Mount Copeland Mineral Property
The Mount Copeland deposit lies within metamorphic rocks flanking the southern margin of Frenchman Cap Dome, 32 kilometers northwest of Revelstoke, British Columbia.
The rocks have been metamorphosed and subjected to three phases of deformation. Lenses of syenite pegmatite and syenite aplite are common along the northern border of the nepheline syenite unit, and because of their concentrations of molybdenite, are the focus of economic interest. During the life of the Mount Copeland mine (1970-1974) almost all production was from these aplite-pegmatite bodies within the syenite gneisses, more specifically the Glacier zone, which was up to 3 meters thick and exposed for 121 meters along a strike length of over 1 kilometer. The object of Volt Carbon Technologies’s exploration efforts will be to attempt to find a repeat of the Glacier zone, which produced 163,278 tonnes grading 1.1 percent molybdenum.
The Historical Report notes that anomalous REE values in soil samples are widespread. The areas that have the highest concentrations of REE values in soil include Marble Breccia Ridge and the East Glacier Zones. Geochemical analysis results have identified molybdenum (Mo), REE (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu), yttrium (Y), zirconium (Zr), and niobium (Nb) bearing mineralization.
The Historical Report notes that the magnetometer survey strong anomalies are located in an area of marble with extensive zones of pyrrhotite and/or magnetite/ilmenite replacement mineralization which coincides with elevated REE geochemical analysis of rock chips 10AR-22 to 28 from Marble Breccia Ridge. A second area of REE bearing mineralization occurs in the East Glacier Zone (e.g. rock chip sampleCOPE10AR-20). The East Glacier and Marble Bx Ridge Zones are about 500 meters apart, but they occur on the same stratigraphic horizon and may be part of an extensive REE bearing mineral zone that trends under the glacier. In addition to REE bearing mineralization, a zone of elevated molybdenum and coincident niobium occurs in the east extension of the Copeland underground workings. This area has been targeted for possible extensions of Mo bearing mineralization, but this zone appears to have elevated Mo-Nb-Ti (e.g. rock chip sample COPE10AR-4 & 5). Also, directly adjacent to the underground workings there is a rock chip sample that contains elevated Mo-REE-Nb-Ti (rock chip sample COPE10AR-3).
The Historical Report notes that elevated values of cerium, lanthanum, praseodymium, dysprosium, gadolinium, samarium, europium, thorium, zirconium, strontium occur in 5 of the 10 rock chip samples which are listed in the following table:
