The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Junior targets porphyry discoveries at Whistler Orbit and Island Mountain, first drilling at Muddy Creek with 31,000-meter program
Kiska Metals Corp. is navigating exploration of the Whistler gold-copper project toward expanding targets identified during its 2009 and 2010 programs - which were driven largely by Kennecott Exploration Co.'s desire to look at the overall potential of the 203-square-mile, or 557-square-kilometer, property in order to evaluate its back-in rights.
After spending the winter months transporting in supplies over a 110-mile, or 175-kilometer, ice road and relocating its camp next to a newly built 3,000-foot, or 1,000-meter, airstrip, the Vancouver B.C.-based junior began drilling in early March.
"With the launch of the 2011 exploration efforts at Whistler, we have designed a large program to build upon our porphyry discoveries at Island Mountain, Raintree West, Raintree East and Rainmaker in this new gold-copper district in Alaska," Kiska Metals President and CEO Jason Weber said.
This year's 31,000-meter drill program will be conducted in two phases. The first stage, from early March through late April, is focusing on the Whistler Orbit - a promising region covering a 5-kilometer-, or 3-mile-, radius centered on the 5.6 million-gold-equivalent-ounce Whistler Deposit. When drilling resumes in June the company will kick-off its Island Mountain program as well as make a return to the Whistler Orbit.
During the span between these two segments of the exploration program, crews will be putting the finishing touches on the new airstrip and camp in preparation for the busy summer season, Weber told Mining News April 12.
Peeking below the till
Encompassing the Raintree West, Raintree East and Rainmaker discoveries - the Whistler Orbit is largely covered with a 10-to-15-meter layer of glacial till, making the underlying geology tough to discern from the surface. For this reason Kiska has brought a light-weight rig to drill around 50 shallow holes to investigate the underlying bedrock.
The small rig is capable of drilling about one shallow hole per pay and can be moved to a new site in about 15 minutes, making it an efficient tool for generating targets for a rig capable of deeper drilling.
As of April 12 crews had completed about 35 of the holes, putting drill crews on track to complete the target of 50 holes by the end of the month.
"Whistler is a very large property with as many as 20 additional targets that have yet to be adequately tested by drilling. In the 2011 program, our shallow grid-based drilling program will provide us with a cost effective method to rapidly assess and prioritize these targets and make new porphyry discoveries in the overburden-covered areas surrounding the Whistler deposit," Weber said.
Kiska has plotted lines of 200-meter-spaced holes over areas of interest identified with previous exploration, including an extensive 3-D induced polarization survey flown over the Whistler Orbit in 2009.
Though Kiska has plotted areas it wants to glimpse below the glacial sediments, Weber said the program is flexible enough to respond to the results of the drilling.
Information gleaned from these 75-to-100-meter deep holes will assist Kiska in narrowing the choice of targets for deeper drilling during the second phase of the 2011 program.
"A lot of it is going to be using alteration to vector where we are going, and there is no shortage of alteration in that area, so I think we are going to have good data for targeting drill holes," Weber said.
Expanding Raintree West
The first phase of 2011 drilling at Whistler also includes a larger rig targeting the expansion of Raintree West, a Whistler Orbit prospect located about 1,500 meters east of the 5.6 million gold-equivalent-ounce Whistler deposit.
WH09-002 - drilled by Kiska in 2009 - cut 471.6 meters that averaged 0.93 gold-equivalent grams per metric ton (0.38 g/t gold, 4.7 g/t silver, 0.09 percent copper, 0.35 percent zinc and 0.15 percent lead) at Raintree West. The lower 40 meters of this intercept graded 2.27 g/t gold-equivalent (0.98 g/t gold, 10.2 g/t silver, 0.21 percent copper, 0.85 percent zinc and 0.35 percent lead.)
WH10-24 - collared about 250 meters southeast of WH09-002 - cut 299 meters averaging 0.47 g/t gold, 5.4 g/t silver, 0.04 percent copper, 0.51 percent zinc and 0.23 percent lead; and includes 83 meters at 1.2 g/t gold 11.8 g/t silver, 0.06 percent copper, 1.08 percent zinc and 0.53 percent lead. This mineralization is dominated by lead-zinc-bearing veinlets interpreted as late-stage features developed peripheral to high temperature porphyry style mineralization.
"Results to this point indicate we are drilling peripheral-style mineralization and alteration on the southern and eastern margins of the Raintree West porphyry centre," Kiska Vice President of Exploration Mark Baknes said after the 2010 season. "Our exploration efforts at Raintree West in 2011 will focus on expanding the target to the north where we see multiple lines of evidence suggestive of a productive porphyry system."
Following this evidence, a larger drill is stepping out to the north and west from WH09-002.
"We just finished our fourth hole with the deep rig," said Weber.
The Kiska executive said he hopes to have results back from the assay lab by the end of April, however he has received word that the assay labs that are typically quick to turn around results during the early spring are already back-logged.
A total of 20,000 meters of drilling is planned at Whistler Orbit in 2011.
Island Mountain in June
Kiska is also preparing to drill an additional 11,000 meters at Island Mountain, about 14 miles, or 23 kilometers south of the Whistler deposit. This program will combine expansion of known mineralization and reconnaissance drill testing of early stage surface and geochemical targets defined in 2010.
Rock and soil sampling at Island Mountain have defined a 2,000-by-1,500-meter geochemical footprint encompassing the Discovery Breccia that has only been partly drill tested and a second, comparable anomaly further to the north that has yet to be drilled. A detailed magnetic survey, expected to start by the beginning of May, will assist in narrowing the drill targets for the summer program.
Kiska cut two distinct mineralized zones in the Discovery Breccia when they first drilled this target in 2009. The upper section of discovery hole IM09-001 cut 150 meters averaging 1.06 g/t gold equivalent (0.72 g/t gold, 2.37 g/t silver and 0.16 percent copper) and the lower 106.9 meters of the hole averaged 1.32 g/t gold-equivalent (1.22 g/t gold 0.69 g/t silver and .05 percent copper).
Since the discovery, Kiska has drilled 15 holes at Island Mountain. The best hole to date is IM10-013 which cut 114.9 meters averaging 1.25 g/t gold, 4 g/t silver and 0.23 percent copper, beginning at a depth of 50.1 meters. This interval was contained within a larger drill intercept of 362 meters averaging 0.56 g/t gold, 2 g/t silver, and 0.11 percent copper beginning at a depth of 42 meters.
"We are certainly in the early stages of our interpretation of Island Mountain, but hole 13 is the best hole drilled to date. The recognition of classic porphyry-style mineralization suggests that the breccia bodies and Lower Zone styles of mineralization could be peripheral to a larger porphyry system laterally and at depth," Weber said. "In addition, this hole demonstrates that the mineralizing system can produce broad zones of gold and copper mineralization as well as high grade."
While one drill continues to expand on this known area of mineralization, a second rig will be testing peripheral targets. In addition to investigating new targets at Island Mountain, the roving drill is also expected to cut an inaugural hole at Muddy Creek, an exciting gold target about six miles, or 10 kilometers northwest of Island Mountain.
Muddy Creek is distinct from the other targets at Whistler. While the porphyry discoveries at Island Mountain and the Whistler Orbit are related to a 75 million year old intrusive suite, Muddy Creek seems to be more akin to the 65 million year old mineralization at Millrock Resources Inc.'s neighboring Estelle project.
Muddy Creek's potential is underscored by the 4.72 g/t gold average grade of 150 rock samples collected over a 4-square-mile, or 10.5-square-kilometer, area. This geochemical work in conjunction with a geophysical survey has outlined seven prospects that await drilling.
"In the short period since Kiska's commencement of exploration at Whistler in August of 2009 and the completion of the Kennecott trigger program in late 2010, we have accomplished a great deal and I am proud of what our exploration team has achieved, notably at Island Mountain where we made the initial discovery and now, only 15 holes later, have started to delineate a gold-copper deposit," said Weber.
"We have made new discoveries in the Whistler Orbit area and have identified numerous targets that have yet to be drill-tested.
In 2011, we will be in the unique position of delineating these new discoveries while also drilling new high-potential targets that could lead to additional discoveries in the Whistler area."
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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