Matachewan moving on molybdenum momentum.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: SPECIAL REPORT: MINING

Matachewan may host one of the province's sole molybdenum mines within the next several years if drill results at Pacific Comox Resources' Ryan Lake property continue to show significant promise, according to the company's president.

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"In recent years, molybdenum prices have gone up by a factor of 10, and we think we're well situated," Donald Empey, president of Pacific Comox, says.

"To say when we'll be in production is a tough one, but to say we hope to be in production in less than two years is not too crazy, I don't think."

Pacific Comox, which also has a handful of properties in Mexico, is currently halfway through a 6,000-metre, $2 million diamond drill program at the property, located roughly seven kilometres northwest of Matachewan.

In recent weeks, assays have shown several promising results, including a 27-foot interval grading 0.27 per cent or 5.4 pounds per ton of molybdenum and 0.2 per cent copper, starting at 299 feet. Other positive showings include a 72-foot interval grading 0.14 per cent or 2.7 pounds per ton of molybdenum and 0.3 per cent copper, which includes an 11-foot interval grading 0.37 per cent or 7.4 pounds per ton of molybdenum.

"Even at two tons per pound, it should be quite a profitable operation," Empey says. "So some of what we're seeing out there is encouraging, to say the least. In fact, unless there's a real crash in the market, we're aiming to get both our Matachewan and Mexico properties into production."

Having optioned the 500-acre property in 2005 and purchased it outright in 2006, Pacific Comox is drilling in and around two former producing mines on site. The South Zone hosted an underground copper mine which produced 163,490 tons grading 1.5 per cent copper and 0.21 ounces of silver between 1950 and 1957. An open pit operation also extracted roughly 6,000 tons grading 1.3 per cent copper and 0.4 per cent molybdenite in 1964 in the North Zone.

Since acquiring the property, Pacific Comox has conducted 9,000 metres of drilling across 80 holes.

The current drill campaign, undertaken by Rick Yost Diamond Drilling, will find step-out drilling continuing along the perimeter of the copper-molybdenum South Zone at greater depths. Reaching to roughly 500 feet, the drilling will extend past the former mine workings, which only reached to 450 feet.

While hesitant to guess the extent of mineralization prior to the completion of the resource estimate currently in development, Empey says...