In March 2009, Valterra announced that the company had entered into an exclusive option agreement to acquire a 100% interest (subject to a 2% NSR) in the 1,010 hectare, gold-silver-copper-lead-zinc Toughnut Property located in south-eastern British Columbia.
The Toughnut property, consisting of a group of nine mineral claims and one Crown-granted claim, is situated six kilometres due southwest of the City of Nelson (pop. 10,000), and is well positioned with respect to infrastructure, access and services. The property adjoins Valterra’s Star property ("Star Project") to the immediate southeast, and the company now controls over 1,940 hectares within a metallogenic-enriched belt hosting several past producers.
The Toughnut property is underlain by Early Jurassic Upper Elise Formation Rossland Group metavolcanics (Je) that are cut by the Middle Jurassic Silver King intrusions (Jsk). These structurally controlled units are deformed by the regionally prominent Silver King shear zone that is up to two kilometres wide and forms the core of the Hall Creek syncline (see Geology Map and Legend below).
The Toughnut vein occurrence was first discovered in the late 1880s and developed locally by underground workings during 1890-91. This region of the province is historically significant. The Silver King Mine directly to the southeast of the property, was British Columbia’s first operating lode mine beginning ca. 1888. The mine produced 4.4 million ounces of silver and coupled with the million ounce gold mining camps at Rossland and Ymir/Sheep Creek formed one of the most prolific mining districts in the Province.
Legend
Exploration at the Toughnut during the 1980s-90s, included numerous soil-rock and trench sampling programs, ground-geophysics, and the diamond drilling of six closely spaced holes totalling 1,531 metres by Pacific Sentinel Gold Corp. (a Hunter Dickinson company). The work successfully outlined a zone of coincident gold-in-soil and high chargeability IP geophysics over an area of approximately 50 hectares. One of the best assay intervals returned from the historic drilling was 1.57 g/t Au and 1.26 g/t Ag over 24.66m in hole GWS-90-18.
Select historical results from the 1990 drilling program on the Toughnut occurrence are tabulated below. The broad zones of mineralization remain open for expansion through further drilling.
Strongly Altered Grab Sample Photos Typical of the Toughnut Property
Potassically Altered Pyritic Schist
0.74 g/t Au & 51.20 g/t Ag
Quartz-Sericite-Pyrite Breccia
0.56 g/t Au & 6.20 g/t Ag
Toughnut Project Exploration Plan
Valterra is continually evaluating the present data set and has actively positioned drill collars in the field in anticipation of future drilling. Approximately 1,000 to 1,500 metres of diamond drilling is proposed; targeting the open-ended main occurrence region where prioritization of the drill targets is ongoing.
