The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
UKMP North of 60 Mining News – December 20, 2019
Road Metal is a silver-gold prospect on Tectonic Metal's Northway property discovered when intrusive rocks were identified in a gravel pit along the Alaska Highway. Sampling of grab samples collected from the borrow pit returned grades as high as 135 oz/ton silver and 2.51 oz/ton gold.
Tectonic Metals Inc. Dec. 19 reported that its late season rotary air blast (RAB) drill program at the Northway project in eastern Alaska tapped porphyry-style mineralization in both target areas tested.
The 184,000-acre Northway property covers 25 miles (40 kilometers) of robust gold-in-soils along the paved Alaska Highway. Tectonic is exploring this property under a 2018 lease agreement with Doyon Inc., the Alaska Native regional corporation for Interior Alaska.
This milestone agreement with Doyon provides Tectonic with the exclusive right to explore, develop and mine all minerals, ores and mineral products extracted from the Northway property.
"The Northway Project is an excellent example of how industry, Alaska Native Regional Corporations and local villages can collectively work together towards a common goal," said Tectonic Metals President and CEO Tony Reda. "The Northway Project holds a special place in our hearts given the fantastic people within the community and the Doyon organization that we have the privilege of working and interacting with."
More information on Doyon and its mineral properties in Alaska, including its agreement with Tectonic can be read at Doyons vast Tintina Gold Belt potential in the May 2019 edition of North of 60 Mining News.
Following its agreement with Doyon, Tectonic began its exploration with a 2018 reconnaissance program that included stream sediment, soil and rock sampling. This work validated two Northway prospect areas – Target 6 and Target 7 – near the Alaska Highway.
Target 6, an undrilled prospect toward the northwest end of the property, hosts a 1,200-meter-long soil anomaly that has returned soil samples with as much as 597 parts per million copper and 253 parts per billion gold.
Area 7 hosts an 800-meter-long gold-in-soil anomaly toward the southeast end of the property where soil sampling in 2018 returned assays with as much as 2.12 grams per metric ton gold.
Each of these areas coincide with robust geophysical anomalies that indicate large mineralizing systems.
To further prepare these targets for drilling, Tectonic hired Dawson City, Yukon-based GroundTruth Exploration to collect top-of-bedrock samples with its track-mounted GT Probe during a phase-1 2019 program.
GT Probe is a track mounted rig that pushes a casing through the soil to collect a sample from the top of the bedrock. With less environmental disturbance than trenching and much less expensive than drilling, the GT Probe provides geologists a glimpse of the bedrock that is typically hidden by wind-blown glacial sediment and tundra that commonly mask the rocks across the Tintina Gold Belt where Northway is located
The 634 top-of-bedrock samples collected by the GT Probe validated the soil anomalies at both targets, yielding values ranging from three to 497 ppm copper and from one to 51 ppm molybdenum at Target 6; and nine to 359 ppm copper and up to 1.72 grams per metric ton gold at Target 7.
Encouraged by the initial phase of 2019 exploration at Northway, Tectonic launched a second phase of exploration in late September that consisted of 856 meters of RAB drilling that tested both prospects.
The phase-2 program at Target 6 consisted of 277.4 meters of RAB drilling in two holes.
NWYRB19-008, drilled near the center of the surface soil anomaly and on the edge of the magnetic high geophysical anomaly at Target 6, cut 86.9 meters averaging 52 ppm molybdenum from a depth of 16.8 meters, including 1.5 meters of 184 ppm molybdenum from 64 meters.
Anomalous amounts of gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead were also encountered with the molybdenum in both holes at Target 6.
Tectonic said the molybdenum encountered in hole NWYRB19-008 is associated with intensely clay-altered intrusive rocks at Target 6, which provides encouraging evidence for an intrusive-related mineralizing system.
The balance of the RAB drilling – 579.1 meters in six holes – tested Target 7. Highlights from these holes include:
• 10.7 meters of 0.61 g/t gold, 9.9 g/t silver, 442 ppm (0.044 percent) copper, 29 ppm molybdenum, 166 ppm zinc and 234 ppm lead from a depth of 140.2 meters in NWRB19-005, including 1.5 meters of 2.12 g/t gold, 48.5 g/t silver, 1,104 ppm copper, 0.3 ppm molybdenum; 717 ppm zinc and 1,126 ppm lead;
• 1.5 meters of 1.89 g/t gold, 47 g/t silver, 527 ppm copper, 11 ppm molybdenum, 776 ppm zinc and 1,082 ppm lead from a depth of 44.2 meters in NWRB19-006; and
• 1.5 meters of 0.08 g/t gold, 39.2 g/t silver, 285 ppm copper, 137 ppm molybdenum, 3,453 ppm zinc and 9,151 ppm lead from 64 meters in NWRB19-006.
Both NWRB19-005 and NWRB19-006 were drilled at the northern edge of the expansive soil anomaly at Target 7.
All eight holes drilled at Northway this year cut anomalous gold-silver-molybdenum-copper-zinc-lead mineralization. The results from this program, along with the 2019 phase-1 and previous exploration will be used to guide Tectonic's 2020 exploration at Northway.
"We will continue to interpret the results and the larger regional picture over the coming months to determine the next steps for 2020," said Reda.
–SHANE LASLEY
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