DV:CC - Dolly Varden Silver (DV.V) V.P Exploration and Geologist Rob van Egmond Explains the Big Bulk Consolidation Strategy
(TheNewswire)
December 28, 2023 – TheNewsWire – Global StocksNews – On December 20, 2023 Dolly Varden Silver (TSXV:DV)(OTC:DOLLF) announced that it intends to acquire a 100% undivided interest in thesouthern portion of the Big Bulk Project from Libero Copper & Gold. Dolly Varden will issue Libero275,000 common shares at a deemed value of .78 to close thedeal.
DV Silver is also developing its 100% held KitsaultValley Project located in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia,Canada, 25kms by road to tide water.
“Big Bulk is located about 10 kilometers east of theKitsault Valley Project,” VP of ExplorationRob van Egmond told Guy Bennett, CEO of GlobalStocks News. “Prior to this transaction, we controlled the northernpart of it. It’s a property that we haven't done a lot of work onbecause we've been focusing on the high-grade silver to thewest.”
The southern portion of the Big Bulk property that DVis acquiring rights to earn 100% ownership in, contains seven mineralclaims making up 3,025 hectares. When combined with DV’s northernportion, this doubles the size of the Big Bulk Project toapproximately 6,000 hectares.
The option will give DV a new consolidated copper-goldporphyry project in the Golden Triangle, British Columbia.
“The Big Bulk porphyry was discovered in the early1900s,” stated van Egmond. “It's above treeline, the rocks areexposed so it got prospected first, revealing some high-grade silverand gold veins, peripheral to the porphyry system.”
“A Porphyry means it has larger crystals in it,”van Egmond continued. “The mineralised fluids are often lower grade,copper, gold, silver and molybdenum. The deposits tend to behomogeneous. They are amenable to low-cost open pit mines. It’s abulk tonnage scenario.”
Deal Highlights:
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Consolidation of the Big Bulk copper-gold mineralized calc-alkali porphyry system ofthe Texas Creek plutonic suite (Big Bulk)
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Historic data sets will be incorporated into a complete geologicmodel.
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Existing Land Use Agreement and Exploration Permit in place
“We have been continuing to seek accretiveconsolidation opportunities in the area and the amalgamation of thesouthern portion of the Big Bulk copper gold porphyry with DollyVarden’s portion is our latest step,” stated Shawn Khunkhun,President and CEO of Dolly Varden.
“In the Golden Triangle, porphyry systems canrepresent metallogenic feedersto high-grade vein systems , such as the KSMDeposit that occurs adjacent to the BrucejackMine. Big Bulk may represent a causative mineralized porphyry to thehigh-grade silver and gold deposits 10 kilometres to the west at theKitsault Valley Trend,” added Khunkhun.
“’Metallogenic feeders’ is a technical phrasethat means, ‘fluids that that carry metal.’” van Egmond toldBennett. “These feeders can be up to 10 kilometers away from the bigporphyries. It's the driver for the mineralized systems. Typically,they're interconnected at depth and related to each other.”
“ Recent workby the British Columbia Geological Survey (“BCGS”) and Universityof British Columbia (“UBC”) Mineral Deposits Research Unit(“MDRU”) indicate that Big Bulk is the northernmost porphyry of a string ofseveral porphyry mineralized systems ,” statesDV.
“We undertook detailed (1:10,000 scale) mapping inthe Kinskuch Lake area near the Big Bulk porphyry prospect (Fig. 2b),which has characteristics and stratigraphy similar to the KSM deposits ”, reported BCGS .
A 2022 KSM Pre-Feasibility Study captured proven andprobable reserves of 47.3 millionounces of gold plus 7.3 billion pounds of copper and 160million ounces of silver over a 33-year open pit mine life.
https://cmscontent.nrs.gov.bc.ca/geoscience/PublicationCatalogue/Paper/BCGS_P2020-01-06_Miller.pdf
From 2001 to 2003, the southern portion of the Big BulkProperty was explored by Teck and Canadian Empire Minerals. Thenorthern half of the system was drilled by AngloGold in 2009,encountering porphyry-style alteration with copper and goldmineralization.
Following the Big Bulk announcement, “Libero Copperannounced that it has “decided to concentrate its focus and allocateresources solely to the significantly more advanced MocoaPorphyry Copper-Molybdenum Deposit inColombia.”
“We've been talking to Libero for more than ayear,” confirmed van Egmond. “Libero’s lead asset is inColombia, so for them Big Bulk was a distraction. We could see thestrategic value of it. But we've been patient. DV Silver acquiredthis asset for a very good price.”
“The Kitsault Valley Project will remain our mainfocus,” explained van Egmond, “We still have about 70 holes torelease from the 51,000-meter 2023 drill program. We expect to do a similar sized program in 2024. We’ll be looking to deploy drills to Big Bulk and learn more aboutwhat we have there.”
On November 2, 2023 Dolly Varden Silver announced thatit has closed a deal where Hecla Canada invested $10 million in DVSilver , raising its stake in DV Silver from10.6% to 15.7%.
Hecla Mining has a market cap of USD $3.07 billion andtrades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). It has produced 11.4 million ounces of silverthis year so far .
“Hecla’s increasedownership stake is a benefit to us,” Khunkhun told Bennett, “Heclahas demonstrated it is a sticky shareholder. They're looking to expandtheir North American silver portfolio. Our consolidated Big BulkProject is surrounded by Hecla’s land package.”
“The Golden Triangle includes thelargest undeveloped Cu-Au porphyry deposit (KSM) , the highest grade recently-openedunderground gold mine (Brucejack), and the most precious metal-richVMS orebody (Eskay Creek) in the world,” states the Prospectors & DevelopersAssociation of Canada .
Contact: guy.bennett@globalstocksnews.com
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