The Aspen Grove Project is 100% owned by Kodiak Copper Corp. As of October 2024 it has been absorbed into their adjacent MPD Project. The project is 40 kilometers north of the town of Princeton in British Columbia, Canada and is hosted in the Upper Triassic-Early Jurassic (210-190 Million year old) Nicola Group. The property itself covers numerous mineralized zones which have are interpreted to be either Volcanic Massive Sulphide, or part of the Porphyry Copper to Epithermal deposit continuum.
Exploration History
The Aspen Grove copper camp began producing in the late 19th century following the discovery and development of the mines of Copper Mountain to the south. During those early days the miners hand blasted and trenched their way through small showings of high grade copper.
After the initial rush in faded in the early 20th century the area was ignored until the big wave of porphyry exploration began in the 1960’s following the discovery and development of the Highland Valley deposits to the west. Since then the property has seen succeeding waves of exploration with discoveries of the Ketchan alkalic porphyry’s, the Coke copper showing and the Par copper-silver skarn.
Geology and Mineralization
The Nicola belt is the defining group of rocks of the Quesnellia, an ancient volcanic micro-continent (similar to modern day Japan). In the region where Kaizen has their property the rocks were mapped in detail during the 1970’s by the British Columbia Geological Survey (Preto 1979) and divided into 3 distinct north-south trending belts based on rock type and divided by large faults. The westernmost belt is composed of volcanic rocks with minor limestones, the central composed of more iron-rich magmatism (andesites and basalts) and the eastern belt is composed of submarine volcanics and associated sediments. These are all cut by intrusions of diorite and syenite.
Prior to the work by Kaizen mineralization was thought to be either Skarn mineralization (Par) and alkalic porphyry copper (Ketchan, Thalia) or volcanic hosted Copper (Rum, Zig). Intensive exploration had occurred over 40 years ago and since then most exploration had been sporadic, and superficial. The re-mapping of the Par prospect by West Cirque Minerals (now merged with Kaizen) suggested that the Par was actually not a skarn but part of a large zone of porphyry associated mineralization. Compounding this was the realization that many of the drill core left on the site had never been assayed despite visible mineralization.
Kiazen Discovery conducted geophysical surveys, geologic mapping, and over 10,000 m of drilling on the property in the mid 2010’s. Results included 14 metres grading 1.03% copper and 0.13 g/t gold; 72 metres grading 0.31% copper and 0.20 g/t gold; and 26 metres grading 1.05% copper and 0.05 g/t gold. Results strongly supported the presence of a mineralized porphyry system on the property.
Future Outlook
Sporadic exploration work indicates that a copper-gold mineralized porphyry system exists on the Aspen Grove property. Historic descriptions of VMS mineralization most likely misinterpreted porphyry style mineralization due to incomplete information from limited exploration programs. Porphries are very large and must be explored for on a large scale to be properly recognized.
It’s too soon to know what Kodiak plans for the property, but the fact that it has been absorbed into the contiguous MPD porphyry property suggests that they are looking to consolidate holdings and expand exploration in the area. Kodiak previously expanded the MPD property by acquiring the Axe property in 2021.
Kodiak has completed ~75000 m of drilling on the original MPD property, yielding intercepts of up to 535 m of 0.49% copper and 0.29 g/t gold, including 282 m of 0.70% copper and 0.49 g/t gold, including 45.7 m of 1.41% copper and 1.46 g/t gold. Drilling of the original MPD property has been successful in discovering the high-grade Gate Zone, and steadily extending mineralization in the area over kilometer scales. Drilling is currently ongoing. Aspen Grove may not exist as an independent property anymore, but its absorption into a larger project may be a necessary step in turning a project into a mine.
List of Companies Mentioned
Kodiak Copper Corp. (website)
