| Adex is currently engaged in initial development work at Mount Pleasant, which contains highly prospective tungsten-molybdenum and tin-indium mineralization. |
The Property - Overview |
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The Mount Pleasant property and Mine are located in Charlotte County, New Brunswick, 80 kilometres south of Fredericton, the provincial capital. Adex holds 102 prospective mineral claims covering approximately 1,600 hectares (4,000 acres), as well as 405 hectares (1,000 acres) of surface rights at Mount Pleasant, including the existing structures of the Mount Pleasant Mine.
The focus of Adex's work on the Mount Pleasant property is currently on the following areas of mineralization: |
- The property's Fire Tower Zone, which contains a 43-101-compliant inferred resource of 13,074,438 tonnes at 0.35% tungsten oxide (WO3) and 0.21% molybdenum disulphide (MoS2)
- The North and Deep Tin zones, which report a 43-101 non-compliant historical total resource of 3,645,429 tonnes of 0.80% tin, 107 parts per million indium, 0.87% zinc and 0.19 % copper based upon a 1997 feasibility study completed by Kvaerner Metals.
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 Additional areas of the property such as the Saddle Zone hold significant promise and potential targets for future exploration programs.
Mount Pleasant has a long history of exploration and development. Tin-based mineralization was first discovered on the property in 1937. The focus of exploration over the years has shifted from tin-base metals from 1954-1969 to porphyry tungsten-molybdenum-bismuth deposits (1969-1985), to porphyry tin deposits (1991-2004), and now include indium, a rare mineral that has significantly increased in price while becoming invaluable to new technologies such as LCDs and solar cells. (See Adex's Commodity Information page for more information on these commodities.) |
Tungsten-Molybdenum: the Mount Pleasant Mine
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 In the early 1980s, Billiton Exploration Canada Ltd. invested over $150 million for the construction of a tungsten mine and mill at Mount Pleasant's Firetower Zone. The facility was active from 1983 to 1985, milling 990,200 tonnes of tungsten ore at a grade of 0.35%. Difficult economic conditions and a downturn in the price of tungsten led to the mine's closure in 1985.
Today, the surface facilities remaining from the mine (including ore storage areas, conveyor galleries, warehouse space and office space) are in excellent condition. Adex believes that relatively modest effort and capital are required to bring them up to today's standards, significantly reducing overall costs associated with re-activating the mine. |
Tin-Indium Exploration at Mount Pleasant
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Successive historical exploration drill programs by previous owners of Mount Pleasant began the process of defining the property's tin and indium deposits (centred around the North and Deep Tin zones), producing promising results that set the stage for further exploration.
Adex acquired the property in 1995 from Piskahegan Resource Ltd. and began conducting exploration and metallurgical tests on the tin-indium deposits. In 1997, the property was placed in care and maintenance due to economic conditions in the mining industry. |
Geology
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 The Mount Pleasant deposits are located in southern New Brunswick within the Appalachian Orogen. These deposits occur within gently dipping Late Devonian Piskahegan Group volcanic and sedimentary rocks that are the remnants of a large epicontinental caldera complex.
The regional geology in the mine area is dominated by the Mount Pleasant Caldera, the exposed part of which measures approximately 13 by 17 kilometres. Multiple layered granitic intrusive rocks and associated mineralization at Mount Pleasant were emplaced along the southwestern margin of the caldera complex. This structure occurs within the northern extension of the Appalachian geosynclinals belt and is situated on the southeast flank of New Brunswick's Central Basin. |
Infrastructure
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New Brunswick's provincial capital, Fredericton, is located 60 kilometres north of Mount Pleasant. With a population of 50,000, the city is an important business and educational centre and is home to the University of New Brunswick. Saint John, with a population of 70,000, is approximately 80 km from the property. The city is Canada's second-largest port and is ice free year-round. Both Fredericton and Saint John host commercial airports. Mount Pleasant is also just 65 kilometres from the United States border.
When the Mount Pleasant mine was operational in the early 1980s, tungsten ore concentrate was regularly transported to Saint John via a provincial highway for shipment to Europe. Concentrates might also be transported via other highways to potential American customers.
Mount Pleasant is accessible via all-weather roads from Fredericton, Saint John and St. George. Electricity is provided by the New Brunswick transmission grid, while water for the mine is supplied from a pump house located on the nearby Piskahegan River to a storage reservoir on the hillside above the mill.
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