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May 17, 2010: Study Identifies Soil Gas Hydrocarbons as Only Successful Geochemistry at Mt.Milligan Cu-Au Porphyry Deposit in North-Central BC
A Geoscience BC funded project (Project 2009-19) carried out by
David Heberlein of Heberlein Geoconsulting in North Vancouver,
compares geochemical exploration techniques performed by four different laboratories on samples taken from the Mt. Milligan area of north-central BC. Much of the central interior of British Columbia is covered by an extensive blanket of glacially derived sediments that completely mask the underlying bedrock. The Mt. Milligan area contains Copper-Gold porphyry mineralization through quaternary glaciofluvial sediments covered by significantly disturbed surficial soil. Exploration techniques investigated in this study included; aqua regia digestion, loss of ignition, fire assay, MMI, HCl extraction, supertrace gold analysis, cold aqua regia digestion, ionic leach, bioleach, enzyme leach and Soil Gas Hydrocarbons.
In summary, this study found that surface disturbance has significantly downgraded the effectiveness of most of the chemical extractions tested in this study. Nevertheless, results indicate that the Ah and upper B horizons are the most appropriate sample media and that aqua regia is the favoured digestion method, which is consistent with the outcomes of the Kwanika study. Poor element responses for just about all of the extraction methods are attributable to destruction of the soil profile over the mineralization. Nevertheless, SGH and the ratio of weak extraction Ca to aqua regia Ca accurately locate the position of the mineralization through the cover. Comparison of the results generated by each method demonstrated that the Soil Gas Hydrocarbon technique and Aqua Regia method for Calcium were the most successful at locating the copper and gold mineralization deposits at Mt. Milligan. Inorganic extractions were particularly affected by the disturbances in the soil surface while the Soil Gas Hydrocarbon geochemistry was not.
To read the full
Geoscience BC report
on SGH's performance at Mt. Milligan (4.7MB download - May take a minute to download)
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