Parys Mountain property

Location
The Parys Mountain property is located in the northern part of the island of Anglesey in north Wales. The mineral property is about 3 kilometres in length and covers more than 2 square kilometres. The company owns the freehold to about half of this area and a leasehold of the other half and holds the mineral rights to the entire property. The company also has a mining lease from the Crown for gold and silver over a wider area.
The property is located 2 miles south of the town of Amlwch. The port of Holyhead is 18 miles to the west. Access to the property is excellent by road, rail and sea. All necessary services and resources including power, engineering, maintenance facilities and a skilled labour force are located nearby.
History
Parys Mountain has been the site of mining activity at various times since the Bronze age. During the 1780s Parys Mountain was the largest copper mine in the world. Open pit and underground mining were carried out over a strike length of more than 3 kilometres and to depths of about 200 metres, the deepest then achievable by known technologies. Almost all activities ceased by the beginning of the 20th century.
In the 1960s the search for a new mine at Parys Mountain commenced. Exploration in the 1960s and 1970s was focused on the extension of the old open pit workings and was directed towards copper. This exploration utilised a variety of geological, geophysical and geochemical methods together with approximately 285 diamond drill holes totalling about 60,000 metres of drilling. A resource of 30 million tonnes containing about 250,000 tonnes of copper metal (the Northern Copper zone) was identified at depth, however this is regarded as being too low a grade to mine economically unless combined with other deposits.
The modern phase of exploration of Parys Mountain began in the early 1980s when a new important polymetallic zinc, lead, copper, silver and gold area was identified about 1 kilometre west of the old workings. Between 1988 and 1990 a production shaft was sunk in this western area to a depth of 300 metres and 1,000 metres of lateral development were completed on the 280 metre level. Drilling and underground development work from 1988 to 1990 resulted in the identification of the Engine, White Rock and Chapel zones containing a resource of 6.5 million tonnes with a combined base metal grade (zinc, copper and lead) of 10.3%.
Approximately 2,000 tonnes of development ore were successfully hoisted and processed through a pilot plant constructed on the site for metallurgical testing and concentrate production of about 200 tonnes was sold to the smelter at Avonmouth.
Feasibility Study
In 1990 Kilborn Engineering completed an independent feasibility study of the project that confirmed the technical and economic viability of a 1,000 tonnes per day (300,000 tonnes per year) mining and milling operation producing zinc, copper, lead and gold concentrates. Kilborn estimated the capital cost of the mine at £22 million. This study was based on a mineable reserve of 1,963,000 tonnes at a grade of 6.43% zinc, 1.30% copper, 3.32% lead, 75 grams of silver and 0.51 grams of gold per tonne and a mine life of seven years. This mineable reserve is in the shaft development area, being only a portion of the identified geological resource of 6.5 million tonnes.
Detailed mine and plant designs were prepared and planning permission obtained. At the same time an environmental protection programme was devised also giving attention to historical and archaeological concerns. Declining metal prices and weakening stock markets in 1991 and 1992 resulted in development of the project being placed on hold. The property has been maintained on a care and maintenance basis since that time.
Geological studies carried out over the past few years have identified new areas, including a possible new zone, with significant exploration potential.
Reassessment
A complete geological reassessment of the property commenced in 1995 and this has resulted in the development of new geological models which indicate that there is potential for the discovery of substantial additional mineral resources in largely unexplored areas to the north, west and east of the known resource.
Geological studies 1997 – 2000
Major lithogeochemical studies were carried out at Parys Mountain by the company's consultants in conjunction with Cardiff University, using the analytical laboratory at McGill University in Montreal. The work involved the re-examination of large quantities of drill core and outcrop. Over 60 drill holes were relogged and sampled. Based on this work it has been possible to identify and classify the volcanic rock at Parys Mountain much more accurately than was previously possible.
Numerous scientific and technological studies were also carried out, including a joint project in conjunction with the British Geological Survey supported by the Department of Trade and Industry, using the PIMA (portable infra red mineral analyser) which examined the nature and distribution of alteration in the volcanogenic massive sulphide rocks at Parys Mountain. Palaeontology studies were conducted in conjunction with the University of Leicester. Anglesey also worked closely with the British Geological Survey using high precision U-Pb isotope dating and in the application of 3-D visualization and virtual reality modelling of the Parys Mountain deposits.
All this work has considerably improved the understanding of the stratigraphic and structural settings of various mineralised zones and significantly enhanced the potential for discovery of further mineralisation.
Exploration Potential
The potential for the discovery of additional mineral resources in previously largely untested areas of the Parys Mountain property is very significant.
The Engine zone, which is the principal host of the known reserves, has seen little exploration beyond the immediate area of the shaft. Further exploration of the Engine Zone is planned for the northern and north eastern parts of the property which have been largely unexplored to date and where widely scattered massive sulphide intersections demonstrate considerable exploration potential.
A potential new zone of disseminated / semi-massive mineralisation has been recently identified at depth, down-dip from the White Rock Zone, along the western boundary of the volcanic complex where the potential for continuation of mineralisation is considered excellent. The upper part of this possible new zone lies at a reasonable depth, within close proximity to the existing shaft and within reach of the present underground development.
The results of the geological reassessment and various studies carried out over recent years demonstrate clearly that the Parys Mountain property has strong similarities with other major volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits elsewhere in the world and that the property has the potential for new discoveries which would make Parys Mountain comparable to other major volcanogenic hosted polymetallic deposits which are substantial resources of zinc, copper, lead, gold and silver.
Anglesey plans a major drilling programme to explore these new exploration targets which have the potential to transform Parys Mountain into a very significant mineral deposit.
This will be one of the most comprehensive drilling programmes ever undertaken on the property. It would take at least one year to complete and is budgeted to cost about £500,000. However the programme cannot commence until appropriate financing is available.