A pair of Vancouver-based mining companies in a joint venture to explore the Herbert Glacier area say they’ve found high-grade concentrations of gold.
Assays of test drilling showed gold concentrations averaging 1.08 ounces per ton. Some samples came back as high as 4.14 to 6.63 ounces per ton. Initial assays were announced last month with updated results released on Tuesday.
Ian Klassen, President and Director of Grande Portage Resources Incorporated, says they did some modest drilling last year with fourteen holes down to over 900 feet. Twenty-two holes have been drilled so far this summer. Klassen says they’ve identified what he calls multi-ounce intersects in at least two of the five vein systems in the area.
“We’re very pleased with some of the results we’ve been getting,” said Klassen.
Herbert Glacier, 18-miles north of downtown Juneau, is in the middle of the historic Juneau mining district, with Kensington Mine currently operating 25-miles to the north and Greens Creek Mine about 12-miles to the west.
Klassen says they plan to meet with their field geologists this weekend to determine future plans – such as further exploration. He says it’s way too early to come up with a reliable resource estimate.
In late 2007, Vancouver-based Quaterra Resources acquired the 1700 acre property with 84 federal mining claims either staked or leased from three local prospectors. There are at least four to five significant veins that strike east-to-west and dip sharply to the north. One of the veins was described as being discovered in the 1980’s when glacial ice receded. Information provided by Quaterra showed varying amounts of gold found during exploratory drilling by Tenneco Minerals and Echo Bay Mines in the late eighties.
Quaterra President and CEO Thomas Patton is currently unavailable for comment. But his firm partnered with Grande Portage in June, 2010 for exploration and development of Herbert Glacier. Grande Portage’s Ian Klassen says they’ve committed to spending $1.25 million in exploration costs before June, 2012 in exchange for a 65 percent interest in the project.
“It just was the right place, right time and an opportunity for us when we were looking for an added portfolio to work with that we struck a deal to go forward,” said Klassen. “We’re pleased we’ve done so.”
Grande Portage is also developing the Merry Widow Group on Vancouver Island and the Pass Property in British Columbia. Quaterra either owns or is a partner in nine other mining projects from Montana to central Mexico.
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Matt Miller is a reporter at KTOO in Juneau.
