Blende Project
Project Location and OwnershipLocated in the Yukon Territory and includes a carbonate-hosted polymetallic deposit on the south edge of the Mackenzie Platform, hosted by Middle Proterozoic Gillespie Group dolomite. The property consists of 260 quartz mining claims (54346 hectares) and surrounds Mt. Williams, 64 km north of Keno Hill, Yukon Territory. The claims are owned 100% by the Company and are in good standing until 2020 as a result of filing past Assessment work.
In 2005, Blind Creek was granted an option to acquire a 60% interest in the Blende property from Eagle Plains Resources. This 60% has been earned with the completion of $5 million in exploration expenditures on the Blende property, paying $250,000 in cash and the issuance of 1,000,000 common shares of the Company. In November 2008, the remaining 40% of the Blende property was purchased by Blind Creek in return for the issuance of 4,500,000 common shares of the Company. An underlying 3% net smelter royalty remains on the Blende property.
Historic Work
In the early 1990s, Billiton Resources Canada Inc. conducted exploration work that delineated two mineralized zones on the property with historic resources totaling 11.5 million tons grading 1.46 oz/ton silver and 5.20% combined lead+zinc. The deposit is outlined at surface by an open-ended three mile long soil anomaly with zinc values up to 1%.
Billiton drilled 77 holes on the property totaling over 14,000 meters over 3.2 kilometers of strike length, reporting numerous high-grade intercepts at relatively shallow depths. Subsequent step-out drilling by NDU Resources confirmed the continuation of ore-grade mineralization westward, with the addition of significant copper values.
On the basis of diamond drilling and surface trenching, Historical Mineral Resources for the East and West zone were estimated by Billiton as follows:
| Historical Mineral Resource Blende Property, YT Billiton 1991 |
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| Zone | Historical Resource (tonnes) | Zinc (%) | Lead (%) | Silver (grams/tonne) |
| West Zone | 15,300,000 | 3.04 | 3.23 | 67.5 |
| East Zone | 4,300,000 | 3.05 | 1.31 | 15.1 |
| TOTALS | 19,600,000 | 3.04 | 2.80 | 56.0 |
In 2006-2008, Eagle Plains Resources and Blind Creek completed an additional 45 holes for 8,600 meters of drilling. This work when added to the drill programmes that preceded it bring the total historical drilling completed on the Blende property to 132 drill holes totaling 25,192 meters.
Numerous high-grade intersections or wide lower-grade intercepts have been reported by past operators, including (amongst others of lower value):
| Drill Hole | From (m) | To (m) | Width (m) | Pb (%) | Zn (%) | Ag (opt) |
| B88-001 | 4.3 | 29.0 | 24.7 | 3.5 | 3.2 | 1.7 |
| B88-002 | 4.3 | 90.5 | 86.2 | 5.3 | 3.0 | 3.1 |
| B88-003 | 3.7 | 135.9 | 132.2 | 3.7 | 1.8 | 2.6 |
| B90-006 | 68.73 | 92.99 | 24.26 | 7.6 | 2.4 | 3.15 |
| B90-009 | 15.0 | 26.91 | 11.91 | 7.1 | 8.2 | 3.46 |
| B90-015 | 34.99 | 104.85 | 69.86 | 5.1 | 2.3 | 3.82 |
| B90-019 | 73.50 | 93.35 | 19.85 | 4.99 | 3.39 | 1.86 |
| B90-041 | 57.0 | 72.0 | 15.0 | 4.89 | 3.39 | 1.86 |
| B90-047 | 145.56 | 189.0 | 43.44 | 1.95 | 6.80 | 1.50 |
| B91-068 | 25.25 | 81.30 | 56.05 | 2.41 | 3.02 | 0.69 |
| B91-075 | 105.0 | 124.15 | 19.15 | 4.0 | 5.06 | 1.32 |
| BE06088 | 37.46 | 103.00 | 65.54 | 2.38 | 3.88 | |
| BE06096 | 64.40 | 70.20 | 5.80 | 6.33 | 4.83 |
Project Geology
The Blende zinc-lead-silver deposit is a large, structurally controlled, breccia-hosted system. The deposit is tabular and dips steeply to the southeast, cutting bedding approximately at moderate to high angles. Mineralization occurs intermittently along the structural zone for about 6 km and is present across widths of up to 200 m. Mineralization consists of yellow, fine to coarse sphalerite and galena. Other sulphide minerals include pyrite and minor chalcopyrite plus tetrahedrite. The surface expression of the deposit is characterised by soil anomalies of up to 10,000 ppm (1%) zinc.
Mineralization
Zinc and lead mineralization occurs in four main areas on the Blende Property. From west to east the mineralized zones are named: West, Central, East and Far East. The principal minerals containing the zinc and lead are sphalerite (ZnS) and galena (PbS) but weathering has converted a significant amount of the near surface sulphide to smithsonite (zinc carbonate) and anglesite (lead carbonate). High silver values are associated with tetrahedrite but one occurrence of native silver was found in drill core in the East zone. Highest silver values, however, tend to come from the West zone.
The 7 km long mineralized trend is defined by a number of zones that occur along the axial surface trend of the Blende Antiform. The trend is bound to the east by the virtually unexplored Far East zone and to the west by the promising Far West zone.
Previous evaluations of the property have focused primarily on the open-pit potential recovering only the sulphide minerals. While the initial exploration efforts were based largely around the open-pit evaluation Blind Creek and previous operator Eagle Plains have acknowledged that the potential for mining underground to improve grade and reduce dilution is a serious consideration for the project. A number of high grade silver intercepts were seen in some of the deeper holes but these appear to be unrelated to any significant lead-zinc content. The possibility exists for zonation at the property, and deeper favourable limy horizons may be present. In addition, copper rich zones, particularly at the lesser-explored west end of the West Zone area, may indicate further lateral zonation associated with mafic sills. Step-out drilling in 1994 confirmed the continuation of good-grade mineralization westward from the previous limit of the West zone, with the addition of significant copper values:
- Hole 94-81 contained 14.9 m of mineralization assaying 228.4 g/t (6.66 oz/t) silver, 9.71% lead, 5.48% zinc and 0.78% copper from 9.2m to 24.1 m
- Hole 94-84 contained 8.5 m of mineralization assaying 136.1 g/t (3.97 oz/t) silver, 6.74% lead, 3.65% zinc and 2.43% copper from 45.5 m to 54 m
The Company is currently undertaking to complete a new resource estimate and a 43-101 technical report on the Blend Project with an aim to follow with a pre-feasibility study and work toward production.
* Please refer to cautionary note
**A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves, the Company is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves and the historical estimate should not be relied upon