Dolly Varden Silver has acquired an option agreement from Libero Copper & Gold, allowing them to earn a 100% interest in the southern portion of the Big Bulk property, thus consolidating the entire copper-gold porphyry system.
The transaction includes issuing 275,000 common shares to Libero as consideration.
The property is near other significant mining projects and represents a strategic consolidation in an area known for high-grade mineral deposits.
Big Bulk can be found just east of the main Kitsault Valley project area and forms part of the project. Big Bulk consists of 2,640 hectares in 7 mineral claims covering a copper-gold porphyry and skarn prospect on the southern shores of Kinskuch Lake, approximately 5 km east of the Dolly Varden Project and 23 km northeast of the village of Kitsault.
The Hazelton Group in the Kitsault area is the southern limit of a continuous belt of the the Stikine Terrane which has been shown to host large alkalic gold-copper porphyry deposits, of which the Galore Creek, Red Mountain and KSM deposits are examples. The Big Bulk copper-gold porphyry is interpreted to fall into the same age and mineralization category.
Intermittent exploration programs have taken place over several decades. Short historic drilling programs have been conducted by AngloGold Ashanti, Agnico Eagle, Teck Resources and Homestake Resources Corp. AngloGold Ashanti drilled hole AGA01 in 2009 and intercepted 0.31% Cu over 54 metres from 67 to 121 m, plus 4.0 g/t Au over 10 metres from 427 to 437 m, coincident with an IP chargeability geophysical anomaly.
As a separate mineral claim, but part of the Big Bulk Project, is the Midnight Blue claim. This location has a large copper-gold anomaly in talus fines and suggests the Big Bulk mineralization extends approximately 4 km from Kinskuch Lake southwards under ice cover to Midnight Blue. Two neighbouring companies, Hecla Mining Limited and an option by Libero Copper, hold mineral claims contiguous with Big Bulk that cover other southward extention of Big Bulk as well as other possible porphyry centers extending south towards the Kitsault Moly porphyry.
In 2017 and 2018, a joint study by the University of British Columbia and the British Columbia Geological Survey (BCGS) consisting of structural geology mapping was conducted over the Big Bulk area, with logistical support from Dolly Varden Silver. Results of this study draw parallels between the KSM system and the Big Bulk system in age and mineralization style as well as interpreting the Big Bulk/Kitsault Valley area as a sub-basin of the main Eskay Rift period.
