New explorer in Yukon's Carmacks copper belt

Granite Creek Copper Ltd. Feb. 19 said it has secured a substantial historical database detailing exploration work conducted on the area covered by the company's newly acquired Stu copper-gold-silver project about 47 kilometers (29 miles) northeast of Carmacks, Yukon.

Granite Creek Copper is a newly formed exploration company that closed a deal to acquire Stu in January. At the time of the acquisition, the company closed a C$1.8 million non-brokered private placement financing and received approval to be listed on the TSX Venture Exchange.

Granite Creek acquired Stu from renowned Yukon prospector Bill Harris, an arm's length private vendor.

This 111-square-kilomter (43 square miles) property lies in a copper-rich district in the Yukon that encompasses Capstone Mining Corp.'s Minto Mine to the northwest and Copper North Mining Corp.'s Carmacks copper-gold-silver project to the southeast.

To acquire full ownership of the property, Granite Creek issued 3 million units – each unit includes one Granite Creek share and a purchase warrant exercisable into another share for C15 cents – and granted a 3 percent net smelter return royalty to Harris.

To help plan an exploration program to rapidly advance Granite Creek, the company acquired an extensive database from United Keno Hill Mines Ltd. that includes complete drill data from a 28-hole drill program carried out in 1980. Granite Creek said this dataset includes logs, assay results and lithology, plus historical trenching and sampling results including detailed geological mapping and key information on geology, structure and possible mineral controls.

Select results from the 1980 drill program include 13.5 meters of 3.44 percent copper, 1.87 grams per metric ton gold and 13.37 g/t silver in hole DDH 80-09; 13.5 meters of 3.51 percent copper, 2.49 g/t gold and 18.35 g/t silver in DDH 80-14; and 12.5 meters of 2.8 percent copper, 4.04 g/t gold and 17.42 g/t silver in DDH 80-18.

As a result of acquiring this comprehensive exploration data, Granite Creek is well positioned to rapidly advance its target development and refinement work for exploration in 2019 in the high-grade Carmacks Copper District.

"Acquiring this database has confirmed our belief in the potential of the Stu project and greatly accelerates the company's planning for the upcoming field season, said Granite Creek Copper President and CEO Timothy Johnson. "Advances made on other deposits in the Carmacks Copper District in the years since UKHM completed this work have led to a greater understanding of mineralizing controls to these high-grade copper-gold-silver deposits. The company is now positioned to apply this knowledge in combination with modern exploration techniques to rapidly advance the project and reveal its potential for new high-grade copper-gold deposits in the mining-friendly Yukon Territory."

The recently formed exploration company is currently compiling the historical data and will use the results to help plan the 2019 field program at Stu. This program is expected to include additional mapping and sampling; rehabilitate and extend historical trenches; and drilling.

Granite Creek Copper is a member of the Metallic Group, a collaboration of exploration companies with a portfolio of assets in established mining districts in the Yukon and Montana. In addition to Granite Creek, Metallic Group member companies include Metallic Minerals in the Yukon's Keno Hill Silver District; and Group Ten Metals in the Stillwater platinum group metals-nickel-copper district of Montana.

–SHANE LASLEY