Perry Little, the CEO of
Green River Gold Corp. (CCR) (
CSE.CCR,
Forum) would like to introduce QP Stephen Kocsis, P.Geo who will be involved with the company’s mineral and placer gold exploration projects. Stephen is based in Quesnel, a short drive from Green River’s office, and is currently employed with Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd. Green River and Omineca have neighbouring mineral and placer claim packages along the western part of the Barkerville Terrane and across the adjacent Quesnel Terrane.
The Green River claim package is contiguous with the mineral claim group owned by Osisko Development Corp. and about 12 km southwest of the Osisko’s main development area proposed to go into production around 2023. Green River acquired their mineral claims shortly before Osisko acquired their claim package by purchasing Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. in the Fall of 2019 for $335 million. Stephen intends to assist both Green River and Omineca involving mineral exploration and placer gold production endeavors in the Cariboo where he has 35 years of work experience.
SH: Can you tell us about your education and how you became interested in placer gold exploration in the Cariboo District, BC?
SK: I studied earth sciences at the University of Waterloo and have a B.Sc. degree. I moved to Calgary, Alberta after my studies in 1980 where I was stationed and worked throughout the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin as a Wellsite Geologists and Hydrocarbon Well Logger. The work involved drill sites in Northern BC, all throughout Alberta, and in parts of Saskatchewan. In 1982 I had discussions with a group of heavy equipment operators at a drill site in Alberta. The group was planning to go placer gold mining in BC during the summer when most of the work in the oil patch shuts down. The discussions about mining gold nuggets sparked my interests a lot. I did not know anything about placer mining, but I asked anyways if I could join their team. My request was denied, so I did some research, loaded some prospecting gear in my car around the month of May, and headed to BC on my own. I first stopped in the Tulameen Mining District and staked a placer claim near the historical town of Granite City. I spent a few weeks prospecting and eventually learned how difficult it was to find one small speck of gold in the countless pans of gravel I collected from the stream on my claim. I had enough, gave up on my claim, and drove further north to Wells in the Cariboo Mining District. One of the first persons I met in Wells was Doug Ross who worked in the Cariboo District as a young man during the gold rush in the 1930’s. Doug took me in like a son at his Wells home and for the remaining part of the season toured me around throughout the Cariboo area introducing me to all the streams that had a history of placer gold mining. One of the streams was Lightning Creek at Wingdam where he worked underground for a company attempting to mine a rich paleochannel called the Deep Lead Channel. They drifted through bedrock and each attempt to break through into the buried paleochannel 168 feet below Lightning Creek failed. High water pressure and unstable ground caused sediments (slum) to flow into the bedrock drift and eventually flood the mine. The company was able to shovel a small sample from the rich channel before the mine flooded. Doug told me he would see a long line of gold in his shovel when swirled around in water. This would be the richest ground he would ever witness, but unfortunately the company could not put the workings into production. I was intrigued with Doug’s experience at Wingdam never believing or ever dreaming I would be in this same place underground 30 years later working with a company attempting to break through into the Deep Lead Channel.
SH: How did the rest of your introductory season go in the Cariboo?
SK: Doug Ross introduced me to some good ground along the Willow River where I staked some placer claims. Green River currently has permitted placer claims along the Willow River which will be rented to mining operators. My remaining funds limited my exploration to hand work, but I was happy with the amount of placer gold I recovered in my samples. The season ended and I had to return to the oil patch to stock up on funds needed for what I was hoping my return in 1983. My introduction season was highly successful with respect to learning about the history of placer gold mining in the district. I was also beginning to understand the surficial and bedrock geology in the region and its association with placer gold occurrences.
SH: What happened when you returned to the Cariboo Gold Fields in 1983?
SK: Working as a wellsite geologist in the oil patch was the best money a geologist could make at the time, so I was able to save enough funds to spend another season in the Cariboo learning and prospecting at the same time. I explored many of the gold-bearing streams Doug Ross introduced to me and some others. I also became a partner with a group of prospectors holding a large package of mineral claims north of Island Mountain within the eastern part of the Barkerville Terrane. The mineral titles in this area are presently owned by Osisko Development Corp. I spent much of the season mapping and sampling bedrock on the claims and conducted some soil sampling surveys. This year was a good experience learning more about the bedrock geology and lode gold occurrences in the Barkerville area.
SH: Did you explore in other parts of the Barkerville Terrane?
SK: I worked in the oil patch each winter until 1986 and returned to the Cariboo every summer. There had been little historic exploration along the western part of the Barkerville Terrane, so I decided to have a look. I staked some placer claims in the Fontaine Creek and Little Swift River areas where small placer mine operators were having some success. This is the current location of the mineral and placer claims owned by Green River Gold Corp., which includes 15 linear km of placer claims along the Little Swift River. The experience gave me the opportunity to learn more about the bedrock geology in the western part of the Barkerville Terrane and its association with placer gold occurrences. I was beginning to grasp where the placer gold more than likely originated, but the bedrock in the area is mostly obscured by glacial sediments making it difficult to find the potential lode sources.
SH: Can you tell us about your career adjustment in 1987?
SK: My father passed away at a young age in 1984 and I was missing family, so I packed up my truck in October 1986 and drove back to Ontario to stay for the winter. I moved in with my mother and brother in Welland not knowing what I wanted to do next with my career. Looking for work I came across an ad for an associate research position with the Glaciated Basin Research Center at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus. I thought learning more about glacial geology would tie in nicely if I wanted to continue mineral and placer gold exploration later, so I applied for the position. I was hired in Feb 1987 and worked with a group of geologists and students directed by Dr. Nicholas Eyles who is one of the top glacial geologists in the world. The research activities first involved glacial sediments exposed along the northern shores of Lake Ontario called the Scarborough Bluffs. It was there that I learned how to confidently identify and document various Pleistocene sedimentological units all identical to the glacial sediments I was familiar with in the Cariboo. Dr. Eyles was interested in my placer gold exploration experience in BC, so he assigned me to document all the historical and modern placer mines in the Cariboo. The objective of the assignment was to research and document sedimentological controls on gold in placer deposits. I was accompanied by Dr. Eyles back to the Cariboo to visit a few historical placer mine pits and then I was on my own to carry out research work for two seasons. Dr Eyles and I co-authored and published a few papers during the winter months. My employment with the University ended in the fall of 1988 after funding for the research program was depleted.
SH: What did you do after your research work ended with the University of Toronto?
SK: Dr. Eyles offered me to stay on with the University to complete a Master and possibly a PhD, but my urge to return to the Cariboo gold fields was too strong. I returned to Welland for a while and drove back to BC in the Fall of 1988. I was enthused with my new knowledge involving glacial geology and eager to apply it to both mineral and placer gold exploration. Winter came quick that year and I had to find a new source of income. I bought a snowmobile and snowshoes and started to stake claims for individuals and mining companies. It was a grueling and hazardous job snowshoeing alone in the mountains up and down steep slopes in deep snow over long distances. Very few people were willing to do this type of work, so I charged a steep price and made more money each day than in the oil patch. The money I saved over the winter set me free to explore my own placer and mineral projects in the summer. I also started to take on contracting work as a geological consultant mostly for placer gold miners. I continued to stake claims each winter until online claim acquisitions came into effect in 2005.
SH: Did you have any success with your gold prospects?
SK: It took some time until 1994 when I saved enough money to buy an excavator and wheeled loader. I learned how to weld and built my own washplant. This allowed me to conduct bulk sampling programs on several of my placer claims surrounding Barkerville. I continued to do this at several locations until 2007. I made some money with the gold I produced at a few locations, but permitting, constructing access roads, and all other mining activities were costly, so I decided to keep the best claim group, called the Eight Mile Property, and sell or drop the others. The property I kept is located along a historical trail about 8 miles NW of Barkerville. Over 20,000 oz of placer gold was historically produced on the property and an estimated 5,000 oz recovered during modern times. I was able to raise financing through partnerships to conduct seismic and drill programs on the property and 58 RC holes were drilled by 2014. The surveys outlined a deeply buried paleochannel with a bedrock floor 120-plus feet deep and an NI 43-101-compliant inferred gold resource amounting to 34,000 oz. The resource is open in a direction near the highest gold intercept, so further drilling may increase the resource significantly. My partner currently has all the equipment on the property needed to go into production this year. The operation will be one of the largest placer mines in the Barkerville area. I am very happy with the exploration results and will start receiving a gold royalty sometime in June this year. Fortunately, Green River just opened a gold buying facility with a vault to purchase and safely store the raw placer gold.
SH: Can you describe some of your consulting work in mineral exploration during the 1990’s?
SK: I accumulated enough work experience in 1993 and became a member of the BC Professional Association of Engineers and Geoscientists (P.Geo). I was a project geologist for Gold City Industries Ltd. during the entire 1995 season. The company controlled all the mineral claims in a belt extending from Barkerville Mountain to the Cariboo Hudson Mine. The job gave me the opportunity to map and sample bedrock throughout the 27 km long Barkerville gold belt. I logged core from a few holes Gold City drilled at the Cariboo Hudson Mine. I brought in my excavator as well and trenched to bedrock for hundred of meters along the slopes of Antler Creek. I mapped and sampled bedrock in all the trenches. I moved to Vancouver for a few months to work in the Gold City office during the winter where I completed a technical report describing about 30 gold showings and deposits located along the belt we explored. The company was attempting to identify and prove up various gold showings along the belt and eventually construct a centrally located mill to mine the potential resources. It was a difficult time for Gold City to raise money and continue exploration for another season and the project unfortunately ended. The current owner of the claims along the belt (Osisko Development Corp.) stepped up drilling last year (2020) along the belt and currently has the same goal Gold City was trying to achieve in 1995. Later, around 1997, I was hired by International Wayside Gold Mines Ltd. I worked underground at both Island and Cow mountains logging core. Parts of Osisko’s gold resource are located across the two mountains. We were drilling vein-type gold mineralization at Cow Mountain, but I was more interested to see for the first time and log replacement-type gold mineralization in core drilled at Island Mountain.
SH: Tell us about your work experience in the Yukon Territory.
SK: I was employed as a project geologist and mine manager at one of the largest placer gold mines at the time (2002-2004) in the Klondike District, Yukon Territory. This work was for the same operator who is currently set up at my mine ready for production on the Eight Mile Property in BC. In the Yukon we drilled about 50 auger drill holes early in the first season along Dominion Creek. Drill results from the initial holes and holes drilled later proved up enough ground to keep the mine in production for 5 seasons. I designed the washplant and mine layout. It was a challenge building roads and setting up infrastructure over permafrost and learning how to excavate and manage the frozen ice-rich mud overburden. The first season was a learning process, but all went smoothly during the following years. I brought my new experience with a larger-scaled placer mine back to the Cariboo in 2005 to assist with my own projects or projects operated by clients.
SH: Highlight your early experience and knowledge related to the ground position held by Green River Gold Corp.
SK: Green River controls a large package of mineral claims and some placer claims along the western part of the Barkerville Terrane. The package covers both Fontaine Creek and the Little Swift River where I prospected in the 1980’s. I witnessed placer gold production on both streams and was interested in locating the lode sources or finding other placer gold occurrences. I panned a significant amount of gold from a mine pit along the Little Swift River in 1987 where I documented a layer of interglacial-fluvial gravels exposed by a mine operator, so I knew there were high grade placer gold occurrences in the area. In 2005 I drilled, logged, and sampled about 50 auger holes in Pleistocene sediments for a client in an adjoining area along the Swift River and Sovereign Creek, so I am well familiar with the local surficial geology and placer gold occurrences.
SH: How about your more recent experience along the western part of the Barkerville Terrane?
SK: The bedrock covered by the Green River claim package trends NW towards Wingdam located along Lightning Creek where Omineca Mining and Metals Ltd. holds a large package of neighbouring mineral and placer claims. I worked underground at Wingdam as lead geologist in 2012 for CVG Mining Ltd. before Omineca took over the Wingdam claims. CVG successfully sampled the entire width of the high-grade Deep Lead Channel along a ground-freeze crosscut drift. The company recovered 5.4 kilograms of coarse-grained raw placer gold from the drift measuring 2.4 m wide and 24 m long. The recovery location is considered a huge Au anomaly and we believe the lode source is very local. The Deep Lead Channel is made up of an interglacial-fluvial gravel layer overlying bedrock, which is the same type of gold-bearing gravel I sampled and documented in a mine pit at the Little Swift River in 1987. Placer gold in high-grade occurrences in the Barkerville area normally derived from local lode sources, so the bedrock belt striking SE through Wingdam towards the mine pits at Fontaine Creek and the Little Swift River is the best stretch of land to start exploring for potential gold mineralization. Green River and Omineca both have large packages of claims covering this area. Last year (2020) I was employed by Omineca again and worked the entire field season in a mineral exploration program at Wingdam. I mapped and sampled bedrock in a 2 km radius around the Deep Lead Channel crosscut for the entire field season with several geologists employed by the Axiom Exploration Group who has an office in Saskatchewan. Other exploration work included soil sampling and airborne geophysical surveys. We also initiated a diamond drill program in the Fall last year and it will continue throughout 2021. Omineca is also dewatering the underground workings at Wingdam, which will allow us to diamond drill at subsurface locations. The main purpose for the dewatering is to bring the Deep Lead Channel into production. The bedrock successions in the western part of the Barkerville Terrane were studied and sampled by the Omineca geological team in more detail than all other previous teams achieved in the area. Axiom is a great experienced and reliable group of geologists to work with. We have an advanced understanding about the lithology and structure in the local bedrock successions and are eager to learn more in each new drill hole.
SH: What type of gold mineralization are you hoping to find in the western part of the Barkerville Terrane?
SK: The lithology and structure in the western part of the Barkerville Terrane closely resembles the eastern part. They are mirror images. I will call the east side Barkerville and the west side Wingdam, which strikes SE into the Green River claims. The outer edges of both sides are bounded by first-order deep-crustal fault zones called the Pleasant Valley Thrust at Barkerville and the Eureka Thrust at Wingdam. Orogenic seismic events along the first-order zones triggered the expulsion of metamorphic crustal fluids into second- and third-order shears and faults occupying neighbouring rock successions. The expulsion was more volumetric where strike changes in deformation zones and at fault intersections. Vein-type mineralization is expected in shallow brittle regimes and replacement-type in deeper ductile environments. Mineralization was controlled by the migration of hydrothermal fluids in a complex structural network and specific temperature and pressure conditions favourable for gold precipitation. I know that all three rock successions at Wingdam contain calcareous mudstone, siltstone, and sandstone sequences identical to the carbonate-bearing lithological units at Barkerville hosting replacement-type gold mineralization. The carbonate component is a requirement for this type of mineralization. I believe the western part of the Barkerville Terrane covered by the Green River and Omineca claims have potential for both vein- and replacement-type gold mineralization.
SH: What are your mineral exploration recommendations for Green River?
SK: Over 90% of the bedrock and potential mineralization on the Green River Property is obscured by glacial sediments. I would like to see the company perform an airborne MAG survey across the entire group of mineral claims so we can start understanding the underlying bedrock lithology and structure. I recommend SkyTEM, which is the same survey Osisko selected for their entire claim group. SkyTEM is a high-resolution helicopter TEM system suitable for quantitative 1D and 3D geological mapping including lithological and structural interpretations. Bedrock mapping and sampling (Geochem) should be initiated this year as well to establish signatures and correlations with the TEM survey results. This will be a good start for identifying potential mineralized areas and selecting drill targets.
SH: What would you like to say about Green River’s plans evolving around placer gold mining?
SK: Green River has the same goal as Omineca, which is to establish placer gold production for financing mineral exploration. I have a good working relationship with Green River’s mine manager Kyle Townsend. Kyle has done his research and has become an expert designing washplants for clients or their own projects. The company has experienced fabricators and a great facility for constructing the plants and other equipment in Quesnel, where I am residing as well, right in the center of the Cariboo gold fields. Kyle and I are currently going through the logistics and design for a washplant needed underground for Omineca’s proposed production at Wingdam. I look forward to working with Kyle assisting with other washplant designs and spending time exploring on the company’s placer claims, hoping to put more of the claims into production.
For more information, visit
www.greenrivergold.ca.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by Stockhouse Publishing.