The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Amassing a huge land position in Alaska and picking up a promising gold-silver project in B.C., new junior plans robust programs
Brixton Metals Corp., the newest explorer and among the largest landowners in the Kahiltna Terrane region of Southwest Alaska, is on a mission to acquire large-scale precious metals properties and advance them to feasibility. To this end, the company has cut exploration deals to explore Millrock Resources Inc.'s Cristo gold-copper property in Southwest Alaska and Kiska Metals Corp.'s Thorn gold-silver-copper project in Northern British Columbia.
"Brixton's vision is to focus on only large-scale projects which we feel are becoming increasingly rare," Brixton President and CEO Mac Bell told Mining News. "We were attracted to both Cristo and Thorn because we feel they have the ability to be proven as large-scale deposits."
Since signing agreements on the properties during the summer, Brixton has since worked to complete a reverse takeover of Marksmen Capital Inc., a capital pool company. The junior completed the transaction and began trading on the TSX Ventures Exchange on Dec. 7. At the same time the company raised an initial C$1.1 million through private placement.
Enormous Kahilt property
In July Brixton entered into a tentative exploration agreement with Millrock on the Cristo claim group, a large intrusion-related gold and porphyry copper-gold prospect located to the southeast of Kiska's Whistler copper-gold project.
The Cristo claim group was discovered by Millrock through reconnaissance exploration of the Kahiltna Terrane in 2009. The company originally staked the Monte Cristo and St. Eugene properties, and later, through additional claim-staking, consolidated them into a single land package.
Brixton added to this land package by staking an additional 535 claims that stretch westward from the Cristo project to the east border of the Whistler property and includes another large block of claims between the northern portions of Whistler and Millrock's Estelle gold project. The Kahilt property, which Brixton dubbed this larger land position, covers some 152 square miles, or 394 square kilometers, of the underexplored Kahiltna Terrane.
"We will also stake additional claims in the area if we feel there are some high potential areas remaining, but for now we're content with the very large land package we've already assembled," Bell said.
Over the course of the 2009 and 2010 field seasons, Millrock geologists collected 80 rock samples and 213 soil samples at the Cristo claims. This prospecting turned up gold-copper mineralization at St. Eugene and gold-only mineralization at Monte Cristo.
Millrock says mineralization at the St. Eugene prospect occurs in three separate zones hosted by hornfels adjacent to a diorite intrusion. Rock and soil samples have outlined a 700-meter-long zone with rock samples up to 1 percent copper and 2.1 grams per metric ton gold.
At Monte Cristo, rock samples with grades up to 4.2 g/t gold and talus fines samples returning assays up to 3 g/t gold Millrock geologists have outlined mineralized zones on two ridges about 300 meters apart. The glacial debris area between these zones has yet to be tested.
In October Brixton and Millrock hammered out a final option agreement on the Cristo claims. Brixton can earn a 100 percent interest in the property by spending US$5 million on exploration, paying Millrock US$330,000 and issuing that company 2 million Brixton shares, plus 2 million purchase warrants with an exercise price of C$1 per share.
Millrock is finalizing a technical report on the Cristo claim group that it plans to deliver by the end of 2010; thereafter, Brixton will take over exploration of the property.
Brixton Chairman Gary Thompson said the junior will focus on defining drill targets at the St. Eugene and Monte showings once it takes over exploration of the Cristo claims in 2011.
"Our approach at Kahilt will be to continue to advance the Cristo claims through soil-rock sampling, likely airborne geophysical surveys like Z-TEM and drilling," he explained. "As for the rest of the Kahilt properties, we will conduct stream sediment sampling, soils and rock sampling, geological mapping and select locations for geophysical (surveys)."
Brixton has a US$1.25 million work commitment on the Cristo claims in 2011.
Excitement builds at Thorn
In June, Brixton tied up the right to earn a stake in Kiska's Thorn gold-silver-copper property about 130 kilometers, or 80 miles, south of Atlin in northwestern British Columbia.
Kiska geologists have identified three main types of high-grade copper-gold-silver mineralization within altered porphyry, as well as high-grade gold-silver mineralization in the surrounding sediments and volcanics.
"The Thorn property has great potential for high-grade silver and gold, and we are excited to advance the project," Thompson said.
Brixton can acquire a 51 percent interest in the 36,000-acre Thorn project by paying Kiska C$200,000, issuing 400,000 Brixton shares over the first three years; and spending C$4 million in exploration over four years.
Anticipating a C$1 million exploration program at Thorn in 2011, Brixton plans to drill around 2,500 meters at the property. A region known as the Talisker Zone will be the primary target of the drilling.
Hole THN04-29, drilled at Talisker in 2004 by Kiska predecessor Rimfire Minerals Corp. and joint venture partners, cut 56.1 meters averaging 1.27 g/t gold and 16.7 g/t silver. A follow up hole drilled in 2005 intersected 4.2 meters grading 4.44 g/t gold, 407.9 g/t silver and 2.95 percent copper within a 43.9-meter zone of 0.76 g/t gold, 48.9 g/t silver and 0.36 percent copper. Brixton is planning to step out from the historic drilling to build an initial resource at this zone.
"The Talisker zone has a northeast trend so our plan is to step along the zone in both NE/SW to start to build resource numbers. The 2011 program will focus on Talisker zone but we are reviewing all the property data since there are many showings," Thompson explained.
The Oban zone, a silver-rich area about 750 meters southwest of Talisker, will be one target Brixton investigates in 2011. Several holes drilled at Oban in 2003 and 2004 cut significant silver-gold mineralization. THN03-19 intersected 38.6 meters averaging 38.66 g/t gold and 103.2 g/t silver. The best intercept was in THN03-22, which cut 77.8 meters of 110 g/t silver and 0.68 g/t gold.
Seeking the source of a barite-rich boulder averaging 265 g/t gold and 631 g/t silver found in the bed of Amarillo about 1,500 meters northwest of Talisker and testing the Outlaw zone about the same distance to the southeast are other targets Brixton hopes to investigate.
"We are revising the geological model at Oban to see if we can come up with some potential extension drill targets to test in 2012," the Brixton chairman said. "The Outlaw zone is of interest due to its very large geophysical and soil anomalies however this is likely a 2012 drill target as well."
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.
Reader Comments(0)