Zackly open-pit resource area emerging

PolarX Ltd. Sept. 25 said drilling is beginning to outline a thick zone of shallow, high-grade gold-copper-silver mineralization about 850 meters east of the Zackly skarn deposit that show the potential for open-pit mining on the Australian explorer's Alaska Range project.

First tapped by ZX-18020 – a hole reported earlier this year that cut 54.6 meters averaging 2.8 grams per metric ton gold, 9.4 g/t silver and 0.6 percent copper from a depth of 2.5 meters – this thick new zone is near-surface, relatively flat-lying and high-grade.

ZX‐18024, drilled about 40 meters north of hole 20, cut 46.7 meters of 3.1 g/t gold, 0.6 percent copper and 3.3 g/t silver from a depth of 37 meters. This thick intercept included a 21.7-meter higher grade zoned that averaged 5.2 g/t gold, 0.8 percent copper and 4.1 g/t silver from 59 meters.

PolarX said the high gold grades and thick, sub‐horizontal geometry of this mineralization encountered in these two holes could be suitable for low cost open‐pit extraction, subject to an economic resource being established through further drilling and feasibility studies.

The company plans to expand this new zone both along strike and down‐dip with additional drilling. This has the potential to rapidly expand the tonnage of the Zackly resource, especially if the thickness and high‐grades of mineralization remain consistent.

This would go a long way toward PolarX' initial goal for Alaska Range – build enough metals inventory to support a feasibility study for an economically viable mining operation on this land package just north of the Denali Highway.

The Zackly deposit hosted a historical resource when PolarX acquired the property in 2017. A 13-hole drill program carried out last year provided enough current information to outline 3.4 million metric tons of inferred resource grading 1.2 percent (90.4 million pounds) copper, 2 g/t (213,000 ounces) gold and 14 g/t (1.5 million oz) silver, that meets Australian Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) mineral reporting standards.

The thick copper-gold-silver mineralization identified in ZX‐18020 and ZX‐18024, about 850 meters west of the current resource, moves PolarX closer to building the minimum resource needed to begin appraising the feasibility of developing a mine at Zackly.

Other holes that cut mineralization below and to the east of the Zackly resource will likely further add to the gold-copper-silver inventory at Zackly.

If enough resource can be outlined with further drilling around holes 20 and 24, PolarX sees the potential of beginning with an open-pit mine there and transitioning to an underground operation to mine the ‐vertical mineralization established in the current resource and extensions 350 meters to the east.

In the meantime, results are pending from the balance of the 2018 program at Alaska Range, including results from nine additional holes drilled this year; sampling and mapping results from Mars, a porphyry copper-gold target west of Zackly; sampling and mapping at Moonwalk, a gold target at the north end of the project; and high-resolution magnetic geophysical surveys flown over the skarn and porphyry targets on the Stellar property, which makes up the eastern half of the Alaska Range project, and hosts Zackly, SE Zackly, Mars and Gemini.

Once all the results are in, an updated resource for the Zackly skarn is expected.

–SHANE LASLEY