With Asian markets continuing to put thousands of new vehicles on the road daily and biofuel production remaining marginal, demand for molybdenum - the little-known wonder metal used in everything from a non-corrosive steel hardening to advanced lubricants to catalyzing sulphur reduction in crude oil refining - has producers in line for growth well beyond a US $11 billion worldwide market.
Poised for a piece of the action is Vancouver-based Bard Ventures, (V.CBS) a development stage company focused on the exploration and development of base metal properties in multiple geographical areas in Canada and South Africa.
The main interest at the moment is in Bard’s Lone Pine project in the Omineca Mining Division, comprising seven mineral claims over 1,000 hectares a mere 15 kilometers northwest of Houston, British Columbia. The property extends over multiple molybdenum showings in a mature geological area well-studied over the last century. In August 2006, the company entered into an option agreement to acquire 100 per cent of the right, title and interest of the property.
Bard describes the mineralization intersected over such a large area as ''significant,'' - 1,200m by 1,000m - indicating a large geological system favorable for molybdenum deposition. Also, previous exploration focused on vertical delineation of zones with no effort to determine lateral continuity to mineralization. Consequently, initial holes were drilled for geological information at a wide spacing for data to include and help guide future drilling.
While the center of attention at the moment, the Lone Pine play complements nearby Wasi Creek and the Ingenika/Swannell projects, also situated in the Omenica Mountains which are readily accessible by road and infrastructure. With an option to earn 50 per cent of Selkirk Metals’ Wasi Creek play, further delineated in 2005 through air-mag and EM surveys, the company reports several high priority targets including zinc and silver. The company is also chasing zinc and silver deposits in Ingenika-Swannell but indicates more exploration work is needed to qualify targets as warranting further development.
But the prize is really molybdenum, and assay results for Lone Pine released this week by the company verify an expansion in the known size of the mineralization target. Plans for further integration and interpretation of the new geophysical data with the historic data from the 2007 drilling program could very well identify several new target areas.
All things being equal, the venture is poised for growth overall because increased public and regulatory pressure on jurisdictions to meet environmental protocols means reductions not only in carbon dioxide but sulphur emissions from crude oil, sour gas and coal. Oil may be at $100/bbl and climbing, helping to draw some economies further into recession, but developing economies are seeing no real signs of slow down and the alternatives to oil in the short term are still hydrocarbon-based.
Molybdenum, found mostly in the United States, Canada, China, Chile and Russia, will be in growing demand as energy requirements rise dramatically over the next decade before the kinks in the global markets for renewable energy sources such as biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol can be worked out.
If Bard can qualify targets and fully earn its position in Lone Pine, the company would appear to have a viable strategy for solid positioning in this increasingly important niche market.
