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Joss'alun Property, British Columbia
Summary |
Property Description & Location |
Access, Climate & Physiography |
History |
Geological Setting |
Exploration |
Mineralization |
Proposed Exploration |
Related News Releases |
Figures
Property Description and Location
The Joss'alun property consists of 14 two post mineral claims and four MTO claims covering an area of 1,416 hectares and is located approximately 75 kilometres southwest of Atlin, British Columbia (see Figures 1 and 2). Copper Ridge staked the original copper occurrence in September, 2002.
In, 2003, Copper Ridge purchased the adjoining Tenajon claims, subject to a 1% NSR, 50% of which may be purchased by Copper Ridge for $250,000. Subsequently, the property was optioned to Imperial Metals. Imperial dropped the option in January, 2004. Later in the Company signed a letter of intent with Consolidated Norsemont Ventures whereby Norsemont would have the right to earn up to a 75% interest in the project. This option was dropped in 2005. Copper Ridge now has 100% clear title to the claims, subject to the Tenajon NSR.
Figures
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Maps & Photos
Accessibility, Climate, Local Resources, Infrastructure and Physiography
The Joss'alun discovery is located approximately 75 kilometres by air southeast of the placer mining town of Atlin, British Columbia. Access is by helicopter, which can be chartered in Atlin. The closest road access is a fire abatement road that ends at Kuthai Lake, 30 km northwest of the occurrence. The occurrence is about 22 km from the proposed Tulsequah Mine road route. Atlin is 92 km south of the Alaska Highway, and 182 km from Whitehorse, the nearest major center with an international airport. The nearest tidewater is Taku Inlet, about 70 km to the southwest.
The property lies west of Peridotite Peak and north of Hardluck Peaks, in the headwaters of the major western tributary to Horsefeed Creek. The terrain is moderately mountainous, with generally rounded peaks and ridges separated by U-shaped valleys, although the Hardluck Peaks are uniquely rugged for the area. The highest peak in the immediate area of the property, informally named Jos Peak, rises just to the west side of the property to 1867 metres; topographic elevation on the property ranges from 1160 to 1709 metres. Roughly 50% of the property is above tree line, which is at approximately 1300 metres.
Related News Releases
| September 09, 2008 |
Drill Mobilized To Copper Ridge's Joss'Alun Copper Project |
| October 16, 2006 |
Copper Ridge Options Joss'alun Copper Property to Lomiko Resources |
| January 18, 2005 |
Drill Targets Defined at Joss'alun Copper Prospect |
| October 26, 2004 |
Geophysical Survey Completed At Joss'Alun |
| June 08, 2004 |
Copper Ridge Farms Out Joss'alun Copper Property |
| February 27, 2004 |
Joss'alun Copper Property Update |
| October 16, 2003 |
Imperial Metals Intersects Copper Mineralization on the Jossalun Property |
| September 02, 2003 |
Imperial Metals Commences Drilling at Joss'alun |
| July 09, 2003 |
Copper Ridge Farms Out Joss'alun Copper Project |
| January 29, 2003 |
Copper Ridge Acquires New Joss'Alun Claims |
| December 16, 2002 |
Copper Ridge Acquires New High Grade Copper Discovery |
History
The Joss'alun showing was discovered by BC Geological Survey geologists in the late summer of 2002. Prior to the discovery, no mineralization was known to be in the area and there is no recorded history of work. The Joss'alun showing was staked by Copper Ridge Explorations on September 13, the day that the British Columbia government announced the discovery. Later the same day, Tenajon Resources staked about 2 km of prospective stratigraphy for 2 kilometres to the northwest of the Joss'alun showing. The next day, Imperial Metals Corporation staked the Dark claim, to cover about 2 km of prospective stratigraphy to the southeast of the Joss'alun showing.
In January of 2003, Copper Ridge entered into an agreement to purchase 100 % of the Tenajon claims. Copper Ridge then granted an option to Imperial Metals Corporation to earn 100 % of the consolidated Copper Ridge and Tenajon claim group. Terms of the agreement were that Imperial Metals would pay $10,000 on signing, 100,000 shares over a one year period from signing and 100,000 shares after $2.5 million was spent on the property. Copper Ridge would also retain a 2 % NSR which Imperial Metals could purchase for $3 million. Subsequently, Imperial staked the Nic and Wack claims to cover additional prospective stratigraphy. Imperial Metals called the consolidated claim package the Nak property.
In July of 2003 Imperial Metals completed a program of prospecting, 1:10,000 scale geologic mapping and geochemical sampling on the property. This work provided sufficient encouragement for Imperial Metals to complete a 9 hole 1,500 m drilling program in the fall of 2003. The drilling confirmed the presence of significant widths of copper mineralization. Because it was focusing all its attention on its new discovery at Mt. Polley, Imperial Metals returned the property to Copper Ridge in early 2004.
In June, 2004, the Company announced that the property had been optioned to Consolidated Norsemont Ventures Ltd. Later in the field season, Norsemont completed an IP survey on the Property which identified a possible extension to the copper mineralized zone discovered by the Imperial Metals drilling. Subsequently, after acquiring an advanced exploration project in Peru, Norsemont returned the property to Copper Ridge.
Geological Setting
The Joss'alun property is situated in the Mississippian to early Jurassic Cache Creek terrane of the Canadian Cordillera. The Cache Creek terrane is comprised of oceanic crustal rocks consisting of submarine basalt flows, flow breccia, tuffaceous rocks and co-magmatic mafic intrusives.
The property area itself is underlain by an essentially complete section of the oceanic crust from a lower ultramafic unit in the northeast to an upper unit of clastic sediments and interbedded laminated argillite in the southwest (see Figure 3). The ultramafic unit consists of harzburgite with minor dunite. Next in the sequence is a gabbro, which occurs both within and on top of the ultramafic. On top of the gabbro is a thick sequence of mafic volcanic rocks. This unit grades from massive basalt flows to pillow basalts to volcanic breccia interbedded with tuff. At the top of the basalt is an extensive transitional unit of agglomerate with a matrix of chert and dust tuff. This unit becomes more chert dominant up section and is capped by a weakly layered to massive radiolarian bearing red ferruginous chert. The clastic unit lies unconformably on top of the mafic volcanics and consists of course boulder and chert pebble conglomerates interbedded with quartz rich wackes and siltstones.
Minor intrusive rocks on the property consist of small plugs and dykes of hornblende-biotite granodiorite of the middle Jurassic Nakina River Stock.
The geologic setting at the Joss'alun property is a analogous to the Cypress type VMS deposit were mineralization occurs within and on top of submarine mafic volcanic rocks beneath a sedimentary sequence.
Mineralization
Copper mineralization has been discovered to date at four separate showings on the Joss'alun property. These have been named the Joss'alun, Box Lake, Jennusty and BOR. The Joss'alun showing was the original discovery, while the other 3 showings were discovered during the course of Imperial Metals work programs.
Selected grab samples at the Joss'alun showing have returned grades of over 10% copper and several grab samples have been collected with grades in the multiple percent range. Chip samples have returned grades of 3.5% Copper over 90 cm and 7.33 % Copper over 35 cm. Copper is present as chalcopyrite as disseminations, fracture fillings and pillow rinds. The most significant mode of occurrence for copper is the massive pods that form interstitially in the pillowed flows and flow breccias. The greater quantities of copper mineralization are concentrated at the base of the mafic unit, with abundance and grade generally decreasing up section. Chalcopyrite mineralization at the Joss'alun showing has been traced over a strike length of 225 metres
The Jennusty showing lies 1.7 km to the NNW of Joss'alun showing in a gabbro intrusion within the ultramafic rock. Small amounts of chalcopyrite and malachite were discovered in the highly oxidized gabbro host. Chip sampling at the Jennusty showing returned results of up to 0.13 % Copper over 2.1m. The copper mineralization at Jennusty is likely the result of remobilization from a primary source.
The BOR showing lies 2.25 km to the northwest of Joss'alun on Imperial Metals Nic claim. Chalcopyrite and pyrite mineralization is hosted within a series of brittle structures in gabbro. Mineralization occurs in pods up to 1 m wide. Of the gabbro hosted copper showings discovered at in the area to date BOR is the most significant and has some size potential. Two grab samples collected at the showings returned grades of 0.54% copper and 5.10%.
The Box Lake showing lies some 2.0 km to the east - southeast of Joss'alun on Imperial Metals Dark claim. The copper mineralization is widespread in the host mafic volcanic, but in less concentration than at Joss'alun. Possibly the stratigraphy exposed is at a higher level and the best mineralization is not exposed at surface in this area. It is also possible that this is on the periphery, along strike, of the mineralizing system as pyrite is in much greater abundance at Box Lake than in the other volcanic hosted copper showings. Mineralization observed at Box Lake was either weak or only observed in talus (float) and therefore it is difficult to give a full assessment of this area. More work is required for this showing.
All of the copper discovered to date on the Joss'alun property has been found either as syngenetic mineralization interstitial in the pillow basalts and flow breccias or as remobilized epigenetic mineralization in the underlying gabbro. In typical Cypress style deposits, however, the most massive and continuous copper mineralization develops as a last exhalative phase on top of the volcanic pile. These deposits are then covered with marine sediments in a period of volcanic quiescence. The copper mineralization discovered to date could therefore possible represent feeder structures to more massive and continuous mineralization yet to be discovered on the top of the mafic volcanic sequence.
Exploration
Exploration to date on the Joss'alun property has focused on the prospective mafic volcanic stratigraphy and has consisted of mapping, prospecting, collecting 1,518 soil samples, a small Induced Polarization (IP) geophysical survey and diamond drilling 1,500 m in 9 holes.
The soil sampling confirmed the strong association of copper with the mafic stratigraphy and identified several areas of anomalous copper values that require further investigation.
The diamond drilling focused on the Joss'alun showing, with only two holes drilled on the Jennusty showing and none on the Box or BOR showings.
Highlights of the program include hole NAK-03-05 with 17.75 metres of 0.94% copper and hole NAK-03-07 with 53.45 metres of 0.34% copper. NAK-03-09, the most easterly drill hole, is thought to have penetrated the volcanic stratigraphy too high up to test the main copper bearing horizon.
Significant drill results are shown in the following table:
Drill Hole # |
Metre Interval |
Length |
Copper % |
NAK-03-03 |
41.50 |
- |
109.56 |
68.06 |
0.21 |
|
including |
41.50 |
- |
48.40 |
6.90 |
0.30 |
|
and |
60.48 |
- |
109.56 |
49.08 |
0.24 |
|
and |
100.10 |
- |
109.56 |
9.46 |
0.87 |
NAK-03-04 |
43.79 |
- |
100.82 |
57.03 |
0.10 |
|
including |
65.00 |
- |
93.15 |
28.15 |
0.12 |
|
and |
196.83 |
- |
202.84 |
6.01 |
0.44 |
Drill Hole # |
Metre Interval |
Length |
Copper % |
NAK-03-05 |
19.13 |
- |
36.88 |
17.75 |
0.94 |
|
including |
26.70 |
- |
33.62 |
6.92 |
1.15 |
NAK-03-06 |
14.46 |
- |
56.55 |
42.09 |
0.20 |
|
including |
23.73 |
- |
39.10 |
15.37 |
0.32 |
|
and |
42.10 |
- |
56.55 |
14.45 |
0.20 |
NAK-03-07 |
143.38 |
- |
196.83 |
53.45 |
0.34 |
|
including |
143.38 |
- |
151.36 |
7.98 |
0.36 |
|
and |
163.21 |
- |
196.83 |
33.62 |
0.41 |
NAK-03-09 |
20.45 |
- |
23.60 |
3.15 |
1.06 |
Proposed Exploration
Exploration to date has confirmed that the volcanic stratigraphy at Joss'alun hosts considerable copper mineralization over at least a 5 kilometre distance and is open along strike in both directions and to depth. The geophysical survey carried out by Norsemont detected a weak IP chargeability effect associated with the drill intersections of stockwork mineralization reported above and suggests that the mineralization extends along strike to the west from the known drill intersections. Additional drilling has been recommended to test these new IP targets.
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