The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Drills tap porphyry-style copper-gold below surface showings North of 60 Mining News – June 26, 2020
A geologist investigates mineralization newly exposed by receding glaciers at Newmont Lake.
Core from hole BR19-04, a hole that encountered 1.5 meters averaging 15.05 g/t gold and 4.03 g/t silver drilled in the Ridge West zone at Newmont Lake.
Crystal Lake Mining Corp. June 22 reported the first high-grade gold mineralization, along with additional copper, gold, silver, zinc, and lead mineralization tapped while testing three target areas at Burgundy Ridge on the company's 551-square-kilometer (213 square miles) Newmont Lake property in British Columbia's Golden Triangle.
Situated about 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of Skeena Resources' Eskay Creek project and about the same distance southeast of Teck Resources and Newmont's Galore Creek project, Newmont Lake is in an area renowned for world-class deposits rich in copper and gold.
While past exploration on the property has identified Newmont Lake's potential, glacial melt over the past two decades has uncovered vast swaths of highly mineralized terrain that could not be observed by previous explorers.
The receding ice has revealed new targets across four large zones on the property – Burgundy Ridge, which hosts a skarn system that may correspond with deeper porphyry mineralization; NW Zone, which is related to the northeast trending McLymont fault and hosts 1.4 million metric tons of historical resource containing 6.79 million pounds of copper, 200,000 oz gold, and 291,000 oz silver; Chachi, a northeast trending corridor along the McLymont fault system about 6,000 meters northwest of NW Zone; and KGO, a zone immediately north of NW that hosts skarn mineralization.
Crystal Lake has reported assay results from holes drilled in the Burgundy Ridge, including the Green Rock zone, discovered while mapping an area of receding ice and snow late last year.
One sample from a trench cut across Green Rock, BRCH19-01, encountered 37 meters of continuous mineralization averaging 1.31% copper, 2.97% zinc, 1.49 grams per metric ton gold, and 23.26 g/t silver.
BR19-16, the first hole ever drilled at Green Rock, cut 51.4 meters averaging 0.46% copper, 1.22% zinc, 0.17 g/t gold, 9.98 g/t silver, and 0.16% lead from a depth of 343.7 meters; including 30.33 meters of 0.64% copper, 2% zinc, 0.25 g/t gold, 13.57 g/t silver, and 0.25% lead.
Crystal Lake says this intercept demonstrates mineralization extends under areas of receding ice and snow with significant depth potential.
The company says there is evidence there were at least three mineralizing events in the Green Rock area, which is characteristic of high-grade hydrothermal breccias seen in large alkalic porphyry-type deposits.
Hole BR19-13, drilled 250 meters north of Green Rock, cut 184.67 meters averaging 0.21% copper, 0.14 g/t gold, 3 g/t silver, and 0.17% zinc from surface.
Mineralization in this hole consists of disseminated and vein-hosted chalcopyrite locally weathering to chalcocite-malachite near-surface in skarn-like alteration and lithology. Intervals of high-grade mineralization are locally massive chalcopyrite with disseminated and vein-hosted chalcopyrite, sphalerite, and pyrite thought to be distal offshoots of Green Rock breccia mineralization.
Crystal Lake also tapped skarn-type mineralization at Ridge zone, which is just north of Green Rock.
BR19-02, a hole drilled about 200 meters north of BR19-13, cut 91.26 meters averaging 0.38% copper, 0.3 g/t gold, and 4.12 g/t silver from a depth of 36.7 meters. Ridge Zone drilling outlines skarn-style mineralization over a 600-meter-long area that is open in both directions.
Hole BR19-04, drilled in the Ridge West zone, cut 1.5 meters averaging 15.05 g/t gold and 4.03 g/t silver from a depth of 149 meters. Crystal Lake said this is the first sign of a potential high-grade gold system adjacent to the current target area and is the second of two targets which were intersected underneath receding ice and snow. Little is known about the high-grade gold mineralization at this time.
Further drilling at Ridge West cut what seems to be additional offshoots of the Green Rock breccia more than 400 meters away from the theorized epicenter. Grades as high as 6.7% copper and 55.9 g/t silver over one meter were cut from a depth of 263.7 meters in BR19-11.
"Drilling from the maiden diamond drill program at Burgundy Ridge is shallow and minimal relative to the size of the property and the scale of alkalic copper-gold porphyry deposits that we are modeling and targeting at Burgundy," said Crystal Lake CEO Cole Evans. "Strong surface and near surface mineralization with alteration intersected thus far confirm the presence of well mineralized alkalic porphyry systems along the 2.3-kilometer Burgundy Trend."
Earlier in June, Crystal Lake announced plans to change its name to Enduro Metals Corp. to reflect changes in the management and leadership.
"The new management team and board aspire to bring a new look to the company that underscores moving forward and reflects the persistence, drive, and optimism we hold for our success," said Evans. "Newmont Lake has the potential to host economically significant deposits of copper, gold, zinc, and silver; and the first signs of high-grade nickel and cobalt in the area were first discovered in 2019. The new geological and geophysical models developed over the past several months promise to be key tools leading to exploration success."
The company said it filed COVID response and prevention plans with the British Columbia government in May and completed a site assessment of Newmont Lake to prepare for the 2020 season.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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