MOLYBDENUM - Nithi Mountain, British Columbia
Nithi Mountain is located in central British Columbia about 150 km west of Prince George. The property is 8 km south of the Village of Fraser Lake, which is situated along a major transportation corridor consisting of a major highway (HY 16) and a CN rail line. BC hydroelectric transmission lines are located at the base of Nithi Mountain. Canada’s oldest and largest producing molybdenum mine (Endako) is northwest of Nithi Mountain a distance of 18 km.
The Nithi Mountain property encompasses a very large, low-fluorine porphyry molybdenum (Moly) deposit. Moly mineralization is hosted in a quartz stockwork developed within by the Upper Jurassic Nithi quartz monsonite and the Casey monzogranite. Mineralization occurs within a broad area of argillic and potassic alteration as quartz moly veins and seams. This broad area of mineralization and alteration is known as the Alpha Trend with five zones (Gamma, Gamma West, Delta, Sigma and Theta) lsituated along this overall trend.
The property was acquired in late 2003 when the price of moly first began a price move from $3.00 a pound to well over $30.00 a pound over the next two years. Previous moly exploration on Nithi Mountain took place during the period 1965 to 1981 by a number of junior exploration companies and Amax Exploration. This exploration took the form of soil geochemical sampling, trenching of various showings, some IP surveying, trenching and limited percussion and diamond drilling.
Current exploration by Leeward Capital began in 2004 with the construction of a comprehensive GIS database for all previous exploration results and a brief field program evaluating known moly showings. All previous exploration information (including the location of moly showings, drillholes, and 6,000 soil samples) was compiled in this GIS database.
Initial exploration consisted of helicopter EM and magnetic surveys. Diamond drilling , airborne gradiometer and radiometric surveys, along with a LIDAR survey and additional soil geochemical sampling. This new data was compiled interpreted to define the full extent of the alteration and moly mineralization on Nithi Mountain.
By the end of 2007, there was sufficient drilling density to calculate an initial inferred resource on the Gamma Zone of 84 million tonnes grading 0.028 Mo. Initial drill testing of three other moly zones has also been carried out. Thus far, only about 20% of the potential area of moly mineralization has been evaluated. .Exploration drilling on the Delta Zone was carried ou in early 2008 with very encouraging results. Drilling is expected to recommence in 2011 with a focus to expanding the higher grade mineralization identified in the Delta zone and expanding overall tonnage by drilling the unexplored Theta zone.
