Moore Creek Mining LLC

A Prospector's Tale, Part 2

Note: This is part two of a two part story. Go here for Part 1



“On the hills north of Moore Creek vein quartz carrying gold was picked up by the senior writer. It is probable, however, that the placer-gold areas in this region will be more or less depleted before lode mining begins, for in much of the region rock exposures are not plentiful, and prospecting for gold lodes means much development work”. J.B. Mertie, 1924, U.S.G.S. Bulletin 754

I had a few projects I wanted to do at the mine since I was going to be there anyway and also planned on doing the final camp shutdown for the season. Plus have a little fun looking for gold! I owed a friend a favor in that George White helped us out very much at the mine this last summer. George is a great guy and experienced detectorist and so I invited him along a bit as payback for things he has done… and a bit to get some more help! I got tickets planning to get into Moore Creek a day before the geologists pulled out so we could have a day to go over results and have them show us what they found.

When we arrived in McGrath via Pen-Air the weather was typical fall rain and low clouds. Mike Stewart of Redline Air was to fly us out to the mine but the weather was poor enough he wanted to wait. He went off to fly some other people around and George and I just wandered around McGrath. The weather seemed to improve slightly and so Mike grabbed us and off we flew to Moore Creek. The conditions were poor and unfortunately did not get better as we flew. Mike weaved in and around hills and I finally realized we were heading back to McGrath. The weather was just shy of letting us get to Moore Creek that day. George and I got a room at the Iditarod Café for the night.

The next morning was not much better and seemed to get worse as it got lighter. We ate breakfast, not feeling very hopeful, when Mike appeared and said we were good to go. Another pilot had reported decent weather in the Moore Creek area and so we gulped down our remaining breakfast and headed on out.

When we landed at the mine it was obvious the rain had been pouring. Troy Wilbur met us at the plane with a trailer full of bagged rock samples. I explained to Troy that everyone might best get out as soon as possible and recommended the people go out first. That way they could get to McGrath, and Mike could come back and get the samples whenever the weather permitted. Otherwise the weather could close in at any time, and who knows when the geologists would have another chance to get out. One thing flying in Alaska has taught me is when the going is good, get going!

The downside of this is that I only had a few minutes to talk to the Full Metal crew - Michael Cooley, Hans Hoffman and David Hedderly-Smith. I asked Hans how things were looking and he said we were looking really good indeed, with good exposures of material that showed visible gold after being crushed and panned. There was very obvious visible mineralization, but of course we would have to wait for the assays to know the full story. The bottom line is that they seemed certain were had a good showing. Hans told me where to go to look up the trail, and with that the guys loaded up and Mike flew off back to McGrath.

We had been hoping to meet Rob McLeod of Full Metal Minerals and Rob Retherford of Alaska Earth Sciences to look over the deposit together and plan for operations going forward. However, Rob Retherford was planning on flying his own plane from Anchorage, and so I was certain the same weather that had slowed us down was also preventing them from getting through the Alaska Range.

So now George and I had a bit of time to kill. We spent the rest of the day settling into the cabins and rearranging a lot of the gear stored to make more room in both cabins for possible occupancy going forward. Both Robs might still appear, and we were expecting my father, brother, and partner John Pulling to show up in a couple days.

The next morning the weather was not really improved at all. Mike had made it back to get the rock samples the day before but still no sign of anyone else. George went to work changing out some bolts on the dozer track pads while I kept straightening out the cabins. Then it was time to head up the trail and go take a look at the trenches. We drove the 4-wheelers up towards the small mountain a mile to the north. Just before reaching the base of the hill a new trail headed off to the right along the line of the Iditarod-Nixon Fork fault. We went a short way down the trail and started looking at the trenches.

It did not take long to find out what had the geologists excited. These trenches are at the immediate base of a steep slope dropping into the relatively flat fault zone. But instead of the light color of monzonite these trenches are solid masses of color. Brown and orange colors are interspersed with zone of almost black material, all shot through with thin quartz veining. I knew immediately I was looking at a real discovery. But where I had always imagined a classic vein was instead a large zone of mineralization!


Steep new trench on Spring Zone

We moved from trench to trench, and the area exposed got larger and the coloring more intense. There was more of the black coloration swirled in with the oranges. I knew the black was tourmaline and thought of all the specimens we have found with black tourmaline attached. The oranges may have been decomposed monzonite but it was hard to tell as it looked more like clay than the solid monzonite seen in the earlier trenches. The next trench showed even more of the same material, and at this point I’m thinking, “Wow, this thing is huge”!


Close-up of mineralization

The last trench showed no sign of having reached the end of the mineralized zone. The zone seemed to follow a defined break in the topography that continued on far past the last trench. I knew from geologic maps that it would be heading into deeper cover to the east. The uphill edge of the zone was limited by the reach of the excavator and the downhill edge limited by the depth the excavator could reach. In other words, except for the fact the zone did have limits to the west it appeared to me that we still had a lot of work to do to find the edges of this thing, especially to the east. We still needed to get assay results. But one thing I knew for sure – we had really hit on something significant.


Close-up of another trench - lots of tourmaline

George and I divided time between goofing off looking for gold and demobilizing camp. I left messages for my father periodically alerting him to weather conditions, but always got his message machine and so had no idea what was happening on their end. Finally the weather really improved right about the time we expected them to arrive and arrive they did. My father and John were there to see what was going on with the exploration, and my brother was there to look for gold.

I had found maps in the cabin that the geologists left behind showing more trenching farther up the hill. So we went up again and I showed John and my father the stuff George and I had looked at previously, which was called the “Spring Vein” after the springs issuing from the base of the hill. Then we headed up the hill to what was noted as the “Troy Vein” after Troy Wilbur for all his expert excavator work. The Troy Vein is a narrow quartz breccia type vein that returned some high assays on the initial trenching program. Farther up the hill new trenches had exposed fresh areas of the Broken Shovel Vein, which is a classic rust stained quartz vein. We collected samples of each and headed back to camp.

John, my brother Tom, and my father headed back to Anchorage the next day. George and I opted to stay another day since the weather was nice and we wanted to do a little more nugget hunting. That almost got us stuck, as the weather started going downhill almost immediately. It paid off for me as while we waited for Mike to come get us I found my largest nugget of the summer, a nice 2.5 ounce specimen. George also did well with several smaller nuggets he found. The weather broke just enough for Mike to get us out, and we caught the flight back to Anchorage.


George on the hunt

I got a call from Rob McLeod not long after, and the word was we had struck gold! Early results were showing good assays over large areas. The investors were excited, and plans were immediately under way for a drilling program in 2008. All that remained was to get all the assay results in and an official news release. Once the news release was out the secrecy cap would be off and we could tell the world about the big strike at Moore Creek! Rob seemed as excited as I was that we were really on to something with huge potential, and so I waited anxiously for the official news release. More than anyone else in the world I wanted to hear the details regarding my long dreamed of discovery!

Nov 06, 2007 09:15 ET

Joint News Release: Full Metal and Highbury Discover 8.9 g/t Gold Over 11 Meters in Trench at Moore Creek Property
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Nov. 6, 2007) - Full Metal Minerals (TSX VENTURE:FMM) ("Full Metal") and Highbury Projects Inc. (TSX VENTURE:HPI) ("Highbury") are pleased to announce a significant gold discovery at the Moore Creek Property ("The Property"), located in the Kuskokwim region of West Central Alaska.

Three new discoveries (Spring Zone, Troy Zone and Broken Shovel Zone) were made during a two-phase trenching program and multiple styles of gold mineralization have been identified. The grade and width of gold mineralization coupled with alteration intensity increases towards the south. The discoveries occur at the headwaters to significant placer gold producing streams - State of Alaska Records (2005) report that Moore Creek has produced over 60,000 ounces of placer gold, often of an exceptionally coarse nature and noted for attached quartz vein rock. Mineralization is located adjacent to a major fault zone, which is associated with Novagold/Barrick's Donlin Creek deposit located 90km to the southwest of the Property. Full Metal and Highbury are planning a 3,000 meter diamond drilling program to commence in March 2008 at the Property to follow-up on the discoveries.

Spring Zone

Mechanical trenching revealed a 'blind discovery' of sheeted quartz-tourmaline veins with coarse gold and disseminated sulphides at the Spring Zone. Seven trenches were completed spanning 300 meters of strike length, all of which contained gold mineralization across the full length of the trenches. Highlights include:

- 8.86 g/t Au over 11.0 meters in Trench 20
- 3.36 g/t Au over 4.0 meters in Trench 23
- 2.99 g/t Au over 11.9 meters in Trench 17
- 2.17 g/t Au over 9.3 meters in Trench 18

Mineralization continues below the deeper overburden across strike to the north and south. The Spring Zone is and is open for expansion to the east, west and south. Steeply dipping sheeted quartz veins range from one to 10 centimeters thick, and are hosted within pervasive tourmaline altered and silicified monzonite intrusive rock. A total of 40 samples were taken from the Spring Zone (the majority of which are channel samples) with grades ranging from 30.15 g/t Au to 0.005 g/t Au, and averaging 2.38 g/t Au.

Troy Zone

The Troy Zone is located immediately north of the Spring zone; mineralization has been traced for over 200 meters along strike and is typified by quartz veins with strong coarse gold mineralization within a broad, lower grade zone. One quartz vein has been traced in excess of 50 meters of the strike length through trenching. The vein was sampled in three locations; grades include 88.5 g/t Au over 0.2 meters, 36.0 g/t Au over 0.2 meters, and occurs within a 3.0 meter channel that averaged 7.6 g/t Au. Wide zones of gold mineralization occur in the Troy zone, including Trench 16 which hosts 33.5 meters averaging 0.62 g/t Au along the full trench length. This trench is the westernmost completed to date.
A total of 177 samples of bedrock and colluvium were taken from a 200 by 200 meter area of the Troy Zone (the majority of which are channel samples). Samples range from 88.53 g/t Au to 0.05 g/t Au, with an average of 0.77 g/t Au. A total of 16 samples assayed over 1 g/t Au, averaging 9.89 g/t Au. Mineralization is open for expansion to the west and east.

Broken Shovel

Located 200 meters due north of the Troy Zone, the Broken Shovel prospect is typified by a steeply dipping quartz vein. During 2006, Full Metal collected twelve samples from the prospect; samples ranged from trace to 3.84 g/t Au and 2.0 to 1,105 g/t Ag, averaging 0.85 g/t Au and 166 g/t Ag. Highly anomalous bismuth, arsenic and mercury were also returned.

Three trenches were completed during 2007, each encountering anomalous gold including two separate one meter wide channel samples located 25 meters apart averaged 0.3 g/t and 0.7 g/t Au respectively.

Moore Creek Property

The 14,250 hectare Property is located in the historic Iditarod placer mining district, approximately 80 km southwest of McGrath, Alaska. Moore Creek is 90 km northeast of the giant Donlin Creek Gold Deposit and is hosted within a similar geologic setting. The Property had received minimal modern exploration, and has never been drill tested.

Gold mineralization identified to-date at the Property are all hosted within the Moore Creek pluton, an early Tertiary age monzonite intrusive. Gold mineralization and alteration intensity is increasing to the south, proximal to a regional fault zone. This primary target area south of the Spring Zone is covered by overburden too thick to access by trenching, and represents a primary drill target for 2008. Maps with surface sampling results for Moore Creek can be reviewed at www.fullmetalminerals.com.

State of Alaska Records (2005) report that Moore Creek has produced over 60,000 ounces of placer gold, often of a coarse nature and noted for attached quartz vein rock. The nature of the placer gold suggests close proximity to a bedrock source within the Moore Creek pluton. Gulches converging on the recent discoveries have all been mined for placer gold. Many large gold/quartz specimens have been collected suggesting a source within the intrusive, however, others have attached volcanic material suggesting additional potential for gold-bearing veins within the volcanics surrounding the monzonite intrusive. An active placer mine is in operation on the property, along with a recreational mining business where large gold/quartz/tourmaline specimens are found with metal detectors. Photos of these specimens and the Moore Creek property can be seen at www.moorecreek.com.



Exploration at the Moore Creek Property was managed by David Hedderly-Smith, CPG, under the supervision of Robert McLeod, P.Geo., VP of Exploration for Full Metal Minerals. Both are Qualified Persons as defined by NI 43-101. Rock and soil samples were placed in sealed bags, and shipped to Alaska Assay Labs in Fairbanks for gold plus multielement ICP analysis. Gold was analyzed by 30 g/t Au AAS method, with all samples over 5 g/t Au analyzed by metallic screen. A sample quality control/quality assurance program was implemented. These results were reviewed and approved for release by Mr. McLeod.

Full Metal is a generative exploration company with twelve active projects in Alaska and one in the Yukon Territory. The company currently has six active Joint Venture Agreements. Drill results are expected shortly from the high grade 40 Mile Zinc-Lead-Silver Project, the Lucky Shot Gold Project, CJ Gold Project, Inmachuk Zinc-Lead-Silver Project, and the Boulder Creek Uranium Project.

Highbury is a Vancouver based company that is earning a 60% interest in the Property by committing to fund US$2.1 million in exploration expenditures over a period of four years at Moore Creek.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Full Metal Minerals Ltd.
Michael Williams, President and Director

Highbury Projects Inc.
Anish Sunderji, CEO and Director


Gold at the end of the rainbow - Moore Creek

Eureka, we have found it! Gold at Moore Creek. And so now you and I know the rest of the story. Plans are underway for drilling to commence as soon as possible at Moore Creek. Whether or not we have a mine remains to be seen, but there is no doubt that we have gone from a 1000 to 1 long shot to having a fairly good chance of developing a hardrock mine at Moore Creek. This is not the end of the story but only the beginning!

~ Steve Herschbach
Copyright © 2007 Herschbach Enterprises