The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
TCK: NYSE/ TCK.B: TSX
Chairman: Norman Keevil
President and CEO: Don Lindsay
Vice President of Exploration: Alex Christopher
From grassroots discoveries to brownfields expansions, Teck Resources Ltd. is involved in a broad spectrum of exploration across Alaska, British Columbia and Yukon Territory.
The Vancouver, B.C.-based mining company had drills turning at three copper-gold exploration projects in northwestern British Columbia during 2013.
Galore Creek Mining Company, a 50-50 partnership between Teck and NovaGold Resources Inc., completed a 10,000-meter drill program primarily focused on expanding Legacy, a 700-meter-long zone of copper mineralization adjacent to Galore Creek's Central pit.
The Legacy zone was discovered during a 27,900-meter drill program completed in 2012.
Highlights from drilling at Legacy include: GC12-0886 cut 245 meters grading 0.83 percent copper, 0.15 g/t gold and 7.2 g/t silver; GC12-0877 cut 101 meters grading 1.01 percent copper, 0.39 g/t gold and 5.6 g/t silver; and GC12-0849 cut 86 meters grading 1.31 percent copper, 0.46 g/t gold and 6 g/t silver.
According to a prefeasibility study completed in 2011, Galore Creek has proven and probable reserves of 528 million metric tons averaging 0.6 percent (6.8 billion pounds) copper, 0.32 g/t (5.4 million ounces) gold and 6.02 g/t (102.2 million ounces) silver.
The results of the 2012 program are being incorporated into an updated resource estimate for Galore Creek.
Some 26 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of the Galore Creek property, Teck grabbed a 75 percent stake in the Schaft Creek copper-gold-molybdenum-silver project.
Under a joint venture agreement between Teck and Copper Fox Metals Inc., Teck agreed to pay C$60 million to Copper Fox, which includes a C$20 million initial payment and two subsequent $20-million milestone payments.
Teck has also agreed to fund the first C$60 million of joint venture costs prior to a production decision.
According to a feasibility study released by Copper Fox in February, Schaft Creek has proven and probable reserves of 940.8 million metric tons averaging 0.27 percent (5.6 billion pounds) copper, 0.19 g/t (5.7 million ounces) gold, 0.018 percent (363.5 million pounds) molybdenum and 1.72 g/t (51.7 million ounces) silver.
Teck, as operator of the Schaft Creek JV, completed a 2013 summer program consisting of roughly 10,000 meters of drilling aimed at extending the Paramount zone to the east as well as geotechnical studies to collect information for ongoing pit slope stability studies.
Roughly 50 kilometers (30 miles) farther northeast, Teck is exploring GJ, an earlier-stage copper-gold project it optioned from NGEx Resources Inc. GJ has a measured and indicated resource of 153.3 million metric tons, grading 0.32 percent (1.1 billion pounds) copper and 0.37 g/t (1.8 million ounces) gold.
Teck can earn an initial 51 percent stake in GJ by investing C$12 million into the property by the end of 2014 and up to a 75 percent interest by increasing these expenditures to C$44 million by the end of 2020.
Through 2012, Teck had invested C$9.1 million in the property.
Teck advised NGEx that the 2013 exploration includes geological mapping, surface geochemical sampling, re-logging of existing drill core and two or three drill holes testing new targets on the property.
Though industrial minerals are Teck's mainstay, the diversified miner is investigating gold prospects in the Yukon Territory and Alaska.
Wolf - a series of four claim blocks that stretch some 55 kilometers (35 miles) east from the White River in southwestern Yukon - is one such gold prospect the company is exploring.
Permit applications filed by Teck in 2012 indicate the company planned an exploration program at Wolf that would include geophysics, trenching and 2,500 meters of drilling.
It is unclear at the time of this report how much of this program the company executed.
In Alaska, Teck has forged an exploration alliance with Millrock Resources Inc. on Estelle, a gold-dominant project about 170 kilometers (105 miles) northwest of Anchorage.
The 2013 exploration program at Estelle involved geophysical, geochemical and geological surveys to better define an induced polarization anomaly discovered in 2012 that revealed a northwest-southeast trending zone of high chargeability.
The highest chargeability occurs southeast of drill hole SE12-004 (41.5 meters averaging 1.1 g/t gold) providing a vector to possible higher-grade mineralization to the southeast where mineralization is open both along strike and down dip.
The Red Dog area of Northwest Alaska continues to be a primary focus of Teck's zinc exploration.
The company reports that it drilled 32 exploration holes in the larger Red Dog area during a two-year program.
During 2012, Teck completed 4,000 meters of drilling at Noatak, a large block of State of Alaska mining claims west of the Red Dog Mine.
Anarraaq-Aktigiruq, located roughly eight miles (13 kilometers) northwest of Red Dog, is among the high-quality targets Teck is pursuing on the Noatak claims.
Teck discovered the deposit in 1999, subsequently establishing an inferred resource of about 19 million tons grading 15.8 percent zinc, 4.8 percent lead, and 2.1 oz/t silver.
Highlights from drilling at Anarraqq include 23 meters averaging 18.1 percent zinc and 5.9 percent lead; and 9.3 meters averaging 25.9 percent zinc and 2.9 percent lead.
In addition to exploration drilling, Teck's multi-year regional exploration program in the larger Red Dog area includes regional dataset expansion through geology, geochemistry and geophysics.
Teck also completed infill drilling in the immediate area of the Red Dog Mine, located on Native land leased from NANA Regional Corp.
Cash and short-term deposits: C$2.8 billion (June 30, 2013)
Working capital: C$4.1 billion (June 30, 2013)
Market capitalization: C$15.63 billion (Oct. 1, 2013)
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