Barker Minerals Ltd. (TSX-V:BML) reported results from the 2,000m trenching program on its silver/gold/lead Black Bear project. The 100% owned project on China Mountain is located 74 km northeast of Williams Lake, in the Cariboo region of British Columbia.
Most trenches successfully exposed variable amounts of fresh high grade silver galena mineralization which was sampled along strike of the Providence and Hunt veins, at various locations on the newly discovered veins and at highly altered zones adjacent to the veins. Grab samples reported up to 127 ounces per ton silver and 59% lead at the Providence target and a chip sample from the Hunt vein reported 37.7 oz/t silver and 37.1% lead over a 1 metre width.
The trenching was also successful in identifying important intrusive rocks with elevated concentrations of silver, bismuth and lead spatially located near the highest grade mineralization identified to date. This indicates that the mineralization may increase in grade as it gets closer to the intrusion. The high oz/t silver to the % lead ratio in the intrusive itself also supports this interpretation. It is apparent that on the Black Bear property the ratio of precious metals to the % of lead will be a very useful tool in determining the proximity of mineralization to its intrusive source.
The presence of elevated precious and base metals in the highly altered host rocks with the discovery of important similarly mineralized intrusive rocks indicates the property has potential for hosting lower grade bulk tonnage precious metal deposits and high grade bonanza style veins which are being assessed for their bulk sample potential.
The assay results for gold are yet to be received from the lab and will be announced in a subsequent news release.