by Greg Klein | February 25, 2020
This southern British Columbia district gave up plenty of Gold using, by today’s standards, primitive techniques. Now Belmont Resources TSXV:BEA hopes more sophisticated analysis will help rejuvenate regional mining. On February 24 the company announced an LOI to expand its presence in the historic Greenwood camp.
Belmont’s proposed Athelstan-Jackpot acquisition sits adjacent to the Republic district in Washington, where Kinross Gold TSX:K applied newly developed metallogenic models that led to discovery and mining of several epithermal gold deposits. Although a “similar geologic regime” applies to the Greenwood area, Belmont stated, previous exploration and development on the B.C. side of the border focused on skarn-type copper-gold deposits with little attention to epithermal-type gold.
Bringing impressive credentials for a more contemporary approach, president/CEO George Sookochoff comes from a mining family in Grand Forks, about eight kilometres east of Athelstan-Jackpot, and has an extensive Greenwood background as well as GIS database expertise. He’s spent years building a digital database storing more than a century of Greenwood geoscientific info. This digital library would allow him to assess the probability of regional epithermal gold deposits by searching for characteristics comparable with those in Washington, the company added.
The review would precede recommendations for a 2020 exploration program on Athelstan-Jackpot. Intermittent mining on the property between 1901 and 1940 produced around 33,200 tonnes averaging about 5.4 g/t gold and 6.3 g/t silver for approximately 6,324 ounces of gold and 7,378 ounces of silver, according to historic records. Trenching and sampling took place in 2003, with historic, non-43-101 trench intervals up to 6.6 g/t gold and 12 g/t silver over 3.7 metres. Other historic 2003 grades reached as high as 28.4 g/t gold and 166 g/t silver over 0.3 metres.
A 100% interest in Athelstan-Jackpot would cost Belmont 200,000 shares on signing. After a year Belmont would issue another 200,000 shares, and also pay US$50,000 in cash or US$25,000 in cash and the equivalent of US$25,000 in shares. The vendor would retain a 2% NSR, half of which Belmont could buy back for US$500,000.
Belmont’s other recent Greenwood forays include last November’s 45-hectare Pride of the West and Great Bear acquisition, and the 127-hectare Glenora property in October.
Two 2019 sampling programs on Belmont’s Greenwood-area Pathfinder project brought assays up to 4.999 ppm gold, 35.86 ppm silver, 2.07% copper and 45.1 ppm cobalt, along with other results up to 29.2 g/t gold.
The company’s portfolio also includes a 75% interest in the Kibby Basin lithium project in Nevada and, in northern Saskatchewan, two uranium properties shared 50/50 with International Montoro Resources TSXV:IMT.
