The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Vancouver junior takes advantage of extensive historic testing in working toward feasibility at Lik property in Northwest Alaska
After purchasing a 50 percent interest in the Lik in Northwest Alaska last year, Zazu Metals Corp. has begun to explore the zinc-lead-silver-rich property. In 2007, the Vancouver, B.C.-based junior drilled 1,400 meters in 11 holes with the intention of confirming 26,200 meters of historic drilling completed on the property.
Lik is located about 22 kilometers, or 14 miles, northeast of the Red Dog Mine, the world's largest zinc mine. Teck Cominco Ltd., operator of the Red Dog Mine, holds the remaining 50 percent interest in the Lik property.
The 296 claims that make up the Lik property were originally staked as federal mining claims. The State of Alaska later selected the property and as a result State of Alaska mining claims were also staked over the entire claim block. As long as the JV partners maintain federal claims on the property the federal government holds surface right ownership while the state owns the mineral rights. Surface right ownership would transfer to the state if the partners choose to relinquish the federal claims.
Testing performed by previous owners of the property indicates that the Lik deposit is divided into two areas by an east-west running fault.
Lik South, according to historic records, is about 600 meters wide and about 1,100 meters long, shallow and considered suitable for open-pit mining. The deposit continues south beyond the Lik property about 800 meters onto the Su property held by Teck Cominco.
At the point the Lik deposit continues onto the Su property, the deposit is known as the Su deposit. Teck Cominco has never released a resource estimate for the Su deposit, but a 1998 article that discussed the company's acquisition of 50 percent of the Lik property indicated that the Su deposit contained 17 metric tons of ore grading 10 percent combined zinc and lead.
Historic testing revealed Lik North to be a relatively deep deposit that is about 700 meters long and 350 meters wide.
Extensive historic exploration at Lik
Rick Fredericksen, who currently works for the Department of Natural Resources, told Mining News that the discovery of the Lik deposit was made on the heels of the discovery of the now famous Red Dog Creek deposit. Fredericksen was a geologist for WGM Inc. and a member of the team that explored the Lik deposit in the late 1970s.
The Lik property was staked in 1976 when GCO, along with joint venture partners New Jersey Zinc Co. and WGM, discovered a stream geochemical anomaly at Lik Creek.
The JV partners, with New Jersey Zinc's interest replaced by Houston Oil and Minerals Exploration Co., began drilling the prospect in 1977. Targeting an electromagnetic anomaly, the first hole drilled at Lik intersected massive zinc-lead-silver sulfides. In 1979 the companies prepared a resource estimate based on 17,214 meters of drilling completed over the previous three years.
Additional drilling on the prospect was limited until Noranda Exploration Inc. took interest in the Lik property in 1984. The majority of the drilling performed by Noranda was concentrated in the Lik North area where the company drilled 4,180 meters in 10 holes. Noranda also drilled Lik South to help define "mineable high grade reserves," but dropped its interest in Lik as a result of reorganizing its U.S. holdings.
Earlier exploration led to resource estimates
In 1984 GCO prepared a resource estimate for the LIK South deposit based on about 100 drill holes. GCO, using a 5 percent cutoff of combined zinc and lead, estimated that Lik South contained 22.04 million metric tons of ore averaging 8.88 percent zinc, 3.08 percent lead and 49 grams per metric ton silver.
The following year Noranda completed its own estimate for Lik South. Using a 7 percent cutoff, Noranda estimated that the deposit contains 10.85 million metric tons of ore averaging 10.51 percent zinc and 3.42 percent lead. Silver was not included in this estimate.
Using the same cutoffs, Noranda estimated that Lik North contained an additional 4.73 metric tons of ore averaging 10.59 percent zinc, 3.5 percent lead and 53 g/t silver.
Several resource estimates have been prepared for the property but the 1984 GCO estimate and 1985 Noranda estimate are considered to be the most reliable.
Though Zazu considers these estimates historical, they believe that these estimates give a good representation of the size of the two portions of the deposit as delineated by the drill density.
Since Noranda's activity in 1985, exploration on the property has been limited to three holes drilled in 1990 and two more in 1992 until Zazu began its 2007 drill program.
The previous explorers of the property left behind a 1,300-meter airstrip and an historic camp at the 5,500-acre Lik property. A core shack at the Lik camp holds all of the cores from 26,000 meters historic drilling on the property with the exception of the first ten holes which are stored in Anchorage.
Zazu advances towards feasibility
Zazu is currently in the process of updating its database using results of its 2007 drilling and historic data available on the Lik property. This effort will include digitizing drill logs and other historic records as well as comparing its own drill results with historic drill logs and cores.
According to an August 2007 prospectus on the property, the company proposes a 20,000-meter phase-2 drill program at Lik. The company also intends to spend $60,000 on additional geophysical studies, $65,000 on environmental studies, and $600,000 on feasibility studies at Lik.
The prospectus suggested that ore concentrates from the property could potentially be moved along the 84-kilometer, or 52-mile, De Long Mountain Transportation System from the Red Dog Mine to the port used by Teck Cominco to transport Red Dog's concentrates. Both the road and port are owned by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.
Zazu also said it plans to complete up to 10,000 meters of additional diamond drilling and complete geophysical surveys and intensive environmental studies that it began in 2007.
The 296 claims that make up the Lik property were originally staked as federal mining claims. The State of Alaska later selected the property and as a result State of Alaska mining claims were also staked over the entire claim block. As long as the JV partners maintain federal claims on the property, the federal government holds surface right ownership while the state owns the mineral rights. Surface right ownership would transfer to the state if the partners choose to relinquish the federal claims.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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