Grandich's Blog

The carnage amid the junior resource sector in 2008 was unrelenting, catching most everyone off-guard and impacting just about every issue, no matter where the listing. Among the few companies that bucked the prevailing trend on results was Bravo Venture Group, BVG on the TSX Venture Exchange and B6I on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

On October 2nd of last year, Bravo was trading at its year low of 18 cents. The next day the company released excellent results from its Homestake Ridge project in north western British Columbia: 52 meters true width of 21 grams of gold including 5.5 meters of 181 grams of gold per tonne in Hole 87. Outstanding numbers! And the market responded by gapping that day to close at $0.53 on 3.3 million shares. Over the next several trading days BVG gave up some of that strong gain closing in the mid-30’s range and then, as more results began to filter in, slowly marched up to close at year end in the mid 50’s.

Hole 87 was one of the best holes drilled by a junior gold explorer in several years and drew considerable attention to the Homestake Ridge project, which BVG has been exploring for four years. Since 2003, Bravo has expended approximately Cdn$12.5 million on exploration and development work and has completed 27,000 meters of drilling in 120 core holes on the project and is in process of updating a March 2007 NI43-101 resource calculation that already was showing an inferred resource of 903,231 ounces of gold and 5,745,746 ounces of silver contained within 11.9 million tonnes with an average grade of 2.36 g/t Au and 15.0 g/t Ag, using a cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t gold. Significantly, the inferred resource calculation includes 577,366 ounces of gold grading 7.53 g/t and 2.3 million ounces of silver averaging 31 g/t utilizing a cut-off grade of 3.0 g/t.

Is this the next Eskay Creek? Remember that hole 109 was the Eskay “discovery” hole.  It’s still too early to tell but Bravo’s geo team is getting more confident regarding their understanding of the high-grade feeders influencing the deposit. Certainly after Hole 87, BVG continued to report some pretty good intercepts: Hole 96 – 22m of 513 grams silver including 2.7m of 2502 grams….two and a half kilos! Then came Hole 99 – 29m of 8.4 grams gold and 345 grams silver including 9.4 m of 24.9 grams gold and 1,042 grams silver and a 1.4m section that carried 152 grams gold and 6,075 grams silver. Eskay Creek?  Getting closer. There have been numerous other high grade hits and a complete summary of the 2008 drill program is on the BVG website: www.bravoventuregroup.com.

Anytime you look at a project in northwest BC, you have to examine potential infrastructure: Bravo’s is exceptional. The project is 32 km north of the small tidewater community of Alice Arm. Tidewater means potential cheap barge transportation. A private power company is developing three hydro-electric power projects (one is a run-of-river project right on  BVG property) and has refurbished an old rail bed into a roadway that used to run to the Dolly Varden mine and currently is now within seven km of the project. By 2010, the road should be completed right to the project. So with road access to tidewater and potential hydo power literally on site, the infrastructure cost concerns appear dramatically reduced.

The Homestake Ridge Property comprises 14 claims for 116 units and 5 Crown Grants and covers 2,725 hectares within the Skeena Mining Division of northeast British Columbia, 30km southeast of Stewart. The property is underlain by over 7 km of favorable Jurassic aged Hazelton Group stratigraphy that sits within a prolific metallogenic belt that includes the significant Eskay Creek, Silbak-Premier and Snip mines.

Over 80 separate mineral occurrences are located throughout the property and include extensive areas of precious and base metal mineralization related to the emplacement of a series of shallow feldspar porphyry intrusive rocks and felsic dome complexes into the volcanic-sedimentary stratigraphy.
The Main Homestake zone has now been drill tested for an 800 meter strike-length and to over 500 meters down dip and remains open both to depth and along strike.

In addition to the Main Homestake zone, other targets have been identified along the equivalent stratigraphic horizon for over 3,000 meters of strike length and highlight the district-scale mineral potential of the property. The Homestake Silver zone, the Vanguard Gold zone and the Vanguard Copper zone all returned encouraging results from initial drilling and all should be further tested in 2009.
Exploration Models:
Current geological interpretations of the Main Homestake zone suggests that the mineralizing system is transition between VMS and epithermal types, reflecting the presence of both syngentic-stratabound styles and cross-cutting epigenetic styles of mineralization.
The deposit is formed by a series of stacked siliceous lenses comprising variable amounts of gold- and silver-rich, iron and base-metal sulphides. The mineralization is localized along shallowly inclined paleo-horizons in the volcanic stratigraphy which formed in an active extensional margin with north-facing stratigraphy which steps down to the northeast. Higher-grade feeder mineralization connects the stratabound lenses and cuts the stratigraphy at a highly oblique angle.

Objectives of the recently completed 2008 Drill program:
• To re-classify and expand the known mineral resource, particularly shallow mineralization (> 750m elev.) which may be amenable to bulk tonnage mining in “starter pit”.
• Validate the working model by testing the continuity of the stratabound mineralized lenses and thereby increasing confidence of resource estimates.
• Determine the dimension, orientation and confidence in the repeatability of higher-grade feeder mineralization.
• Test the NW and SE extensions of the deposit.

Target deposit types include:
• Eskay Creek (2.56Mt @ 48.4g/t Au, 2152g/t Ag, 4.2% Zn, 2.5% Pb and 0.5% Cu): arguably the most significant economic discovery in BC of the last 15 years, this precious-metal rich VMS deposit is believed to be transitional between classic Kuroko VMS and High-Sulphidation Epithermal systems. Production to 2001 includes 2.1Mozs Au and 96.8Mozs Ag.
• Red Mountain (12Mt @ 2.54g/t Au): gold-copper mineralization is hosted by the phases of the Goldslide Intrusions and includes a high-grade core of 1.26Mt @ 8.0g/t Au.

Woewodski Island
The 100% owned VMS Woewodski Island Project includes 501 Federal claims and three State claims covering 3,260 hectares in southeast Alaska. This “deep-water, tide-water” accessible property is located approximately 30km SSW of Petersburg with multiple targets hosted within the same volcanic-sedimentary rocks that host the Green’s Creek, Alaska and Windy Craggy, British Columbia VMS deposits.
Bravo completed detailed gravity and 3D IP geophysical surveys and two core holes totaling 432.6 meters at the East Lake target, where previous drilling indicated a long-lived and widespread plume of VMS-style mineralization. The 2008 work program provided data for metal zoning and basin reconstruction within the “Mine Argillite” at Woewodski and established drill targets for a planned 2009 exploration program.
Significantly, intervals of black argillite occur within the mineralized horizons and elsewhere throughout the stratigraphy of the East Lake basin which are interpreted as equivalent to the “Mine Argillite,” which  hosts Hecla’s Greens Creek deposit (current reserves – Hecla Mining Company: 7.68 million tons grading 14opt Ag, 0.11opt Au, 10.4% Zn, and 4% Pb), located 145 kilometers to the north.

Nevada Projects
The company has or can acquire a 100 percent interest in thirteen projects totaling approximately 45 square miles within the South Battle Mountain/Eureka trend. Bravo is targeting Carlin Type sediment-hosted gold prospects along trend of the Cortez Hill, Pediment and ET Blue discoveries. Of the thirteen projects, Bravo has one project that is subject to an exploration agreement with Barrick Gold Corp. Bravo is the operator for 12 and Barrick is the operator for one of the projects.

Bravo has utilized Landsat and Digital Elevation Imagery interpretation, regional geophysical surveys bedrock mapping and sampling, enzyme leach geochemistry surveys and proximity to productive mining districts to evaluate and select strategic properties within the Trend. The Cortez Trend is a west-northwest gold/silver belt lying within the 150 mile long Battle Mountain-Eureka trend that runs parallel to the Carlin Gold belt.

History Exploration Target
The Battle Mountain/ Eureka trend is the second most productive belt in Nevada after the Carlin trend. As reported by the Cortez Joint Venture (Placer Dome-Kennecott), in excess of 38 million ounces has been discovered within the JV. Additional deposits are located in the southern portion of the trend where a number of junior companies are attempting to replicate the success of the CJV.

Signal Project (100% Bravo)
The Signal project consists of 164 claims (1,300 ha) and lie in the northwestern portion of the Eureka Mining District west and southwest of Barrick’s Ruby Hill Mine.  The Ruby Hill Mine produced 670,000 ounces of gold between 1997 and 2002 and has a reported proven plus probable reserve of 1.0 million ounces.

Historic drilling at the Signal project targeted shallow, oxide gold mineralization that is exposed along strike for approximately 1,000 meters. An extensive database of historic drill data, mapping, sampling, and CSAMT geophysics exists, which the Company has compiled into a 3D GIS model. In 2006/07, the Company drilled nineteen holes at Signal for a total of 3,384 meters which intersected thick zones of oxidized, potentially leach-grade gold that are typical of Carlin-style gold mineralization.

South Lone Mountain Project (100% Bravo)
SoLM is a gravel covered project located along regionally significant geophysical “gravity break,” and is underlain by favorable Lower Plate Paleozoic host rocks. Data generated or purchased by the Company and its previous partners include: geology and geochemistry from historic oil wells in Kobeh Valley and exposures at Lone Mountain, detailed gravity geophysics, 48 line kilometers of seismic geophysics, soil and gas geochemistry, and limited reverse circulation drilling.

Pete Hanson Project  (Barrick Exploration Agreement)
This project consists of 190 claims (approximately 1500 ha), located east of Tonkin Springs.  Previous project work included detailed mapping and rock-chip sampling, soil and gas geochemistry, magnetics and gravity geophysics. Barrick is evaluating the project further.

3-Bar Project (100% Bravo)
Two holes were drilled late in 2007 at the gravel-covered 3-Bar property for a total of 445m which intersected Favorable Lower Plate stratigraphy, most likely the Horse Canyon formation. Assays and multi-element geochemistry have been received and are being evaluated.

Gabel-Project (100% Bravo)
Prospective Lower Plate carbonates are exposed on this 63-claim (approximately 500 ha) project. Wide-spread alteration and anomalous geochemistry are suggestive of a Carlin-type gold system. Targeting has been completed and a drilling permit and bond are in place for an initial drill test.

Other Projects
Field work is continuing at North Lone Mountain, SF, Temple, and Shiva and will advance these projects to the drill-ready stage during 2009.

Bottomline –

While many juniors are struggling to just keep the lights on, Bravo Ventures Group appears to be “light years” ahead in terms of development and ability to move forward despite a current tough junior resource environment. The tough market can actually be a big plus for the company as the crowd should gravitate to the handful of companies doing quite well with the drill bit.

Tags: Bravo Venture Group, Grandich