The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Caribou Copper kicks off late-season drill program to confirm 64 million-pound resource in Southcentral Alaska deposit
Finalizing a deal initiated in 2008, Yow Capital Corp., now Caribou Copper Resources Ltd., has set out to explore the Caribou Dome copper property in Southcentral Alaska, about 160 miles, or 257 kilometers, northeast of Anchorage.
In rapid-fire fashion, the new Alaska explorer secured an option to acquire the high-grade copper project, closed a C$1.2 million financing and began mobilizing equipment for a late-season drill program at Caribou Dome.
While in transit to the project on the south flank of the Alaska Range, Caribou Copper President Pierre Vella-Zarb and Executive Vice President David Lajack told Mining News that the 1,000-meter drill program was expected to begin Sept. 18.
Deal delayed
After laying the groundwork to acquire Caribou Dome in 2008, the Ottawa-based junior decided to postpone the purchase until the financial markets recovered.
"The brokerage advised against raising the funds last year when the markets were down. Too many things were in a down-spin, and they thought it would be too difficult to raise money in that market climate," Vella-Zarb explained.
With improved market conditions and copper prices nearing US$3 a pound, Yow raised C$1.2 million through a public offering completed on Sept. 1. The company sold 8 million units consisting of one common share and one-half common share purchase warrant each, at a price of C15 cents per unit. A full warrant entitles its holder to purchase one common share of Yow at a price of C25 cents until Sept.1, 2010, and at C35 cents thereafter until Sept. 1, 2011.
With financing in place, Yow completed the transaction to buy out 1618254 Ontario Limited, which holds an option from C-D Development Corp. to acquire the 31 mining claims known as the Caribou Dome Property and 66 adjacent mining claims staked by 1618254, which together total 10,240 acres.
The shareholders of 1618254 received 2.55 million common shares of Yow on a one-for-one basis in exchange for their 1618254 shares.
Closing the deal in early September, Yow changed its name to Caribou Copper and set out to explore Caribou Dome in the Talkeetna Mining District.
Confirm resource before winter
Caribou Copper quickly began mobilizing equipment needed to complete a drill program aimed at confirming a 64 million-pound historical copper resource.
"Our goal is to get in there before the snow flies," Vella-Zarb said. "We are going to try to get three holes in and, depending on what we see there, we may try to get a fourth hole down. It all depends on the weather, and if it lets us get that in before the end of the month, I think we will be okay."
The 1,000 meter-drill program is focused on confirming the non-NI 43-101-compliant resource of 550,400 short tons of ore grading 5.84 percent copper and about one-third-ounce-per-ton silver. The junior said the estimate, calculated in 1970 by R. H Saraphim Engineering Ltd., is for only three of the nine known copper-bearing lodes at the prospect.
Compiling and digitizing the historic data assisted the explorer in identifying the drill targets for the 2009 program.
The three holes planned this year will target two of the zones of the historic resource. One hole will do infill historic drilling focused on deeper mineralization than that included in the 1970 resource. The additional holes will step out to the west in order to trace the deeper mineralization in that direction.
After re-assaying historic drill core, Caribou Copper is confident the drilling completed this fall will be sufficient to complete the first NI 43-101-compliant resource on the prospect.
Overcoming metallurgy
Caribou Dome was known as the Denali copper prospect when it was staked in 1963 for a prospecting syndicate led by Leo Mark Anthony, owner of C-D Development Corp.
Historic exploration and development work on the property from the discovery in 1963 through 1971 included trenching and more than 36,000 feet of surface and underground drilling.
In 1969, Donald L. Stevens, the qualified geologist who prepared the NI 43-101 technical report for Caribou Copper, was the field manager of an underground exploration program that included driving an adit nearly 1,400 feet from the 4,360-foot level.
The following year a spiral decline was driven from the 4,510-foot level down a vertical distance of 1,706 feet, which exposed mineralization at depth and provided platforms for the underground drill program.
The historic exploration program outlined a high-grade copper deposit on the property, but due to the fine-grained nature of the mineralization, recovery of the ore was deemed difficult.
Modern advances in metallurgy are believed to have overcome this problem. Copper bio-leach and heap-leach techniques could make development of the advanced-stage copper project more viable.
"We have done some metallurgical testing on (Caribou Dome mineralization), and things are looking good, Lajack said.
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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