The general area was a very famous gold mining camp dating back to placer discoveries made in the late 1850’s. The New Westminster Mining Division incorporates the former Yale Mining Division and extends up the Fraser River to about 20 km south of Lytton.

 

The discovery of coarse placer gold on the Nicoamen River above Lytton in 1857 initiated the country’s first gold rush by prospectors from California resulting in the discovery of bar gold at Yale on the lower Fraser River and upstream points in 1858. The bars were mined very rapidly from this source before production records began in 1874. Placer activity occurred on the Lillooet River, but again production was not documented in government files during this period.

 

These events required the Governor in Victoria to provide an accessible route to the rich placer deposits in the Cariboo goldfields. Traveling through the Fraser Canyon was formidable and treacherous such that miners returning to Victoria in the summer of 1858 chose a different route. It was an old Indian trail that started at the head of Harrison Lake and went northward connected by Anderson and Seaton Lakes to Lillooet, then over Pavilion Mountain to Clinton and further north to goldfields around Quesnel and Barkerville.

 

Although lengthy and involving numerous portages the route was far more practicable, safer and provided the necessary access to the upper Fraser River in the interior for miners attracted by the Cariboo gold rush.

 

The Governor decided to upgrade the trail and it became known as the Harrison- Lillooet Trail. On August 8, 1858 a voluntary army left Victoria by ship to prepare a landlocked site at the head of Harrison Lake. Named in honor of the sponsor the Governor, Port Douglas was to serve as the transit jump-off point to the Cariboo goldfields. The trail was completed by the end of September 1858. Steamers were placed on the connecting lakes and a horse drawn railroad operated the portage traverse between Anderson and Seaton Lakes. By February 1859 the population of Port Douglas reached 200 and the town prospered for 5 years with more than 30,000 miners passing through. To meet their needs a series of 11 roadhouses and tiny settlements opened up along the Harrison- Lillooet Trail between Port Douglas and the southern tip of Lillooet Lake. Pemberton was established at the northern end of Lillooet Lake.

 

The Cariboo discoveries in the late 1860’s meant the death knell for Port Douglas. The building of a wagon road through the Fraser Canyon by the Royal Engineers started in 1862 and was completed in 1864. Wagons were now hauled the entire distance through Cache Creek and Clinton. Port Douglas fell into disuse as it was landlocked by swamp lands that often froze over 4 months of the year, it required portages and the town was situated at the bottom of a steep hill which was the starting point of the trail. Port Douglas became a ghost town by 1868 and was destroyed by fire in 1898.

 

Port Douglas is now the site of the base camp which includes offices and housing facilities, a maintenance shop, warehouse, hydroelectric power plant, and a pilot plant with a laboratory.

The Port Douglas property covers a large portion of the Early Cretaceous Fire Lake pendant, one of several scattered Jurassic-Cretaceous pendants located in the southern Coast Mountains. The pendant is surrounded by plutonic rocks of the Coast Plutonic Complex. Rocks within the pendant are termed the Fire Lake Group and are correlated with the Gambier Group, based on lithological similarities. This correlation is important from a mineral potential perspective, since it suggests the potential for volcanogenic massive sulfide mineralization in the Fire Lake Group. The Britannia Mine near Squamish (65 km west-southwest of the Port Douglas property) is an example of massive sulfide mineralization within the Gambier Group. The Britannia Mine produced approximately 47.8 million tones, of ore grading 1. 1 % Cu, 0.65% Zn, 6.8 g/t Ag and 0.6 g/t Au between 1905 and 1977. At the time of the mine closure, drill indicated reserves were 1.4 million tones grading 1.9% Cu.

 

A number of regional structures are present. The oldest structure, situated southeast of the Port Douglas property, is a shallow angle south-southeast-directed thrust fault which emplaces rocks of the Peninsula Formation onto rocks of the younger Brokenback Hill Formation. Cutting the property from southeast to northwest is a major southwest directed, high angle thrust fault, regionally known as the Fire Creek Thrust. This fault has significance to exploration because of the spatial association of gold bearing quartz veins to the thrust. A major shear zone, the Harrison Lake shear, is situated within the Lillooet River valley. The Harrison Lake shear has been well studied by Ray (1986) and others, and is felt to be an important control for Tertiary plutonic activity and related epithermal style mineralization. The final phase of deformation seen in the region of the Port Douglas property consists of Tertiary northeast-striking dextral normal dip-slip block faults. Again, these structures have significance to exploration because they appear to control the emplacement of Tertiary felsic plutons and dykes which are regionally associated with epithermal gold mineralization.

Gold has a least four significant modes of occurrence. These are: in nugget form, associated with tellurides, sulphosalts and interlocked in magnetite and along its fractures. Sliver, platinum, palladium, and zircon are the chief elements in the auriferous sands. These metallic particles range in size 0.0750 to almost 0.215 millimeters. The gangue minerals consist of quartz which is the most abundant while the feldspar suite minerals are subordinate. Hafnium and other rare earths including yttrium and lanthanum have widespread distribution in the mineral sands.

The PL#9790 deposit is located on the east bank of the Lillooet River about 6.5 kilometers north of the delta. It is identified with a recent terrace formed by alluvium from the Lillooet River. During post glacial time the plain of the valley rose with the terraces and the river gradually established its proper bed in the detrital, sand and gravel. A narrow valley was formed, blocked on one side by the wall of the terrace (PL#9790) and on the other by the steep slope of the Coast Range Mountains. The elevation difference between the river bed and terrace surface is about 60 – 70 meters.

 

The terrace surface (PL#9790) is imprinted with at least 3 funnel or vortex like depressions, believed to be formed at the end of the last glacial period, one of which is the area of current activity. The vortex structure has a diameter of approximately 300 meters with an extension of 12 hectares and is 25 meters deep. Clay and silt layers ore intercalated between cobble and boulder beds. Gold is distributed throughout the structure and black sands are also present.

 

The present pit on PL#9790 is the largest and central vortex of three identified to date. The bedrock platform is inferred 35 -40 meters below the present pit bottom. Another less prominent one to the south is flatter and has a measured diameter of 400 meters. A number of other bar like gravel terraces have been investigated on MRG’s property holdings between PL#9790 and the outlet of Lillooet Lake 10 kilometers up stream. These terrace areas are located at higher elevation along both valley flanks, are auriferous and have similar boulder suites. Pyrite is present in these upstream deposits whereas it is absent on PL#9790 and the delta area.

 

Recovered Grade

Gold                                         3.0 gm/ton

Silver                                        1.0 oz/ton

Platinum                                   0.2 gm/ton

Magnetic Concentrate               30 kg/ton

 

 

Ore Reserves (PL#9790)

 The indicated ore reserves to a depth of 25 meters have been calculated at more than 150 million tones containing recoverable values of gold, silver, platinum and magnetite. Results suggest that the deposits precious metals values may increase with depth and is open below the 25 meter level. PL#9790 could provide a long term source of feed for the Company’s proposed 40,000 ton per day facility.

The Lillooet Project is comprised of 77 contiguous placer mining leases along a 57 kilometer section of the Lillooet River Valley, New Westminster Mining Division, British Columbia.

 

The property encompasses an area of about 36,000 hectares and varies in width from 0.8 to 2.5 kilometers in a northwest southwest direction. The Lillooet River which the property straddles is about 30.5 meters in width and covers its entire length. Approximately 14 of the 77 placer mining leases have been examined in detail by trenching, drilling and metallurgical testing with encouraging results.

 

The property extends from the Lillooet River delta at the north end of Harrison Lake north westerly to the southern tip of Lillooet Lake. At its southeastern limit the leases cover the entire 2.5 kilometer width of the delta.

 

The initial area of interest where operations are to commence is centered on PL#9790 about 5.3 kilometers west-southwest from the company’s Port Douglas base camp which is located at the northern tip of Little Harrison Lake.

 

Access is by an all weather paved road from Vancouver northward to Mount Currie and the south on a gravel road by a 4 wheel drive vehicle for a total distance of 262 kilometers. The property is traversed by a secondary road system over its entire length on both sides of the Lillooet River so access to any part is no problem. It can also be reached by float and wheel equipped aircraft with docking facilities and landing strips nearby. Inexpensive electrical power is available as a 360 kV transmission line runs almost parallel along the properties entire length. At one point it is about 1.3 km west of the proposed operation on PL#9790. At the Port Douglas site a 170 kV hydro electric plant generates power utilizing Courthouse Creek as its water source.

 

The area is characterized by a prominent valley running south-southeast that occupies the Lillooet River and is flanked by rugged peaks of the Coast Range Mountains, up to 2,400 meters high. The Lillooet River’s delta at the north end of Harrison Lake is flat dropping to a depth of more than 600 meters in some places. In most cases the Lillooet River is entrenched, occupying a bed some 32 meters deep. The stream drainage pattern is typically dendritic with the Lillooet River flowing southeasterly into Harrison Lake. Steep secondary tributaries plus feeder creeks are oriented along northeast-southwesterly directions.

 

The climate is fairly moderate. Average annual temperature is +100C ranging from +2’C in January (minimum) to +18’C in July (maximum). Rainfall averages 162.5 cm per year, 24 cm of which falls in December (maximum) and 4.8 cm in July (minimum). The main economic activity is logging on a small scale by contractors for the forest products companies.