Arctic ore sorting holes cut high grades

Trilogy Metals Inc. Jan. 16 reported that large diameter holes drilled at its Arctic deposit – part of the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in the Ambler mining district of Northwest Alaska – returned high-grade copper and zinc.

The five PQ sized (3.35-inch diameter) holes drilled at Artic in 2017 were designed to collect 2 tons of representative mill-feed material for bulk ore-sorting testing at an independent facility in Kentucky.

Ore sorting is a technique that identifies un-mineralized rock and separates it prior to the mill. By doing so, the ore being fed into the mill is higher grade and the process facility produces less tailings.

Prior to the ore sorting tests, a portion of the large diameter core was sent to an assay lab for analysis.

Highlighted intercepts from these infill holes include:

31.11 meters of 1.58 percent copper, 2.84 percent zinc, 0.69 percent lead, 0.38 grams per metric ton gold and 30.79 g/t silver; and 15.25 meters of 2.91 percent copper, 4.34 percent zinc, 0.96 percent lead, 0.66 g/t gold, and 44.27 g/t silver in hole AR17-0159;

25.95 meters of 2.43 percent copper, 1.19 percent zinc, 0.16 percent lead, 0.59 g/t gold, and 46.31 g/t silver; and 17.23 meters of 4.42 percent copper, 5.32 percent zinc, 1.37 percent lead, 0.13 g/t gold and 43.92 g/t silver in AR17-0160;

17.6 meters of 2.69 percent copper, 5.5 percent zinc, 1.14 percent lead, 0.66 g/t gold, and 54.47 g/t silver, and 4.40 meters of 3.01 percent copper, 3.8 percent zinc, 0.95 percent lead, 0.54 g/t gold, and 50.9 g/t silver in AR17-0161;

6.75 meters of 2.35 percent copper, 6 percent zinc, 1.57 percent lead, 0.71 g/t gold, and 43.27 g/t silver in AR17-0162; and

6.48 meters of 2.95 percent copper, 6.33 percent zinc, 1.40 percent lead, 0.84 g/t gold, and 44.23 g/t silver in AR17-0163.

In addition to the 785.2 meters of PQ sized core drilling, 273.8 meters of sonic drilling was completed to collect geotechnical, hydrological, geothermal, and hydrogeological information for the tailings management facilities and waste rock dump for the project in support of a pre-feasibility study (PFS) slated to be released by the end of March.

"We expect this study will demonstrate that Arctic is one of the highest grade, open pitable copper deposits in the world. And it is located in a mining friendly jurisdiction in the United States where both our shareholders and stakeholders will be able to reap the benefits of our efforts," said Trilogy Metals President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse. "Meanwhile, the Alaska Industrial and Export Authority (AIDEA) continues to advance permitting of the Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project with the scoping process set to be finalized by the end of January."

The ore sorting studies will be carried out after the PFS is released and, if determined to be advantageous to overall project, will be incorporated in subsequent studies.

–SHANE LASLEY