Drill cuts 79m of 2.35% copper at Bornite

Trilogy Metals Inc. Oct. 28 reported the final set of assay results from the 2019 drill program at Bornite, part of the company's Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP) in the Ambler mining district of Northwest Alaska.

The open-pit portion of Bornite hosts 40.5 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 1.02 percent (913 million pounds) copper; and 84.1 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.95 percent (1.77 billion lb) copper.

The underground portion of Bornite hosts 57.8 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 2.89 percent (3.68 billion lb) copper.

The combined open-pit and underground resources at Bornite also averages 0.019 percent cobalt, which comes to 77 million lb of the battery metal.

"One of the factors that drew me to become involved with the company is the fact that the Bornite project is one of the highest-grade copper projects in the world," said James Gowans, interim president and CEO of Trilogy Metals. "As an engineer, who had constructed high-quality mines throughout the world, the Bornite project has many affinities to some of the world-class assets that I have worked on, specifically the size and grade. I look forward to advancing this project, which nicely complements our other high-grade project at Arctic."

This year's US$9.2 million drill program at Bornite, which was funded by South32 Ltd., included 10 holes (7,610 meters) of drilling that primarily focused on expanding and upgrading the underground resource.

In September, Trilogy reported results from the first four holes drilled at Bornite this year.

At a cut-off grade of 0.5 percent copper, results from these holes include:

• RC19-257, drilled within the eastern portion of underground inferred resource, cut three mineralized intervals, including: 3.7 meters of 1.32 percent copper from 546.2 meters; and 4.4 meters of 2.6 percent copper from 587.4 meters.

• RC19-258, drilled about 150 meters north of the existing resource, cut three mineralized intervals, including 23.2 meters of 0.76 percent copper from 636.3 meters.

• RC19-259, drilled about 425 meters north of RC19-257 cut seven mineralized intervals including: 56.1 meters of 1.81 percent copper from 512.1 meters.

• RC19-261, drilled right on the northern boundary of the underground resource, cut six significant mineralized intervals: 2.9 meters of 2.63 percent copper from 304.6 meters; 35 meters of 1.98 percent copper from 387.4 meters; 16 meters of 2.02 percent copper from 426.6 meters; 54.1 meters of 1.11 percent copper from 526.6 meters; 3.1 meters of 1.84 percent copper from 651.9 meters; and 29 meters of 1.47 percent copper from 661.6 meters.

Three of the new holes also encountered significant copper mineralization at Bornite:

• RC19-0264, drilled about 225 meters south of RC19-261, cut 20 mineralized intervals including: 48.1 meters averaging 1.13 percent copper from a depth of 420 meters; 44.7 meters of 1.29 percent copper from 471.9 meters; 78.9 meters averaging 2.35 percent copper from 718.7 meters; and 15.5 meters averaging 3.24 percent copper from 801.3 meters.

• RC19-0265, drilled at the eastern edge of Bornite underground resource area, cut 11 mineralized intervals including: 12.4 meters averaging 1.95 percent copper from a depth of 560.5 meters; 16.3 meters of 2.93 percent copper from 594.8 meters; and 24.3 meters of 1.52 percent copper from 633.7 meters.

• RC19-260, drilled about 250 meters north of Bornite underground resource, cut eight mineralized intervals including: 8.1 meters averaging 1.75 percent copper from a depth of 664.6 meters.

The remaining three holes, which were exploratory holes drilled as large step-outs from the deposit, did not encounter any significant copper.

With the completion of the 2019 program, South32 has invested US$30 million into exploration at Bornite. The Australian company now has the option to acquire a 50 percent joint venture interest in UKMP by paying Trilogy US$150 million plus around US$15 million toward investments Trilogy made at Arctic over the past three years.

In addition to the US$9.2 million program at Arctic, Trilogy funded US$7 million focused on collecting data for a feasibility study at Arctic, a high-grade copper-zinc-gold-silver project about 16 miles northeast of Bornite; and a US$2 million exploration program funded equally by Trilogy and South32 tested Sunshine, a prospect about 7.5 miles northwest of Arctic.

Additional drill results from Arctic and Sunshine are expected in the coming weeks.

–SHANE LASLEY