Decade Resources Inc.'s decision to option up to 80 percent of the Red Cliff property in the Stewart Mining Region last November is shaping up to be one of the best exploration plays in 2009 in northwestern British Columbia.

The Vancouver, B.C.-based miner reported discovering a 28.4-meter interval of gold mineralization grading 7.3 grams per metric ton gold in September and followed up with more favorable drill results in October.

The news has sparked a mini-staking rush with at least a half-dozen juniors scrambling in recent weeks to acquire claims in close proximity to Red Cliff. It also sent Decade's stock rocketing into orbit, climbing to C$1.70 a share from a low earlier this year of C6 cents a share. Decade's share price since has settled in the C$1.25-C$1.30 range.

The junior, meanwhile, reported Oct. 14 that it had completed 19 diamond drill holes on the Montrose zone within the Waterloo and Little Pat Fraction Crown Granted claims of the Red Cliff Project.

After two months of intensive drilling, Decade's management has concluded that the property's two main mineral zones, Montrose and Red Cliff, appear to be part of one big mineralizing event with more than 1.5 kilometers, or about 1 mile, of strike.

"It's a start," Decade Director Andrew Bowering told Mining News Oct. 20. "We don't know what we have yet. We're seeing three distinct styles of mineralization, but primarily gold veins."

2009 exploration tested theory

Decade entered an option agreement with area explorer Mountain Boy Minerals Ltd. in late 2008 to acquire a 60 percent interest in the Red Cliff claims and also signed up for an additional 20 percent interest if Mountain Boy's shareholders approve the deal.

Bowering said Decade's founders observed mineralization in canyon walls and a big rusty outcrop at the top of a mountain on the property.

Knowing the old Dunwell gold mine, which essentially populated nearby Stewart around 1910, was located at the bottom of the property, Decade's directors theorized that significant gold mineralization might extend from the creek bottom to the top of the mountain in a straight line.

"There are no outcrops on the property. Everything is covered with overburden, but we could see strike in the canyon walls," Bowering said.

The rusty outcrop turned out to contain little gold, but that information did not precede discovery of significant mineralization further down the mountain.

The third hole of the season, Hole Mon-2009-3, intersected 28.35 meters at a depth of 74.39 meters that averaged 7.3 g/t gold and included a 3.66-meter interval grading 24.05 g/t. The drilling also intersected another 7.93-meter span at a depth of 46.04 meters grading 3.1 g/t gold.

Decade said previous exploration, including drilling completed by Mountain Boy in 2007 and its 2009 exploration has shown the occurrence of copper-gold and gold-bearing zones over a vertical height of 400 meters and along a strike length of 2 kilometers, or 1.25 miles. The Montrose and Red Cliff zones host massive chalcopyrite-pyrite veins that have been explored at the lower elevations of the property.

The distance extends from the area of DDH-Mon-2009-1 to DDH-Mon-2009-11 to the portals at the south end of the property along Lydden Creek. At the south end of the claims, parallel copper-gold zones are indicated in the portal area of the original Red Cliff mine workings.

Bowering said the property has seen relatively little exploration despite its location close to Stewart. The mountainous terrain has made access difficult.

"In 2007, Mountain Boy got some pretty good results," he said. "But we didn't know that we were going to hit up the hill."

The junior believes that gold mineralization extends from at least 200 meters above sea level at the portal area to over 725 meters above sea level in the area of DDH-Mon-2009-1 to DDH-Mon-2009-11. It occurs in zones up to 30 meters wide and is believed to be conformable to the overall mineralized trend in the Stewart region.

Based on drilling to date, three separate mineralizing events appear to be present in the Montrose zone - an early stage of chlorite-sericite alteration followed by silicification.

This altered rock was subsequently brecciated with minute fractures filled by up to 15-20 percent pyrite; a second stage of mineralization where quartz-chalcopyrite-pyrite-visible gold was emplaced as a stockwork zone along fractures in the silicified, pyritic rock; and late stage galena-sphalerite-chalcopyrite-pyrite-visible gold mineralization along the eastern edge of the Montrose zone, the company said.

Massive galena-pale yellow sphalerite form veins up to 3-4 centimeters wide in a 3- to 5-meter-thick zone.

Sulphides may form up to 15-20 percent of the galena-rich portions.

Stunning drill results reported

Four holes (DDH-Mon-2009-1 to DDH-Mon-2009-4) were completed on the first pad and were drilled from northeast to southwest such that both east-west striking and north-south striking stringer mineralization was intersected along the holes. These holes were also set-up to determine the strike and width of mineralization. All of the first holes (up to DDH-Mon-2009-9) were stopped short of defining the overall mineralized width, ending in mineralization.

Assay results have been received and reported for drill holes DDH-Mon-2009-1 to DDH-Mon-2009-6.

Among these results:

At a depth of 22.17 meters, hole Mon-2009-4 intersected 28.41 meters that graded 5.78 g/t gold.

Hole Mon-2009-5 intersected 39.63 meters grading 4.75 g/t gold at a depth of 38.72 meters and another 9.15-meter interval at a depth of 87.50 meters grading 1.67 g/t.

Hole Mon-2009-6 intersected 55.18 meters averaging 9.64 g/t gold at a depth of 53.66 meters. The interval included a 24.7-meter section that averaging 20.87 g/t gold and within that a 3.66-meter span averaging 38.71 g/t gold.

Decade said drill holes DDH-Mon-2009-5 and DDH-Mon-2009-6 are located 30 meters south of the first pad with holes angled southwest to northeast to test for depth and southern extensions of mineralization intersected near the top of the first 4 holes. Holes 5 and 6 have similar mineralization to that found in DDH-Mon-2009-1 through DDH-Mon-2009-4 with a quartz-chalcopyrite-pyrite stockwork carrying local fine visible gold. DDH-Mon-2009-7 and DDH-Mon-2009-8 were drilled 100 meters north of the first pad and were angled northeast to the southwest.

DDH-2009-9 and DDH-Mon-2009-10 are collared 30 meters north and 15 meters east of holes 1 through 4. Both holes are drilled parallel to DDH-Mon-2009-2 (stopped short with end of hole assay results returning 11.59 g/t gold) and to greater depth, to determine the extent of the mineralized zone in the area. Of particular importance, DDH-Mon-2009-9, drilled to 280 meters on a minus 60 degree dip intersected a silicified and heavily pyritized intrusive at depth to the west of and just beneath the indicated gold bearing zone, the company said.

Bowering also said holes DDH-2009-7 and DDH-2009-8 likely were drilled too far to the east and missed the zone, altogether.

Recent fieldwork by Decade also identified Premier porphyry rocks on the property. The Premier porphyry rocks are associated with the mineralization of the Silbak Premier mine located 8 kilometers , or 5 miles, from Red Cliff on the west side of the Bear River Ridge. The Red Cliff property is on the east side of the ridge. The Silbak-Premier mine has produced about 2 million ounces of gold, nearly 43 million ounces of silver and minor amounts of zinc, lead and cadmium.

More to learn

Core logging, cutting and sampling are progressing with assay results for DDH-Mon-2009-7 to DDH-Mon-2009-11 expected before Oct. 31, the company said.

Following completion of DDH-Mon-2009-11, the drill was moved from the north side of Lydden Creek to test about 700 meters south of discovery hole DDH-Mon-2009-1 on the Little Pat Claim Fraction while the Decade applies for permits to construct additional roads and drill pads to the north.

A total of five holes, DDH-LP-2009-1 to DDH-LP-2009-5, were completed to test the zone in this area.

While there are no indications of previous drilling in this area, chip sampling of a rusty rock face exposure in Lydden Creek during previous work in the 1980s returned 11.4 g/t gold over 9.5 meters.

Descriptions of the gold-bearing samples from the surface sampling indicated that gold values are associated with pyrite rather than chalcopyrite/pyrite as in holes DDH-Mon-2009-1 to 6.

Intersections of the zone in drill holes DDH-LP-2009-1 to DDH-LP-2009-5 on the south side of Lydden Creek host a silicified rock with strong brecciation and associated pyrite filling the fractures.

The brecciated rock is very similar to the west edge of the mineralized zone encountered in DDH-Mon-2009-5 and DDH-Mon-2009-6 where a silicified and brecciated rock with associated pyrite filling fractures assayed 7-10 g/t gold over 10 meters peripheral to a gold-bearing chalcopyrite/pyrite stockwork.

"This year we're going to show 1,500 meters of mineralization, and next year, we'll fill in the blanks. We're hoping to block off an area 100-300 meters by widths of 20-30 meters this season. That should be 2 million tons," Bowering said. "When we model holes 1-11, and the canyon holes that we're drilling now, we hope to get a picture of what we have."

Expedited drilling

Decade plans to continue exploration drilling at Red Cliff as weather permits.

Given the property's location, low elevation and road access, management expects drilling to continue into November.

In anticipation of more straining conditions, Decade has demobilized the skid-mounted, shed-housed drill used for all holes to date.

Instead, two helicopter-supported drills operating from wood drill platforms would be used.

The first of these drills was moved to the property Oct. 6, and is situated on a platform constructed in Lydden Creek canyon.

Drill holes completed off this deck are designed to test the full width of the Montrose zone within Lydden Creek and its depth extent beneath its exposure in the creek bottom, the company said.

"It's been 20 years since there was a serious new discovery in Stewart, B.C. The last one was Eskay Creek. I'm not saying that by any stretch of the imagination that we have an 'Eskay Creek' here, but it would be good for Stewart."