Mining Explorers 2016: Strategic Metals Ltd.

Strategic Metals Ltd. has more than 100 mineral properties in the Yukon, making it the largest claim holder in the territory. These properties, along with projects it has in neighboring Northwest Territories and northern British Columbia, are prospective for gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper, tin, tungsten, vanadium and lithium.

The company started off its 2016 exploration by acquiring additional information at some of its most prospective gold projects in Yukon.

The work included trenching at OOO, a silver-gold property located midway between Goldcorp Inc.'s Coffee gold project and Rockhaven Resources Ltd.'s Klaza gold-silver project.

Chip sample results from one hand-dug trench include 570 grams per metric ton silver, 2.76 percent lead, 0.08 g/t gold over 6.4 meters; and 106 g/t silver, 0.84 percent lead and 0.03 g/t gold over 9.6 meters. These highlighted intervals are separated by a 5.6-meter area of weakly mineralized rocks.

Several rock samples collected by prospectors from elsewhere on the OOO property have returned between one and 6.54 g/t gold.

In August, the company began a second phase of exploration with drilling at Hartless Joe, a gold-silver property located 28 kilometers (17 miles) northeast of Whitehorse. This drilling targeted the King and Queen showings, where trenching during the phase-1 program returned chip samples averaging 44.3 grams-per-metric-ton gold across 2.1 meters and 462 g/t gold across 0.4 meters, respectively.

Strategic also drilled the Hopper and the Mars properties as part of the phase-2 program.

The primary target at Hopper, located along the Aishihik road in southwestern Yukon, is a gold-rich skarn horizon that was intercepted in two 2015 drill holes. Located 350 meters apart, these intercepts graded 43.6 g/t gold over one meter and 12.15 g/t gold over 2.65 meters. The skarn horizon is believed to have a shallow dip and the mineralization is open in all directions.

Drilling at the Mars property, located 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Hartless Joe, tested an extension of a 2004 drill intercept that averaged 6.44 g/t gold over 4.57 meters.

As a prospect generator, Strategic identifies and stakes promising projects and completes initial exploration to confirm the geologic potential of its targets. The company then seeks partners to advance the projects and shares in the blue-sky potential via shareholdings or royalty interests. Through this strategy, the prospect generator holds an 8.3 percent interest in ATAC Resources Ltd., which is expanding Carlin-style gold deposits at its Rackla Gold project; a 41.4 percent stake in Rockhaven Resources Ltd., which has identified large gold-silver zones at the Klaza property; and a 16.5 percent interest in Silver Range Resources Ltd., a company that recently shifted its focus to generating gold projects in Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Nevada.

-SHANE LASLEY