The Lucky Ship occurrence is located 4.5 kilometres east of Morice Lake, just west of Nanika River, about 67 kilometres southwest of the community of Houston.
The Lucky Ship stock cuts and has extensively silicified airfall lapilli and crystal lithic tuffs of the siliceous pyroclastic facies of the Lower-Middle Jurassic Telkwa Formation (Hazelton Group). The stock, like most other Eocene Nanika Intrusions, is a multiphase body and has two porphyry and two breccia phases. The majority of the plug is a white aphanitic rock with sparse quartz and feldspar phenocrysts which have been variably silicified and kaolinized. The other porphyry phase is unaltered, light grey and has abundant (greater than 25 per cent) phenocrysts. The breccias are comprised mostly of fragments from the first porphyry but can be distinguished.
The Lucky Ship occurrence is marked by an extensive gossanous zone resulting from carbonatization and oxidation of pyrite and chalcopyrite. Sulphides may comprise from 2 to 10 per cent of some samples, but appear to be preferentially concentrated in the more mafic phases of the rhyolite breccia. Molybdenite mineralization predominates and is associated with the initial porphyry but has been overprinted by a later unmineralized rhyolite porphyry phase. Sulphides are concentrated in an annular zone of intense silicification and quartz veining around the late-stage quartz monzonite porphyry plug. Distal hornfelsed Telkwa rocks may have 2 to 3 per cent pyrite.
The main molybdenite zone, is contained within a 300 by 200 metre, concentric, annular zone or shell surrounding the porphyritic granite plug near the southeastern margin of the Lucky Ship pluton. Like the central granite pluton, the annular molybdenite zone is elongate in a northeasterly direction and is subvertical with an apparent steep northerly dip or plunge. The zone extends outward from the 3 to 30 metre thick high silica zone surrounding the granite plug into the central quartz porphyry unit on its north, west and south sides and into hornfelsed Hazelton Group volcanic sequences to the southeast.
Where exposed on surface, molybdenum mineralization occurs in up to 60 centimetre wide, banded quartz-molybdenite veins separated by several metres of barren quartz porphyry or Hazelton Group hornfelsed volcanic rocks. These veins appear to be radial with respect to the porphyritic granite plug and grade inward to a well-developed quartz and quartz-molybdenite vein and veinlet stockwork. This stockwork varies from a well-defined zone up to 60 metres wide in quartz porphyry in the north and northwest parts of the annular zone, to a broader, more irregular zone up to 125 metres thick in the southwestern part of the zone. Zone widths in the southeastern part of the annular structure are between 25 and 60 metres.
Molybdenite within the annular zone is fine grained and several styles of mineralization have been noted. These include molybdenite along narrow, dry fractures without quartz, quartz-molybdenite veins and veinlets with preferred orientations and/or randomly oriented stockworks, banded quartz-molybdenite veins up to several centimeters wide, and very fine grained molybdenite in fine-grained silica.
Other styles of molybdenite mineralization have been noted outside the main annular zone. These include finely disseminated molybdenite in fine grained quartz porphyry southwest of the main zone. This disseminated mineralization was accompanied by poorly developed quartz stockwork mineralization. Within the intrusive quartz porphyry breccia in the northern part of the pluton, molybdenite occurs as fine disseminations in very fine grained silica rock, as coatings on dry hairline fractures and in several different ways in quartz porphyry fragments. Molybdenite mineralization in breccia fragments was intersected throughout a deep hole (831.4 metres) completed by Amax Exploration in the mid-1960s.
In May of 2008, New Cantech released new National Instrument (NI) 43-101 compliant resource estimates using a 0.03 per cent molybdenum cut-off. Indicated resources reported were 65.66 million tonnes grading 0.064 per cent molybdenum and Inferred resources reported were 10.24 million tonnes grading 0.054 per cent molybdenum (News Release - New Cantech Ventures Inc., May 14, 2008, www.sedar.com).
The earliest references to exploratory work on the Lucky Ship property are contained in various Minister of Mines Annual Reports. The 1957 Annual Report reports the staking of 15 claims by Matthew Sam and Bill McRae of Topley, British Columbia, and a subsequent option agreement with Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Limited who completed 60 metres of trenching on “a zone of quartz stringers containing molybdenite that cut quartz porphyry.” No further work is reported until 1963 when Plateau Metals Ltd. optioned the property and subsequently entered into an agreement with Southwest Potash Corporation (subsequently Amax Exploration Inc.). Over the next five years, this company increased the size of the property, constructed an access road, carried out a variety of surface surveys, undertook bulldozer trenching and completed 10,662 metres of diamond drilling in 23 holes. Most holes drilled were inclined holes to test the main molybdenum zone at various depths while one deep vertical hole (1001 metres) was completed northwest of the main mineralized zone. All of the core recovered was stored on the property in racks that had collapsed over time; salvageable core boxes have been cross-stacked for future reference. In 1971, Canamax Resources Inc., the successor company to Amax Exploration Inc., purchased the remaining Plateau Metals interest in the property.
Interest in molybdenum waned following a sustained price decline in the early 1980s and the original Lucky Ship claims were allowed to lapse. The property was subsequently re-staked in 1987 as the Star Ship 1-4 claims by Eric Shaede and Lorne Warren, who re-examined the Amax core and undertook a prospecting program, discovering a showing of chalcopyrite and pyrite at the northern periphery of the intrusion where a grab sample of sulphide mineralization in an area of quartz veining yielded values of 2 per cent, 207 grams per tonne silver and 1 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 16308). The original claims expired and in 1991 were re-staked by the same individuals as the Lucky Ship 1-4 claims. The owners collected 24 soil samples at 10-metre intervals from a small (40 by 40 metre) grid over the copper showing; most samples were found to be anomalous in copper, silver and molybdenum (Assessment Report 21645).
In 1994, prospecting and geochemical analyses was undertaken on behalf of the then owner, William R. Gilmour (Assessment Report 23577).
In June 2004, the Lucky Ship property was staked by D.G. MacIntyre and V.H. Parsons as six two-post claims (Blue Sky 1-6). The property was then optioned to Candorado Operating Company who then added two additional four-post claims of 20 units each. With the introduction of electronic staking in January 2005 all of these claims were converted to cell claims.
In June 2005, New Cantech Ventures Inc. acquired the Lucky Ship option agreement from Candorado. Exploratory work completed on the Lucky Ship molybdenum property by New Cantech between June of 2005 and February of 2007 included the establishment of 30.8 kilometres of survey grid, induced polarization (IP) and magnetic geophysical surveys, rehabilitation of existing drill access roads, construction of 1.2 kilometres of new access road, bench-scale metallurgical test work, and 10,171 metres of diamond drilling in 45 holes. The survey grid established in 2005 consisted of a 1400-metre-long baseline oriented at an azimuth of 055 degrees and 20 northwest-southeast cross lines of varying lengths established at 50-metre intervals off the baseline. Survey stations were established at 25-metre intervals along the cross lines. The grid, in part, replaced a 1960s vintage Amax Exploration grid. Geophysical Surveys Peter Walcott and Associates Limited carried out magnetic and IP surveys over the newly cut grid in July, 2005. The magnetic survey utilized a GSM 19 proton precession magnetometer and base station manufactured by GEM Instruments of Richmond Hill, Ontario. This instrument measures variations in the total intensity of the earth’s magnetic field to an accuracy of plus or minus 1 nanotesla. A small, northerly trending magnetic high (150 nanoteslas) is coincident with the porphyritic granite plug which is central to the main, annular molybdenum zone. Flanking this feature on the east is a pronounced magnetic low which may be reflecting a northerly trending fault zone.
Porphyry deposits consist of disseminated sulphide minerals which respond well to IP surveys. A pyrite halo surrounding the zone(s) of economic mineralization has a higher overall sulphide content which is usually reflected by a chargeability high. By contrast, the higher silica content in the central part of a typical molybdenum system is highly resistive.
A 3-D modeling of the chargeability (IP) results obtained from the detailed survey conducted in the area of main molybdenum zone showed that the zone of higher chargeability is doughnut-shaped in plan and is coincident with areas of higher sulphide concentration (pyrite halo) while the internal zone of low chargeability is some 450 metres in diameter with its centre some 200 metres northwest of the central part of the porphyritic granite plug. This is suggestive of the potential for additional molybdenum mineralization near the inner margins of the chargeability high.
Reconnaissance IP surveying undertaken in the central part of the Lucky Ship pluton utilizing a broader dipole spacing, identified zones of higher chargeabilities at depth beneath areas underlain by breccia complexes.
In 2005 to early 2007, New Cantech completed 10,168 metres of diamond drilling in 45 drillholes (Phases 1, 2 and 3). The results of this drilling were summarized in two previous assessment reports.
In 2007, New Cantech completed an additional 14,544 metres of diamond drilling in 49 drillholes. This work was done by Driftwood Diamond Drilling of Smithers, British Columbia. The main objectives of this drilling program were to move that part of the Lucky Ship mineral resource classified as inferred into the indicated category and to provide initial groundwater (hydrology) information on the deposit. The groundwater drilling is part of the baseline assessments for project development. The results of the 2007 diamond drilling program are the subject of this report. As of March 2008, New Cantech had completed 24,712 metres of diamond drilling in 94 holes, surface magnetic and IP geophysical surveys and metallurgical test work.
In 2015, the claims were held by D.G. MacIntyre and V. Parsons. In 2016, a total of 12 bark samples were collected from pine trees within and peripheral to the known subsurface extent of the Lucky Ship deposit. The purpose of this survey was to demonstrate the applicability of tree bark as a sampling medium for detecting subsurface molybdenum mineralization. The analytical results showed that bark from pine trees located above the Lucky Ship deposit were strongly anomalous in molybdenum content compared to those collected away from the deposit which had much lower molybdenum concentrations. Based on these results, it is concluded that sampling of pine tree bark is an effective tool in searching for subsurface molybdenum mineralization at Lucky Ship. It is recommended that additional sampling be done especially in covered areas away from the main deposit where there may be additional zones of subsurface molybdenum mineralization (Assessment Report 36862).
