The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. Nov. 24 said the 2015 exploration program at the Palmer copper-zinc-silver-gold project in Southeast Alaska resulted in the discovery of new volcanogenic massive sulfide-style prospects; extension of the Palmer deposit; as well as engineering and environmental work that will be needed to advance the project to permitting.
Regional exploration of the 100 percent Constantine-controlled Haines Block lands, which surround the core of the Palmer property, discovered a 2,000-meter-long trend of massive sulphide boulders associated with altered and mineralized volcanics at the Tsirku prospect, located nine kilometers (five miles) south of the Palmer deposit.
Boulder chip and grab samples from the areas returned assays of up to 4.99 copper, 6.32 percent zinc, 68 grams per metric ton silver and 1.97 g/t gold.
Mineralization at this new prospect, which resembles the Palmer deposit, supports management's belief in the potential to discover other VMS deposits on the property.
Additionally, grab samples grading 8.12 percent copper and 15.4 percent zinc were obtained from outcrop at the Waterfall prospect, located 3,000 meters southwest of the Palmer deposit.
The Waterfall prospect occurs adjacent to the silver-rich Cap, where past drilling cut 23.2 meters grading 134 g/t silver.
The HG and Nunatak prospects are located in the same area.
Constantine and Dowa Metals & Mining Co. Ltd. completed 7,736 meters of drilling at the Palmer deposit in 2015.
This program included eight wide-spaced exploration holes, one geotechnical drill hole, and the extension of a 2014 drill hole.
The South Wall EM Zone, including the fault displaced offset of the zone referred to as the Lower Offset target, was the primary target of this drilling.
EM Zone mineralization was intersected in three holes, extending the known extent of the mineralized system about 100 meters east and 65 meters up-dip.
Highlights from this drilling include: 4.2 meters grading 0.5 percent copper, 3.98 percent zinc, 60.4 g/t silver, 0.65 g/t gold in CMR15-75; three meters grading 2.32 percent copper and 14.9 g/t silver in hole CMR15-75; eight meters grading 1.33 percent zinc and 21.6 g/t silver in hole CMR15-73; and 10.5 meters grading 1.56 percent zinc in hole CMR15-72.
Four holes targeted the Lower Offset target below the Kudo fault, a structure that displaces the down-dip projection of the EM Zone.
One of the holes, CMR15-69, successfully intersected EM Zone equivalent massive pyrrhotite mineralization and intense hydrothermal alteration approximately 160 meters below the fault, including 7.2 meters grading 0.43 percent copper and 0.46 percent zinc.
The other three drill holes to test the Lower Offset target area did not intersect EM Zone correlative stratigraphy.
A large portion of the deposit remains open to expansion in the immediate South Wall and RW resource areas.
Borehole and surface electromagnetic geophysical surveys identified several zones of high conductivity.
Conductive plate modeling of the borehole data has generated targets of potential mineralization adjacent to the existing mineral resource and at depth below the current extent of surface drilling.
Modeling of surface EM data has generated conductive plate models targets in areas along trend of the RW and South Wall resource areas.
The new geophysical data will be incorporated into planning and drill hole targeting for 2016.
Constantine and Dowa are putting together work plans and budgets for 2016.
Dowa, which can earn a 49 percent stake in the Palmer project by investing US$22 million by February 2017, has invested more than US$15 million at Palmer.
Constantine continues to build its advanced project team by adding: Ian Cunningham-Dunlop, senior adviser, advanced projects and engineering; Henry Bogert, senior mining engineer; and Rick Richins, senior advisor, permitting.
The company also signed a memorandum of understanding with Alaska Large Mine Permitting Team to gain early input into baseline program design and ensure long-lead-time data is collected in a manner consistent with the needs of state regulators.
A variety of geotechnical, engineering, and environmental baseline studies were completed during the summer exploration season.
This work includes geotechnical studies, rock geochemistry, flora and fauna surveys, fish surveys, surface and groundwater hydrology, water quality, and meteorology surveys.
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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