Decade Resources Ltd. Nov. 6 announced it has staked 19 claims covering the Crest high-grade gold prospect near the town of Hyder in Southeast Alaska. Situated just across the border from British Columbia's Golden Triangle region, these claims are adjacent to Ascot Resources' Premier gold-silver mine property on the Canadian side of the border.

Decade's newly staked claims cover the historic Crest property that is described in a 1929 United States Geological Survey bulletin, "Geology of Hyder and Southeastern Alaska."

According to A. F. Buddington, author of the bulletin, a northwest trending quartz-sulfide vein is present on the property.

"At one open-cut, in the bed of a small gulch, the vein consists of a number of small quartz stringers, some of which carry free gold. Assays of the quartz have yielded as high as $105 in gold to the ton," Buddington penned in the 1929 report. "At another open-cut a moil sample of the country rock and quartz stringers, two feet in width averaged $4.50 in gold to the ton. The mineralized shoots run from $7 to $12 in gold to the ton."

The figures in Buddington's report were calculated the US$20 per ounce gold price of the time. These bonanza grade values, however, have not been confirmed with modern exploration.

Decade, however, has collected silt samples along creeks crossing the Granduc road since it staked the claims. This sampling yielded up to 0.2 g/t gold, indicating the presence of gold-bearing structures on the newly acquired claims.

"The high-grade nature of the veining on the new claims is attractive given that a milling facility may be present seven kilometers (4.3 miles) away by an all-weather road," said Decade Resources President Ed Kruchkowski. "An announcement that the nearby Premier mill may be put back into production in the near future makes this latest acquisition an attractive exploration property given the high-grade gold nature of the veins."

Decade's new property near Hyder encompasses several historical mineral showings in Jurassic age intrusive rocks. The company said intrusions of this age (193-195 million years) include Premier porphyries near Stewart, B.C. and Mitchell intrusions at Seabridge Gold's Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell KSM project. Deposits related to this suite of rocks include the Premier-Big Missouri, Brucejack and KSM porphyry copper-gold deposits.

–SHANE LASLEY