McBride History

For complete information concerning the McBride River Property please click here to review in detail the November 2005 McBride River Geophysical Report prepared by Laurence Stephenson, P.Eng. and updated in April 2007.

Placer gold was first found at the headwaters of the Turnagain River in 1874. The first mineral activities of note in the region occurred with the discovery in the 1930s of placer gold on the Wheaton (Boulder), Alice Shea and Faulkner Creeks. These tributaries of the main Turnagain River have been intermittently mined up to the present with more recent sporadic operations taking place in the Settea Creek area six kilometres adjacent and downstream to the northeast of the McBride Property. The coarse gold of this area was renowned and a 52 ounce Turnagain Nugget was purchased by the British Columbia government. Overall production was just over 10,000 grams (approximately 300oz.) in the 1930’s. Jade from other creeks in the Wolverine and Letain Lakes area has also been placer mined and lode occurrences have been identified at Alice Shea Creek and other areas.

In the 1950’s an asbestos geological reserve in the ultramafic rocks of the area of 15.7 million tonnes was blocked out at Letain Lake, 30 kilometres to the northeast of the claims and in the 1960’s the Eaglehead porphyry copper molybdenum deposit 35 kilometres to the north was drilled with a resource of 30 million tonnes estimated (non-43- 101 compliant resource) (Minfile #104I 008).

The most recent exploration work in the area was initiated in the 1970’s with the discovery of the Kuroko type volcanogenic massive sulphide Kutcho "deposit" approximately 46 kilometres to the east of the McBride Property (Minfile # 104I 060). Reserves for the three zones at Kutcho are: Kutcho - 17 million tonnes grading 1.62 per cent copper, 2.32 per cent zinc, 29.2 grams per tonne silver and 0.39 gram per tonne gold; Sumac - approximately 10 million tonnes grading 1.0 per cent copper and 1.2 per cent zinc; and Esso West - about 1 to 1.5 million tonnes of approximately double Kutcho grades.

A government airborne magnetic survey that covered the NTS sheets in the area of the properties was completed for the Geological Survey of Canada in 1978 and a joint federal and provincial stream sediment survey was completed in the 1990’s.

Specific exploration on the McBride Property has occurred from the discovery of the main vein throughout the 1980’s and sporadically into the 1990’s. Assessment reports filed with the Mineral Titles Ministry outlined the work that has been done by previous claim holders in the area including prospecting, geological mapping and hand trenching.

No drilling or evidence of drilling or machinery trenching was observed.

During the summer of 2005, a contract line cutting and soil sampling crew from Nicholson and Associates cut and flagged the baseline and grid over the main portion of the McBride Property. A ground magnetic and VLF Electromagnetic survey and a geochem soil sampling survey were also completed.