mt. Polley Mine located 40 km to the west-northwest.
This area comprises a 5.0-km length MMI (Mobil Metal Ion) anomaly and magnetic high that is associated with elevated gold, silver and copper values. Tiex conducted the reconnaissance MMI soil geochemical survey to confirm the presence of several high copper soil anomalies from a historical conventional geochemical survey.
The MMI soil data confirmed that a 700 x 2200 m and a 900 x 2700 m area are highly anomalous in copper. Response ratios for copper in these areas are generally above 10 times background with local highs more than 100 times background.
Horsefly Mountain - Located on Horsefly Mountain, this is an area encompassing a historical Au/Cu Alkalic porphyry showing. The company has collected 286 samples spaced 50 meters apart along several logging roads and these samples have been sent to SGS Minerals Services in Toronto, Ontario for multi-element (46) MMI analysis.
Jamboree - An MMI reconnaissance grid survey of 860 samples has revealed three anomalies which are significant in Au, Ag, Cu and Mo. An additional 378 samples have been taken between Crooked Lake and Bosk Lake and have been sent to SGS Minerals.
Megamag - A 5 km MMI anomaly and magnetic high is a lithological unit or mineralization
TIX’s Gold Projects
The Cariboo Gold Fields are second in Canada only to the Klondike in size and production. For gold, the exploration model concept is of auriferous black phyllite that has been mineralized with a myriad of small quartz veinlets, some of which are accompanied by fine gold grains and which can be processed by bulk mining methods.
Gold Creek is a 1km x 3km conventional Geochemical and MMI (Mobil Metal Ion) Gold Anomaly 8 Km from Spanish Mountain Gold’s (TSX: V.SPA, Stock Forum) reported gold resources of: using a 0.5 cut-off (g/t) = 102.3M Tonnes @ 0.785g/t Au for 2.6Moz. Au measured and indicated gold in a sediment hosted deposit. Results from Tiex’s sonic drill programs are comparable to results obtained in early stage exploration at Spanish Mountain.
There are active placer operations mining near surface bedrock on Tiex’s mineral claims at Likely.
Mckaygold - MMI Gold Anomaly along strike with Eureka Resources Inc.’s (TSX: V.EUK, Stock Forum) Frasergold deposit.
BC Governments Mineral Exploration Tax Credit (METC)
The METC is a 30% rebate on exploration hard dollars spent in declared Pine Beetle kill areas in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The northern part of the Provinces economy has been based almost exclusively on logging but because of the recent Lodge Pole Pine Beetle infestation and the resulting destruction of a large part of the working forest the Liberal government is actively trying to diversify the northern economy and mining is hoped to play a large part in the plan’s success.
Conclusion
Tiex is planning further exploration on all its projects - airborne DigHem and magnetic surveys followed up with Induced Polarization surveys. The geophysical data will be used in conjunction with the large geochemical soil data set to improve drill hole targeting.
All properties are readily accessible along a well developed network of established forestry roads.
Management is seeking a strategic alliance with a major mining company(s) for the exploration and development of Tiex’s copper/gold porphyry properties. Major mining companies are increasingly looking at greenfields exploration - organic growth - to grow their companies. Existing resources are so expensive that you now get a better payoff spending your money developing new projects rather than buying existing resources.
Tiex’s precious metal projects will not be optioned. Instead, TIX plans to work on these projects themselves.
Tiex has a brand new management team with a sound exploration program now in place - put together and run by Caracle Creek - for their highly prospective for discovery, Quesnel–Stikine TerraneCariboo property. Often times these turn-around situations can be the most rewarding, exciting way to invest in the junior resource sector. Today Tiex has all of the qualities I look for in a junior resource company
Are grassroots, greenfield junior resource exploration and development companies, with great management teams, running sound geological programs and working in one of the most prospective areas on earth for major discoveries - British Columbia’s Quesnel–Stikine Terrane/Quesnel Trough - on your radar screen?
If not, maybe at least one should be.
Disclosure: Richard Mills owns shares of Tiex Inc., which is an advertiser on his website aheadoftheherd.com.