Tackler
20 years ago
NovaWest et al. hire Aeroquest for True North survey
2004-08-24 12:47 ET - News Release
Also News Release (C-CJ) Cascadia International Resources Inc (3)
Also News Release (C-MNL) Minera Capital Corp
Mr. Patrick O'Brien of NovaWest reports
EXPLORATION FOLLOW-UP - AIRBORNE SURVEY SCHEDULED
NovaWest Resources Inc., Cascadia International Resources Inc. and Minera Capital Corp. have contracted Aeroquest Ltd. to undertake a 1,246-line-kilometre deep-penetrating, helicopter-airborne electromagnetic and magnetic survey on the True North property, beginning the week of Aug. 23, 2004. The property is host to a large, known magnetic anomaly and previous exploration and drilling of the company's Raglan properties have indicated the need to undertake this survey. The budget for the airborne is currently set at $175,000, and financing will be jointly supplied by NovaWest and Cascadia and will increase the total budget of their 2004 Raglan exploration program to $4.67-million.
The True North is a 30,774-acre property located on the north Raglan trend, adjoining the existing Raglan assemblage currently being explored by NovaWest and Cascadia. The property is held under an option agreement with Minera Capital Corp., which will retain a 30-per-cent interest once NovaWest and Cascadia have fulfilled their work commitments of up to the three-year earn-in period. NovaWest and Cascadia will each own one-half of a 70-per-cent interest in the property. Once NovaWest and Cascadia have fulfilled their commitments, Minera must begin contributing its portion of exploration and maintenance expenses toward the property.
The 2004 Raglan drill program is progressing very well and producing some encouraging initial results. Two drill rigs are currently in operation on the south trend and on the north trend. The company expects to continue drilling until late September.
Tackler
20 years ago
Cascadia, NovaWest release results from Raglan project
2004-08-16 10:58 ET - News Release
See News Release (C-CJ) Cascadia International Resources Inc (3)
Mr. James Evaskevich of Cascadia International reports
CASCADIA ANNOUNCES SIGNIFICANT MINERALIZATION IN RAGLAN NI-CU-PGM-CO PROJECT
Cascadia International Resources Inc. and its joint venture partner NovaWest Resources Inc. have completed 3,501 metres (11,488 feet) of drilling by July 31, 2004, in 21 holes in the Raglan trend in Northern Quebec with mineralized sections up to 50 feet with nickel assays up to 2.89 per cent, copper assays up to 3.99 per cent, and up to 17.3 grams per tonne (g/t) Au+Pt+Pd. An additional 37 holes are planned for the rest of the drilling season with two drilling rigs operational. One rig is testing anomalies on the northern Raglan trend which hosts the deposits of Falconbridge Ltd. to the east and Knight Resources Ltd.'s discovery to the west of Cascadia/NovaWest's claim group. The second rig is drilling potential targets in the south belt which hosts Canadian Royalties' discoveries to the east and the deposit of Falconbridge Ltd. in the lower middle of the Cascadia/NovaWest claim group.
ALS Chemex, of Vancouver, has provided assays of the first 11 holes. Elevated values related to the targeted Ni-Cu-PGE mineralization were reported for eight of these holes. Results are complete for the Bravo area only, with other reports following when ready.
The Bravo area on the south trend in holes NW04-15, and NW04-21 returned the most encouraging initial results of the early 2004 drilling season. Combined with the 2003 results from Bravo (hole NW03-13), Cascadia is very optimistic about these early results. The Bravo area is located 10 kilometres west of the Falconbridge Ltd. Delta deposit (817,000 tonne, 3.05 per cent Ni, 1.26 per cent Cu and 2.6 grams per tonne platinum group elements (PGE)). The texture and composition of the disseminated and massive sulphide mineralization in Bravo hole No. 15 and No. 21 is similar to that found at the Mesamax and Expo deposits being explored by Canadian Royalties Ltd. on the south trend.
In hole NW04-15, a 15-metre-long (50-foot) intersection of disseminated and minor massive sulphides returned Ni values up to 2.89 per cent, Cu assays up to 3.99 per cent, and some very encouraging Pt and Pd assays ranging up to 1.04 g/t Pt and up to 10.65 g/t Pd. The higher values are associated with the massive sulphide parts of the intersection.
In hole NW04-21, disseminated sulphides in an ultramafic rock return elevated Ni-Cu-PGE in two sections, an 8.0-metre (26-foot) length from 23.0 to 31.0 metres and a 15.5-metre (50-foot) length from 53.0 metres to 68.5 metres.
Holes NW04-14, 16, 19 and 22 returned lower, but still encouraging assays all from disseminated sulphides (see table below).
The company follows all industry standards related to analytical work to guarantee reliable and unbiased results.
Dr. Burkhard Dressler, PGeo (Quebec), chief geologist and vice-president exploration, Novawest Resources Inc., is Cascadia's designated qualified person for the preparation of Cascadia's Aug. 16, 2004, press release on which this press release is based.
ewallman
21 years ago
NovaWest Resources Inc NVE
Shares issued 28,052,850 Jul 17 close $0.47
Thu 17 Jul 2003 News Release
Also (CJ)
Mr. Patrick O'Brien of NovaWest Resources reports
RAGLAN NI-CU-PGM-CO PROJECT DRILL SITE PREPARATION UNDERWAY
NovaWest Resources and its partner Cascadia International Resources Inc. of
Vancouver, Canada have commenced exploration on the 660-square-kilometre
(161,000-acre) Raglan assemblage. Novawest/Cascadia personnel and a
geophysical team, along with geophysical, field and drill equipment,
arrived in the area in early July. Sampling, geophysical surveying and
drill site preparation are now under way. The fully financed $3.55-million
2003 exploration program, currently under way, includes an extensive
AeroTem airborne geophysics survey program, ground geophysics over both
known and new drill targets, prospecting and sampling, and diamond
drilling. Under the terms of their agreement, the two companies have agreed
on spending $12.35-million over three years on the Raglan assemblage, with
exploration commitments of $3.55-million in year 1, $4.3-million in year 2
and $4.5-million in year 3.
The expansive Novawest/Cascadia Raglan assemblage has taken seven years to
assemble and is strategically situated in the centre of the Raglan camp
between two of the world's largest metal producers, Falconbridge Ltd. and
Anglo American Exploration (Canada) Ltd. Available data indicate that the
west, central and east horizons of all three of the important
stratigraphies of the Raglan belt are now mostly covered by the extensive
holdings of Anglo American/Knight Resources Ltd. to the west,
Novawest/Cascadia in the centre, Falconbridge Ltd. to the east, west and
north, and Canadian Royalties to the east and south. Collectively, these
companies now encompass approximately 3,000 square kilometres at Raglan.
The straddling of all three of the Raglan trends, the north trend, the main
Raglan trend (hosting most of Falconbridge's deposits) and the south trend
is a situation that appears to only be apparent on the Raglan holdings
covered by the Novawest/Cascadia Raglan assemblage and Falconbridge Ltd.'s
adjoining holdings, most of which hosts its producing Raglan deposits.
The high-grade nickel, copper and PGM samples released by Knight Resources
Ltd. and its majority partner Anglo American Exploration (Canada) Ltd. from
the western extension of the Raglan belt on July 16, 2003, are very
positive and encouraging, supporting Novawest's own in-house model,
developed in the mid- to late 1990s, projecting the entire Raglan belt from
east to west as mineralized, including the western extension. Due to early
Novawest results, more recent Canadian Royalties results and the most
recent Knight/Anglo American results, the Raglan belt does appear capable
of hosting mineralization throughout that could result in economic
orebodies. The in-house Raglan model concluded that the western extension
was capable of mirroring the mineralization already known to exist along
the north, main and south Raglan trends to the east, and this model was
based on the fact that Novawest's own sampling clearly delineated the three
trends traversing the Novawest/Cascadia Raglan assemblage east to west. It
was clear from the early sampling that the three trends would likely
continue through the central Raglan belt currently controlled by Novawest
and Cascadia, and extend into the western extension.
The company's in-house Raglan exploration model and geological overview
identify the Raglan belt as part of the Circum-Superior mobile belt, which
includes the Thompson nickel belt (TNB). In order to estimate the economic
potential of the Raglan belt, Novawest drew upon its personnel's knowledge
and expertise in the TNB, Manitoba. The TNB represents another,
approximately 340-kilometre-long portion of the Circum-Superior belt; a
virtual mirror image of the Raglan (Cape Smith belt). A comparison of the
Raglan with the TNB indicates that, to date, only a fraction of the
Ni-PGM-Cu sulphide deposits and tonnage known to exist in the TNB have been
discovered in the Raglan belt. The TNB contains in the order of 800 million
tons of Ni-PGM-Cu sulphide mineralization in over 30 deposits (not all
producers), with exploration down in excess of 5,000 feet. In comparison,
the Raglan belt is early into its economic evaluation, with exploration to
date being shallow, above 1,000 feet depth.
Falconbridge's nearby Raglan (Katiniq) mine, on property adjoining
Novawest/Cascadia, is presently an important world source of nickel,
palladium, platinum, cobalt, osmium and copper. Some of Canada's most
significant palladium and platinum values are from the Raglan camp, with
Novawest itself reporting palladium values up to 26.76 grams per tonne, and
platinum values up to 9.3 grams per tonne from 1997/1998 surface samples of
hard-rock surface outcrops. In spring 2000, Amplats, the world's largest
platinum producer, tested a sample representative of an extensive
outcropping area on the Novawest/Cascadia Raglan assemblage at its South
Africa laboratory. Amplats reported identifying three palladium-telluride
(Pd-Te) phases in the samples, and confirmed that its chemical analysis
gave a value of 20.4 grams per tonne platinum group elements plus gold.
Novawest/Cascadia is pleased to have had such a recognized and respected
independent third party report such an assay from a Novawest finding in a
zone determined to be approximately 2,000 feet in strike length. Other
various surface samples from the Raglan camp area submitted to Chemex for
analysis returned notable assays of 21.8 grams per tonne palladium, 16.5
grams per tonne palladium, 8.83 grams per tonne palladium, 5.54 grams per
tonne palladium and 3.37 grams per tonne palladium. The Novawest/Cascadia
assemblage surrounds Falconbridge's Delta-Oasis property containing the
approximately 850,000-ton Delta deposit (D-8 and D-9) grading 3.08 per cent
nickel, 1.26 per cent copper and 2.25 grams per tonne platinum group
minerals (PGMs). It is understood that these holes were placed a few
hundred metres from Novawest/Cascadia boundaries.
Maps and information packages on the Raglan camp and the company in general
can be obtained by contacting Novawest at 1-800-663-8990 in North America,
or 604-683-8990 from elsewhere.
Novawest invites the public to visit its Web site at
http://www.novawest.com,, or E-mail it at novawest@novawest.com to be added
to the company's E-mail list for news releases and updates.
WARNING: The company relies upon litigation protection for
"forward-looking" statements
Ed Monton
21 years ago
Looks like Brightstar is going after the source of those platinum nuggets.
News Release June 19, 2003
Symbol: TSX-V: BSV.V
OTC: BSVLF.PK
BRIGHT STAR COMMENCES EXPLORATION
ON "FIVE" NEW PGM TARGETS
Bright Star Ventures Ltd. (the "Company") has now mobilized field staff and personnel to its camp in the Tulameen River area to commence its exploration program on the southern portion of the largest known Alaskan type ultramafic complexes in North America.
The Tulameen Alaskan type ultramafic complex in South Central B.C. represents excellent potential for hosting multiple economic deposits with significant platinum group metals. Bright Star Ventures controls 85% of the 64 square kilometer complex.
Similar Alaskan-type ultramafic complexes in the Ural Mountains in Russia have produced multi-million ounces of Platinum Group Metals along with large quantities of copper, nickel and gold production. The Tulameen River and its tributary creeks on Bright Star' properties were the site of a gold rush in the 1880's and along with bonanza grade gold, miners discovered over 20,000 oz. of platinum nuggets.
Bright Star has started its 2003 exploration program with three teams and will be collecting 1,800 geo-chemical samples in the next 30 days. During the fall and winter of 2002, Bright Star acquired an interest in an additional 6,600 acres covering the southern half of the ultramafic complex as well as 200 acres covering six Crown Grants situated along the northwestern strike extent of the previously described DP Zone, a Cu-PGE mineralized system.
A helicopter airborne magnetic and electromagnetic survey flown over these claims have identified "five" high priority exploration targets on the Western portion of the complex that have sulphide zone signatures (each 1 kilometer or more in length) in similar geological settings as the DP Zone. These new targets have not been previously explored or drilled. The 2003 exploration work will systematically evaluate these high priority targets with soil and stream sediment geochemistry surveys, detailed mapping and prospecting, ground geophysics surveys and diamond drilling programs. It is anticipated that these and other high quality drill exploration targets will be developed as the 2003 field season progresses.
For information on the company call 1-800-884-3864, or visit our website at www.brightstar-ventures.com
On behalf of the Board
"Reg Handford"
President & Director
Ed Monton
22 years ago
Here is the news:
NOVAWEST RESOURCES INC.
Suite 1000, The Marine Building, 355 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 2G8
Phone: (604) 683-8990
Toll Free: 1-800-663-8990
Fax: (604) 574-5139
E-Mail: novawest@novawest.com
TSX Venture Exchange
Trading Symbol "NVE" S.E.C. Exemption 12(g)3-2(b)
File No. 82-3822
Standard & Poors Listed
$12 Million Joint Venture On Raglan Ni-Cu-PGM-Co Project
April 10, 2003
NovaWest Resources Inc.(the "Company") Symbol "NVE" on the TSX Venture Exchange is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into an Option Agreement with Cascadia International Resources Inc. ("Cascadia") of Vancouver, Canada- Symbol "CJ" on the TSX Venture Exchange, whereby Cascadia may earn a 50% interest in the Company's 660 sq. km. (161,500 acre) Raglan Ni-Cu-PGM-Co Assemblage situated in northern Quebec (the "Raglan Claims".
Cascadia may earn its 50% interest in the Raglan Claims by paying the Company $300,000 cash and 1,500,000 common shares of Cascadia stock over three years; arranging a $1.125 million brokered or non-brokered private placement for Novawest to close by May 1, 2003, and contributing exploration dollars to assure a total of $12 million is spent on exploration on the property over three years. The two companies have agreed on exploration commitments of $3.2 million in Year One, $4.3 million in Year Two, and $4.5 million in Year Three. Cascadia's interest will vest 25% in th Raglan Claims and Permits after meeting the first and second year's combined commitments and a further 25% after meeting the third year's commitments. Under the Agreement, Novawest will be the Operator. A Management Committee will be formed made up of 5 individuals, three from Novawest and two from Cascadia. Novawest will contribute $1 million of the private placement proceeds to the exploration expenses in year one and any proceeds up to $1.5 million derived from the exercise of the warrants associated with the private placement in year two. Expenses, such as advance royalties, claim renewal fees, etc. incurred to maintain the 660 sq. km. (161,500 acre) Raglan Assemblage will be shared equally by the companies. At present, the majority of the claims and Permits making up the Raglan Assemblage are in good standing until 2005, have approximately $550,000 in banked work credits, and are only subject to a $30,000 annual advance royalty. An agreed Area of Influence will cover the entire Cape Smith/Raglan Belt extending from Ungava Bay to the east and Hudson Bay to the west. Cascadia has been provided with the Right to Accelerate its earn-in, at its discretion, any time within the three-year term, as well as an additional Acceleration Provision whereby Cascadia my accelerate its 50% earn-in immediately upon paying Novawest all unpaid cash, stock and exploration commitments. This second provision is intended to cover Cascadia should a third party wish to simultaneously buy-out the interests of both parties.
As part of the Option, Novawest will undertake a $1.125 million Private Placement, to be arranged by the Optionee, by way of the issuance of 3 million units at $0.375 per unit. Each Unit will be comprised of one share and warrant. Each warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional share at a price of $0.50 per share. The warrants will expire on April 30, 2004. By arranging the private placement the Optionee will be credited with $1 million towards its exploration commitments. Funds of up to $1.5 million derived from the exercise of the warrants will be credited to the Optionee's second year's exploration commitments. Any shares issued with regard to the private placement and the exercise of the warrants will be subject to any applicable hold periods.
A finder's fee, within the TSX Venture Exchange's policy guidelines will be paid in shares with regard to the value derived from the Option Agreement. All terms of the Option are subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.
Novawest would like to thank and acknowledge Mr. David Baker of D. Baker Capital Inc. of Vancouver, Canada for all of his company's efforts, input, and assistance in seeing this strategic business arrangement through from conception to completion. Mr. Baker's experience and expertise has contributed immensely to both company's ability to negotiate and complete this agreement. We look forward to the future contributions of D. Baker Capital Inc. in achieving our Company's future milestones and goals.
In addition to the $12 million in exploration commitments agreed to under the Option, Novawest will be contributing a further $350,000 from a recently announced private placement with SIDEX to the first years exploration expenditures, bringing the first years planned expenditures to a total of $3,550,000. This additional $350,000 will be applied to the airborne geophysical portion of the exploration. In exchange for the cash contributions being made by Novawest, Cascadia has agreed to waive any interest it may have to any grants, credits and refunds under Government of Quebec Incentive Programs.
The planned 2003 Raglan exploration program includes approximately 6600 line kilometers of airborne geophysical surveying, extensive ground geophysics, prospecting and sampling, and approximately 20,000 feet of diamond drilling. It is expected that the multi-phase program will commence in late April and run until fall 2003.
Novawest's expansive Raglan Assemblage has taken 7 years to assemble and is strategically situated between two of the world's largest metal producers Falconbridge and Anglo American. Available data indicates that the west, central and east horizons of all three of the important stratigraphies of the Raglan Belt are now mostly covered by the extensive holdings of Anglo American to the west, Novawest Resources in the centre, and Falconbridge Limited to the east and north. Collectively, these companies now encompass approximately two thousand sq. kms. at Raglan. The straddling of all three of the Raglan trends, the North Trend, the main Raglan Trend and the South Trend is a situation that appears to only be apparent on the Raglan holdings covered by Novawest Resources Inc.'s Raglan Assemblage and Falconbridge Limited's adjoining holdings most of which hosts it's producing Raglan deposits.
Maps and Information Packages on the Raglan Camp and the Company in general can be obtained by contacting Novawest at 1-800-663-8990 in North America or 604-683-8990 from elsewhere.
NovaWest invites the public to visit its website at http://www.novawest.com or e-mail us at novawest@novawest.com to be added to the Company's e-mail list for press releases and updates.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF NOVAWEST RESOURCES INC.
"Patrick D. O'Brien - Chairman"
THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. THIS NEWS RELEASE SHALL NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY SECURITIES IN ANY JURISDICTION. "SAFE HARBOR" STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995: THIS NEWS RELEASE CONTAINS FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS THAT ARE NOT HISTORICAL FACTS AND ARE SUBJECT TO RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES WHICH COULD CAUSE ACTUAL RESULTS TO DIFFER MATERIALLY FROM THOSE SET FORTH IN OR IMPLIED HEREIN.
echarters
22 years ago
Dear Sierra club member: (We hope not...:)
Dredges operate too slow to get any fish caught in them. Fish can swim at fifteen miles an hour, as any angler who has trolled knows. The only thing that keeps you from trolling normally at that speed is the fact that the lure rises unacceptably in height. A high volume dredge operates at only a few feet per second. The noise keeps fish away from it as well. On a dredge you do not have to keep throwing fish back into the pond. They do not show up in the feed. The dredge head is buried in holes with the cutter head and suction is not high until you get very near the inlet pipe. A dredge operates very slowly over what to nature and the entire length of the river is a miniscule area. A 1000 yard per day dredge will probably only cover an area of 150 feet wide by 1300 feet long in one season. This .0078 square miles. The Yukon and Pelly rivers have more than 6,000 square miles of available placer area. This represents an area use of one part in one million. It is trivial and the government knows it.
The recent DFO regulations are all about removal of money and power from English Canadian, non-liberal-voting, non-french people, and conservation is not the issue. This has already been signalled by Chretien. He said that "when he was young he thought English Canadians had horns and fangs, that they were the devil." He actually said that recently. He said that because it was the truth as he saw it, albeit in a manner of expression. The thing you have to realize is that people do not necessarily abandon their formative views just because the say they do. If he said he had that view, it is amazing that he could abandon it. He should have had the intelligence to know otherwise even at a tender age.
The DFO are just hired to do a hatchet job, and the government would reject anyone for the job who did not have the necessary non-scientific knee-jerk attitude that is born of a rejection of anything of a necessary process of manufacture or industry. People of this sort have a sort of schizophrenia of oblivious rationalization of origination. They, though exhibiting signs of intelligence in other areas, imagine that their government provided BMW and luxury home were born pristine, without industrial waste of manufacturing side effect on a distant planet of Liberalis Hera-caporum Manufacturis, or possibly built by their communist slave-master friends in China, where conservation and waste do not matter, as they need a leg up, and anyway the stuff they make is not on a Sierra Club 4 colour vegetarian non-polluting-ink (they will have you believe) fact-sheet.
EC<:-}
echarters
22 years ago
That is an extremely rich pan. If it were a pan from even 20 pounds of river gravel, I would sacrifice a lifetime's earning trying to get that one into production. It could be a "demo", or from the clean-up of a sluice box. More often, Platinum will be finer than that.
In a true "pitch-up" of a pan, the valuable grains will not be scattered as in the photo, but will be at the "sword-tip" of a scimitar-shaped grain-trail along the bottom edge/groove of the pan. "Pitching-up" is an olde English expression. (Panning is 2000 or more year-old art in Britain.) The technique is to tilt the pan toward you at about 30 degrees from the horizontal, with about a cup or two of water and a half cup or less of heavy minerals from panning. You rotate the pan to the left with an oscillatory shimmying or tapping action, and let the water swirl counter-clockwise around the bottom groove of the pan. (You might have to alternate the wash with the shimmy, as it is hard to co-ordinate). The water washes over the minerals in the "pocket" of the pan and lifts the lights to the right. The minerals will separate with all the super-heavies on the left in an "eye", and the less-heavy will wash over to the right. A trail then begins to form, with the gold and Platinum forming a long curved path and a bright spot at the left-bottom. This is the proper way to examine a pan concentrate.
In a heavy Pt river the eye will be whiteish ahead of the gold. Silver also pans well, but it is lighter than gold so more to the right, and the grains will be slightly larger.
Yukon News--->
It seems like the federal DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans, desperately seeking excuses to run Yukon placer miners out of business, is seeking to injunction that placer miners will no longer be able to discharge tailings water into the Yukon River. It is rumoured that the new regs will shutdown 85% of placer miners. This will destroy the economy of the Yukon. There are not many votes in this, so the Federal liberals, long anti-mining, and more anti-western, English speaking mining, are not concerned.
I don't know just how stringent the regs are. If they allow two tailings ponds, reasonable sediment settling and cleaning, or just disallow bank diggings in the river bed. I heard that some arbitrary figure of 40 metres removal from a river bank or the Yukon river bank was required. Historically the Yukon is a very muddy silty river. It discharges and reloads at any one point perhaps 1,000,000 tons of sediment in a 24 hour period. (both pick up and drop out) A placer claims will discharge at the most 750 tons of gravel per day, of which is perhaps 100 tons is fine sediment. 10,000 to one seems like a miniscule amount by comparison, doesn't it?
Since load is constant, and sand drops out as fast as it is picked up in sedimentary systems, all the placer mines of the river do not add any net sediment load to the river as a whole. The river can only carry the sediment that it can carry, according to its flow rate. It cannot carry any more of any particular size range. The only sediment addition it can possible additionally carry, is the very, very fine clays of which i has plenty anyway, which do not settle. If the clays do not settle at all, or very, very slowly, they are not a problem. All sediment load that buries fish breeding grounds or eggs, has to be local and should be trivial. If there is any sediment discharge from tailings, it can be reduced to zero by settling ponds, flocculants, and cyclones. Te discharge can be cleaner than the river.
The small amount of sediment a 1000 placer mines can add to river as mighty as the Yukon, is trivial to the natural environment. Translation is, the knee-jerk reaction of the DFO, who has not a sedimentologist on the entire staff, is bad science, and very jejune. The fact that the entire placer mining history of the Yukon has not resulted in any reduction of the fish or benthic population in 100 years, should be examined at bit more closely.
It is far more likely that if fish stocks are declining that fishing offshore in Alaska, by Russians and Americans is the cause. We have seen this before.
EC<:-}
echarters
22 years ago
The Tulameen was famous for having "white gold", which is platinum in this case. The old time miners used to throw it away, as there was no use or general market for it. In effect they did no know what it was. It is a white heavy mineral, heavier than gold often. Pt occurs in pure form, but more often an alloy of iron, or a compound of arsenic, sulphur, or antimony. The most common platinum minerals are the arsenides (sperrylite) and antimonides. They are all bright silvery white, looking a bit like heavy white pyrrohtite but leading the magnetite in the pan.
In the Tulameen, the platinum comes from gabbros and peridotites that line the river valleys there. They have been tested positive for platinum minerals in the past.
There are other areas of BC and the Yukon that have platinum in placers. Miners would mistake it often for sulphides. It could be sulphide too, but if it is in the eye of the pan, extremely fine, ahead of the magnetite and very sluggish, Pt should be suspected.
EC<:-}