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Bard Poised for Molybdenum Dominance
By Claire O'Connor
MidasLetter.com
Tuesday, April 20, 2009
Bard Ventures (TSX.V: CBS) is in the advanced stages of drilling on its 100% owned Lone Pine molybdenum property in the Omineca Mining Division of BC. On April 1st 2010 the company was pleased to announce significant drill hole assay results from their ongoing Lone Pine drill program. No April fools, Bard have put the work in and with molybdenum prices rising, they’re hoping to realize the fruits of their labor very shortly.
Bard is poised to be the next major molybdenum development story in BC and although not their only project, the company is focusing primarily on Lone Pine in the hopes of realizing that dream.
The Lone Pine Property
The Lone Pine Property is a low fluorine porphyry molybdenum deposit which is classified by the BC Geological Survey as deposit type L05. These deposits are characterized by stockworks of molybdenite-bearing quartz veinlets and fractures in intermediate to felsic rocks and associated country rocks.
Consisting of thirteen mineral claims covering 3157 hectares, approximately 15 kilometers north-northwest of Houston, BC; the property is situated in the Omineca Mining Division and extends over several molybdenum showings including The Alaskite Zone, The Quartz Breccia Zone, The Mineral Hill Zone and The Granby Zone.
Lone Pine 1914 – Present
No stranger to history, the property has a reeling record of mineral exploration. First mention of the prospect appears in the Minister of Mines annual report for 1914. Geophysical surveys were conducted over the Alaskite Zone in the southern portions of the property. Drilling, blasting and chip sampling was undertaken on mineralized outcrops elsewhere on the property.
Numerous companies from 1959 to 1971 conducted a variety of exploration over the property, however, it wasn't until 1976 that molybdenum mineralization was being sought after as a primary commodity. Between 1976 and 1992 continued exploration resulted in moderate molybdenum mineralization on the property.
The Merkley brothers of Houston BC staked the first Lone Pine Claims in 2002. From 2003 to 2006 the Claims were held in good standing with the filing of assessment work. That consisted of road and trail rehabilitation, prospecting and soil sampling.
Bard signed an option agreement with the Merkley brothers in mid 2006. During 2007 and 2008 the company has conducted a geophysical survey over the entire claim area, prospected, mapped, flown an airborne orthophotography survey, sent samples for metallurgical testing and drilled approximately 27,000 meters of NQ core in the Alaskite, Quartz Breccia and Granby Zones.
Bard’s Progress with Lone Pine
CEO Eugene Beukman explains where the company is at right now with Lone Pine.
“We are in the advanced stage of operations as we’ve got a NI 43-101 completed on the property and we are still busy with doing some more exploration and trying to increase the size of the resource.”
As Beukman mentions, an NI:43-101 report was conducted on the property in December 2008 by GeoSim Services Inc. The estimate read as follows:
Despite encouraging results with the resource estimate, what particularly excited Bard was the metallurgical testing completed back in January 2009 by G & T Metallurgical on approximately 50 kg of representative quartered NQ2 size core assaying 0.060% molybdenum and 0.034% copper from the Alaskite Zone. They discovered that:
- Rougher circuit flotation tests produced molybdenum recoveries of 90% or greater to the rougher concentrate;
- Open circuit batch cleaner tests produced concentrate grades as high as 43% molybdenum;
- The Bond ball work index of 14.1 kWh/tonne; and
- The sulphides present in order of abundance are pyrite/pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and molybdenite.
Since then, Bard has been working steadily and successfully to progress the project and expand the resource. The company has had an impressive influx of progressive news flow over the past 15 months, the most recent being the aforementioned press release issued April 1st reporting remarkable drill hole assays from the ongoing Lone Pine drill program which began in February 2010.
According to the press release:
“Significant drill hole assay results have been received from drill hole BD-10-61 located along the northern contact of the Quartz Feldspar Granite Intrusive in a new area of molybdenum mineralization located approximately 500m to the northeast of the known Alaskite Zone Resource described below. Drill hole BD-10-61 drilled due north to a final depth of 431.9m at -45degrees, intersected several intervals of significant molybdenum mineralization averaging 0.04% Mo over drilled widths up to 58.1m with higher grade intersections averaging 0.07% Mo over drilled widths of 12.6m. Scattered intervals of elevated and anomalous copper, lead, zinc and silver mineralization is associated with zones of molybdenum enrichment with results up to 0.71% copper, 1.0% lead, 3.35% zinc and 451gmt silver over 0.7m drill width. Mineralization is associated with quartz veining and quartz stockwork hosted in altered Hornfelsed Volcanics, Alaskite and Granodiorite intrusive.”
“The Company is very encouraged by these initial results which highlight the potential of this newly discovered area of molybdenum mineralization… and plans to continue with this exciting exploration program to add value to the existing mineral resource.”
Molybdenum Rising
On a whole, Beukman is a CEO extremely happy with his property and where it’s going. Firstly, regarding infrastructure, the company couldn’t be more fortunate.
“The infrastructure is so good… It has power, a big hydro power station is on the property as well as a natural gas line going through the property. Claims are adjacent to highway 16 which provides obvious transportation benefits through all phases of development, plus a local work force and accommodations lower exploration costs dramatically.”
Secondly, molybdenum prices are rising. Molybdenum is critical to the production of stainless steels, alloy steels, high-speed and tool steels, cast iron, electronics, chemicals, lubricants, super alloys, catalysts, and pigments. It went from $2 twelve years ago to an astounding $38 two years ago. When the recession hit it dropped to $8 but in recent months its jumped back up to $17.75 as construction work, pipeline work and bridge building has started to slowly but surely open up again.
“Molybdenum started to trade on the London minerals exchange on February 24th of this year and you know, we’ve seen some great upside on it. We’re looking at a potential price of $22 per pound in the next 6 months.”
Lastly, no CEO is happier than when his company is progressing nicely, and Lone Pine is definitely progressing.
“We’re currently busy with our 3rd phase of the exploration program, doing extensive drilling in new areas which we’ve identified with the geo chem. work that was done last summer and with the drilling that was started in November last year. We’re approximately 20 holes into the program there and we’ll continue with the drilling to hopefully increase this resource and maybe find it in different places. We’ve got something really interesting happening.”
Follow Bard’s progress at www.bardventures.com.
DISCLOSURE: A fee has been paid for the production and distribution of this article and as such should be viewed in the context of advertising.
SOURCE: http://www.midasletter.com/news/100420_Bard-ventures-poised-for-molybdenum-dominance.php
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