The property was staked in 1989 by Horst Klassen. Early in 1990s, Nyco (a subdivision of Fording Coal), arranged to collect and ship a bulk sample of 18 tons to their facility in New York State for testing. The results encouraged them to option the property with the objective of drilling to establish a reserve. Following the option payment, but prior to drilling, attention was deflect to their larger wollastonite resource near Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico.
No further physical work took place during the 1990s but several groups studied the deposit and commissioned reports. A report for Hemphill Brothers Inc. of Seattle by Thomas Newman, a consultant fiom Colorado, pointed out the similarity of Rossland material to the Vanderbilt’s producing deposit in New York. Matovich Mining optioned the property in 2000 and shipped material to Trail for testing as a potential flux substitute for calcite and silica. Test work by Cominco was limited and short lived.
Grid Capital Corp optioned the property from Horst Klassen in 2003. The company completed geological mapping at 1:500 scale and supervised the drilling of 125 meters of NQ core in four short holes in October-November of 2003.
Work in 2003 defined the property as having two prominent outcrops dominating the surface geology. The southern outcrop is a prominent knob that has been enlarged by stripping and benched down on its eastern side by bulk sampling. Exposed rock is 30 metres north-south and pear shaped to 15 metres wide east-west. The northern outcrop is 10 to 20 metres wide and 60 metres long. A northwesterly striking fault zone with a steep northeast dip occupied by a late dike complex appears to separate the two main exposures Hole DH 03-01 cuts an interval of wollastonite and marble and included dike rock. The hole intersected 7.33 metres of wollastonite-rich material.
A 21.6-metre core interval of wollastonite, from 0.7 metre to 22.3 metres, was intersected, interrupted by only one 2.6-metre section of marble and dike from 18.2 metres to 20.7 metres (Press Release, Grid Capital Corp., February 23 2004). Four holes were reported drilled by Grid Capital in early 2004.
