Fortress Base Metals Corporation - Projects

Summary

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The Poplar porphyry copper-molybdenum property, consisting of 62 claim units and/or fractions is located on the north side of Poplar Lake about 75 kilometers south of Houston, B.C. The Property is owned by the estate of Frank Onucki of Vancouver and partners Mike Callaghan and Clyde Critchlow.

The Poplar property was originally staked in 1971 by the late Frank Onucki and partners for El Paso Mining and Milling Company, who carried out soil geochemical surveys, geological mapping and bulldozer trenching in 1971 and 1972. Porphyry style mineralization was not found until after El Paso abandoned the option in 1972. The Poplar property was then optioned from the vendors in 1974 by Utah Mines Ltd, and development work carried out included geological mapping, soil geochemical surveys, geophysical surveys, (magnetometer and IP). Up to 1982, Utah completed a total of 58,730 feet (17,900 m) of diamond drilling in 73 drill holes. A full-scale positive feasibility study was completed by Utah in 1980, followed by other studies to 1982, but as metal prices were dropping, and they were facing a major final payment, and Island Copper was already in production, they chose to return the property to the vendors.

In 1991 New Canamin Resources Ltd. acquired the Poplar property, and completed an additional 13 short diamond drill holes totalling 1,300 meters. Total expenditures on the property by Utah, Canamin and others is in excess of 2 million dollars. In terms of Yr 2001 dollars the work done would now cost in excess of $2.5 million. The producing Huckleberry copper-molybdenum mine is about 40 kilometers south of the Poplar property.

Hathor Exploration Limited ("Hathor") signed a letter of intent for an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Poplar copper molybdenum porphyry project. The property consists of 62 claims located 75 km south of Houston, west central British Columbia. The option can be exercised by making cash payment totalling CAN$140,000, issuing 200,000 common shares and completing instalments totalling $275,000 in exploration expenditure over four years. The vendors will retain a 2% NSR interest in the claims, all subject to regulatory approval.

Aumega Discoveries Ltd. ("Aumega") then arranged a joint venture with Hathor for the Property. Aumega is a junior mining exploration company (previously First Echelon Ventures Inc.) listed on the Venture board of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSXV). On November 19, 2003, the Company received shareholder approval for a share consolidation of up to one new share for every four old shares. The company's issued and outstanding share capital as of September 30, 2003 was 1,870,860 shares.

The Poplar porphyry deposit lies within the strongly mineralized Intermontane Belt east of the coast Crystalline belt which is underlain principally by Mesozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks. These rocks are cut by numerous porphyritic intrusives of Jurassic, Cretaceous and early Tertiary age, which host several significant porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum deposits, such as Huckleberry, Whiting Creek, Berg, Ox Lake and others.

The Poplar copper-molybdenum deposit is centred on a differentiated calc-alkaline stock of Late Cretaceous age intruded into volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Hazelton Group of Jurassic age. There are several stocks of differing composition outcropping within the claim block, all of the earlier drilling was carried out in the Poplar stock, in the Canyon Creek area, although the other stocks, such as the China Creek stock also have potential for porphyry mineralization. All the significant hydrothermal alteration and sulfide mineralization discovered to date is restricted to the Poplar stock and to the China Creek stock and their thermal aureoles. The Poplar stock is a classically altered porphyry with potassic alteration of the core grading outward through phyllic alteration to argillic and propylitic alteration.

Various resource tonnage and grade estimates have been made by major exploration companies. The most commonly quoted estimate (Drummond, 1991) is 116,000,000 tonnes grading 0.32% copper, 0.1 g/t gold, and 0.009% Mo. (at 0.20% copper cut-off grade). This resource, although prepared prior to the implementation of National Instrument 43-101, is a reliable estimate comparable to an indicated mineral resource in accordance with Canadian Institute of Mining definitions. Appreciable rhenium values are contained in the molybdenite.

Within the above resource, the additional 1991 drilling permitted estimation of a smaller but higher grade near-surface mineral resource of about 40 million tonnes of 0.40% copper (Drummond, 1991). This nearsurface indicated mineral resource could likely be expanded with further in-fill drilling.

The following favourable drill intercepts illustrate that higher grade intercepts occur:

DDH PC 65 had 53.6 m x 0.56% copper,

DDH PC 24 had 59 m x 0.66% Cu,

DDH PC 61 had 27 m x 1.06% Cu and 30 m x 0.75% Cu,

DDH PC 02 had 36 m x 0.48% Cu.

Potential exists for several hundred million tons of mineralization in the combined Main and East zones. Many of the deep drill holes have best grades at depth and stop in mineralization with good copper grades. The deepest hole DDH PC 35 stops in mineralization at 609 meters (nearly 2000 feet).

Consulting geologists involved in the 1991 drill program, feel that there is potential at China Creek for a new porphyry Cu-Mo zone, comparable with that at the Huckleberry East zone, which could be hosted in the andesite wall-rock of the China Creek porphyry body. The three drillholes completed to date on this zone do not adequately test the area and do not explain the copper anomalies in soil in the area. This target is one of the areas to be tested in future exploration, particularly by Induced Polarization ("IP") surveys.

Work recommended for the property for the initial phases I and II includes data compilation, reconnaissance Induced Polarization surveys (IP) over selected targets, primarily the China Creek porphyry zone, and diamond drilling to follow up any IP anomalies.

Suggested work to be done is:

Relocate all drill holes & claim posts, surveying with GPS instrument and repaint numbers on collars

Cut and mark a new grid using E-W baseline, North/South lines, 100 meter spacing

Complete an IP survey using this grid over all the porphyry centers, particularly the China Creek porphyry zone which, because of overburden and vegetative cover, is less well defined.

A work program totalling $85,750.00 in Phase I and $437,500.00 in Phase II has been recommended.

Dependent on the results of the Phase I and Phase II results, in-fill diamond drilling would be budgeted at a later date for Phase III.

Technical Report Summary (PDF - approx. 38 Kb)

Full Report 43-101: Poplar Copper-Molybdenum Porpyry (PDF - approx. 5.2 MB)