The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2020 - Published January 19, 2021
A helicopter delivers an excavator to complete trenching and road building at Airstrip, an enormous gold anomaly on the Rau project at the western end of ATAC Resources' Rackla Gold property in the Yukon.
ATAC Resources President and CEO Graham Downs at Rackla.
ATAC Resources Ltd. continues to focus its exploration on Rau, a 660-square-kilometer (255 square miles) project at the western end of the company's enormous 185-kilometer- (115 miles) long Rackla Gold property in the Yukon.
Early in 2020, ATAC published the results from an updated preliminary economic assessment for a mine at Tiger, a carbonate replacement gold deposit that anchors Rau.
Based on 4.53 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 3.19 grams per metric ton (464,000 oz) of gold, the Tiger Mine envisioned in the PEA is expected to produce roughly 267,000 oz of gold over a six-year mine life.
At C$110.1 million in preproduction capital costs, this mine is relatively inexpensive to put into operation and demonstrates robust economics.
Using a US$1,400/oz gold price, the PEA produces an after-tax net present value (5% discount) of C$118.2 million, internal rate of return of 42.6%, and pre-tax payback period of just 1.24 years.
ATAC kicked off its 2020 exploration with trenching, rotary air blast (RAB) drilling, mapping, and prospecting to develop diamond drill targets at Airstrip, a gold-rich area about 5,000 meters southeast of Tiger.
Airstrip, which hosts the largest gold-in-soil anomaly on the entire Rackla property, has the potential to add a source of satellite gold for a mine at Tiger.
RAB drilling carried out at Airstrip in 2016 cut 13.7 meters of 1.43 g/t gold in hole ASR-16-006 and 22.9 meters of 0.66 g/t gold in ASR-16-004. These holes, situated about 430 meters apart, both ended in mineralization at roughly the 70-meter maximum depth capacity of the drill.
Grab samples grading up to 1.63 g/t gold were collected more than 1,000 meters east of the drilling, bolstering the large size potential of Airstrip.
Trail cuts and trenches put in with an excavator during the 2020 phase-1 program were systematically mapped, prospected, and sampled to define RAB and diamond drill targets.
ATAC says the results of the phase-1 program suggest the Airstrip target is an orogenic gold system.
"These types of systems have the potential to host significant bulk-tonnage gold deposits, and this is the first identification of this style of mineralization in the area," said ATAC Resources President and CEO Graham Downs.
The second phase of the 2020 program, which got underway in September, included 1,876 meters of diamond drilling in six holes, including holes to twin and extend mineralization in ASR-16-004 and ASR-16-006.
ATAC also completed additional RAB drilling on regional targets during the second phase of the 2020 program.
Assays were pending at the time of this report due to significant delays in large part due to the COVID-19 global pandemic and related assay lab staffing issues.
ATAC Resources is a member of the Strategic Exploration Group, a collection of junior resource companies focused on exploring northwestern Canada. Members of the group enjoy a close working relationship with Archer, Cathro & Associates (1981) Ltd., a geological consulting firm with extensive exploration expertise in Yukon and Northern British Columbia.
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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