Mineral Exploration

W inte r 20 17 49 Precious metals Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd.'s Cariboo Gold Project is a contender for the largest exploration program in the province, with plans to drill up to 160,000 metres in 2017. Drilling was focused on the Island Mountain area, the site of the former Aurum and Mosquito Creek mines, and northwest of the Cow Mountain and Barkerville Mountain target areas. Barkerville reported high-grade gold intersections, particularly at the Shaft zone (e.g., 20.53˜g/t over 11.6 metres, 72.23˜g/t over 12.05 metres, 17.45˜g/t over 8.6 metres, 53.26˜g/t over 11.55 metres). Work is ongoing on other parts of the project, including the BC Vein and underground development at Bonanza Ledge. Elsewhere, regional exploration has generated about 130 targets. Eureka Resources Inc. drilled three holes totalling 331 metres at its Gold Creek project. The best results included 33.20˜g/t gold over 1.25 metres and 17.95˜g/t over 1.5 metres. Also in the Cariboo, Spanish Mountain Gold Ltd. updated its preliminary economic assessment at Spanish Mountain. The new study focuses on a higher-grade central area, the First zone. It proposes a 20,000-tonne- per-day throughput producing about 2.2 million ounces gold for 24 years, revising a 2012 estimate of 40,000 tonnes per day. Westkam Gold Corp. continues underground bulk sampling and drilling to test gold-bearing veins at the Bonaparte project. Westkam amended its permit to include additional dewatering to complete the work. At the Brett epithermal gold project, Ximen Mining Corp. continued to sample core from 2016 drilling and reported high-grade gold intersections (e.g., 16˜g/t over 0.39 metres, 7.23˜g/t over 0.58 metres, 6.04˜g/t over 0.40 metres). In the Spences Bridge gold belt, Westhaven Ventures Inc. conducted surface programs on its recently acquired Skoonka Creek and Shovelnose properties. Work included ground magnetics, mapping, soil sampling and drilling at Shovelnose. Pending geophysical results and permits, the company plans to drill at Skoonka Creek. In the Bridge River camp, Avino Silver and Gold Mines Ltd. is planning a surface and underground program at Bralorne, including underground exploration drilling above and below the 800 level as it considers a mine expansion. Pending permits, it plans to resume mining at an initial rate of 100 tonnes per day. Blackstone Minerals Ltd. optioned the Little Gem project and discovered a cobalt-gold showing (Roxey) during a due diligence property examination. A fall program includes drilling and underground channel sampling. SOUTH CENTRAL REGION 17-255.5.2_MineralExploration_7.1875x4.9375-P1.indd 1 10/2/2017 1:27:24 PM

• Cover