BC’s “Golden Triangle” has just experienced its greatest year of mineral exploration in the last decade. All indicators are showing that the upcoming 2018 season promises to be far more significant, especially for the Treaty Creek Project and adjoining neighbours.
On January 31, 2018 Seabridge stated that the size and grade of their Lower Iron Cap zone (located approximately 600m west of the Treaty Creek property boundary) is so significant that it has the ability to reduce initial capital expenditures and increase initial higher-grade feed for a KSM mine. This has the potential to dramatically improve the feasibility and to rapidly accelerate the development of the KSM project.
On February 13, 2018 Seabridge released a new updated resource calculation on the Iron Cap (and Lower Iron Cap zone) of a staggering 25 million ounces gold, 10 billion pounds copper and 170 million ounces silver, all categories included!
http://seabridgegold.net/News/Article/705/seabridge-gold-increases-estimated-gold-copper-resource
This appears to be THE catalyst in advancing the KSM project as analysts recently stated:
"We believe a number of top-tier base metal and gold miners are lining up to offer JV terms to Seabridge on KSM. Based on management commentary, we are pushing this event to April/May next year (2018), from our previous estimate of exit 2017".
Seabridge moving towards production has very positive implications for Treaty Creek as Seabridge’s feasibility study includes building roads from Highway 37 to within a couple kilometers of the Copper Belle gold zone on Treaty Creek. In order to actually get any gold out of their project, Seabridge has also proposed twin access tunnels to be constructed through the Treaty Creek property. The proposed tunnel route passes through the area in which the Copper Belle and GR2 discoveries are being drilled.
On February 13, 2018 Tudor Gold stated their intention to dramatically increase the scale of the drill program on the Copper Belle zone taking it from 27 holes in 2017 to 50-60 holes this year! Given this increase, the tremendous success of the 2017 drill program, and the maiden resource calculation scheduled to come out shortly, the 2018 Treaty Creek program has the potential to be one of the most significant developments in the Golden Triangle.
Walter Storm, President and CEO of Tudor Gold recently commented on the project. He stated: “As we analyze Treaty Creek from an overview perspective we find a very compelling image: Our discoveries, as expected, are closely related to the now-famous "Red Line" (Triassic/Jurassic contact), as predicted in the seminal research report by British Columbia government geologists Kyba and Nelson. The Sulphurets Fault (coincident with the Red Line), weaves its way for over 20 kms from the southern end where the Kerr, Kerr Deep and Valley of the Kings deposits are located, winding its way northward through the Sulphurets, Mitchell, Snowfields, Iron Cap and Iron Cap Deep discoveries before crossing into Treaty Creek and up to the Copper Belle and GR2 zones. As observed in the Kyba/Nelson research report, major discoveries lie generally within 2 kms of the Red Line and that is the case with all these deposits. Tudor has a 3 km unexplored gap between the Copper Belle discovery and the Seabridge Gold's Iron Cap deposit, in which our MagnetoTelluric Geophysics survey identifies strong anomalous targets that have not yet been drilled. Results from Tudor Gold's drilling in 2017 show that in the Copper Bell zone, gold mineralization is expanding northward and eastward with improving grades, increasing copper and silver credits, not to mention other promising areas within the zone like Hole CB-17-26 which returned 149.1m of 1.78 g/t gold.
This prolific hdyrothermal system which hosts the many gold deposits of Seabridge Gold and Pretium Resources, as well as the nascent gold mineralization currently being drilled on Tudor Gold's Treaty Creek property, is known as one of the seven largest hydrothermal systems in the world for hosting porphyry-type mineral deposits of gold and copper-gold (Alldrick). Moreover, Seabridge Gold's KSM property is currently recognized as hosting the world’s largest undeveloped reserves of copper and gold. In close proximity to these reserves are Pretium Resources' very large, porphyry gold Snowfields deposit and its high-grade, Valley of the Kings gold mine, the latter recently having entered into commercial production. This is an excellent area in which to be looking for another "elephant" and early indications are that mineralization continues onto the Treaty property, right past an arbitrary line called a 'claim boundary'."
Tudor Gold has released an updated presentation that summarizes the past 2017 program and highlights the upcoming plans for 2018. You can view it here:
http://americancreek.com/images/Tudor_PPT_Feb9_18.pdf
For further insights on Treaty Creek and where the project is headed, you can watch this recent interview:
http://americancreek.com/index.php/projects/management-interviews
The exploration season ahead clearly has the potential to be transformational with significant advances being made on both the KSM and the adjoining Treaty Creek Project.
The Treaty Creek Project may finally get the attention and recognition it deserves.