The Crown Mountain Property is in the Elk Valley Coalfield in the East Kootenay Region of southeast British Columbia. It lies east of the Elkview mine, between it and the Alberta border.
Crows Nest Resources conducted exploration programs in the Crown Mountain area on behalf of the owner, Shell Canada, from 1978 until 1981. NWP Coal (an owned subsidiary of Jameson Resources) acquired tenure in the Crown Mountain area and in 2012 conducted an exploration program including 12 trenches and 5707 metres of drilling in 40 holes.
In the Crown Mountain occurrence area, three main seams, containing medium volatile bituminous B rank coal, occur in the Jurassic-Cretaceous Mist Mountain Formation (Kootenay Group) (up to 190 metres preserved) interbedded with sandstone, siltstone and shale. The No. 10 seam, the stratigraphically lowest, is 1.6-7.5 metres thick and contains several rock partings. Coal seams within the zone are discontinuous and lens-like. The zone occurs throughout the property. The No. 9 seam also extends throughout the property, ranges from 4.8 to 10.6 metres thick, contains fewer mudstone interbeds and is more continuous than the No. 10 seam. The No. 8 seam is preserved in the central part of the property only and is between 8 and 12 metres thick. It is structurally disturbed. Between seams 8 and 9 are several thin coal seams less than 2 metres thick.
Head raw analysis yielded ash, volatile matter, fixed carbon and sulphur contents ranging from 17.5 to 19.9 per cent, 20.8 to 23.6 per cent, 49.7 to 56.5 per cent and 0.23 to 0.26 per cent respectively.
Geological coal reserves in the South Extension area are estimated to be 4.6 million tonnes at a ratio of 7.5 bank cubic metres per tonne (inferred), providing the best potential for open pit mining (Coal Assessment Report 393). Grade based on reflectivity and average volatile matter content.
The area is part of the Lewis thrust plate. At Crown Mountain, the Alexander Creek syncline (northwest trending, north plunging) is well-defined in the upper plate of the major thrust, while the lower plate consists of a west dipping monocline. The second major thrust in the area (central and south part) is the Ewin Pass thrust (northwest trending, west dipping). Several small scale high angle faults occur in the Crown Mountain South Extension area.
Jameson Resources Limited released an updated resource estimate for the Crown Mountain project on February 4, 2013 (www.jamesonresources.com.au):
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Zone Measured Indicated Measured & Indicated Inferred (tonnes) (tonnes) (tonnes) (tonnes) North Block 7,900,000 7,100,000 15,000,000 0.0 South Block 51,300,000 0.0 51,300,000 0.0 Southern Extension 0.0 0.0 0.0 23,700,000 Total 59,200,000 7,100,000 66,300,000 23,700,000 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
An exploration program in 2013 consisted of 7 large diameter cored drill holes (totaling 853 metres), 6 reverse circulation drill holes (totaling 796 metres), along with coal quality testing, and environmental baseline studies. The large diameter drill holes provided enough material for a bulk sample across all seam horizons in both the North Block and South Block areas. Additional exploration was also conducted in the Southern Extension area. Based on the 2013 drill program, an updated resource estimate was reported in March 2014 (Jameson Resources Ltd 2014 Annual Report):
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Zone Measured Indicated Measured & Indicated Inferred (tonnes) (tonnes) (tonnes) (tonnes) North Block 8,000,000 6,000,000 14,000,000 0.0 South Block 60,900,000 0.0 60,900,000 0.0 Southern Extension 0.0 0.0 0.0 23,700,000 Total 68,900,000 6,000,000 74,900,000 23,700,000 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
Coal quality testing results from 2013 indicate that the projected product at Crown Mountain will be a hard coking coal, similar to other coal produced in the Elk Valley. Work in 2014 consisted of environmental baseline studies, mine design, and the completion of a Prefeasibility Study which reported Run-of-Mine Proven and Probable Reserves (Jameson Resources Ltd 2014 Annual Report):
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Coal Type Proven Probable
(tonnes) (tonnes)
Coking 42,599,000 4,907,000
Pulverized Coal Injection 7,131,000 1,192,000
Sub-Total 49,730,000 6,099,000
Total 55,829,000
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