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
The aurora borealis lights up the night sky during late season drilling at Enduro Metals' Newmont Lake gold-copper project in the Golden Triangle region of Northern British Columbia.
Enduro Metals CEO Cole Evans takes notes at Newmont Lake.
Enduro Metals Corp. is focused on expanding the gold, silver, and copper mineralization being exposed by the rapidly retreating glaciers on its 638-square-kilometer (246 square miles) Newmont Lake project in British Columbia's Golden Triangle.
Formerly known as Crystal Lake Mining Corp., in mid-2020 this exploration company changed its name to Enduro Metals to reflect the persistence and optimism of the company's new leadership.
Situated about 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of Skeena Resources' Eskay Creek project and about the same distance southeast of Teck Resources and Newmont Goldcorp's Galore Creek project, Newmont Lake shows the potential to host the type of world-class copper-gold deposits for which this part of BC is renowned, along with battery metals.
"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," said Enduro Metals President and CEO Cole Evans.
While past exploration at Newmont Lake has outlined this potential, glacial melt over the past two decades has unveiled 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 ounces 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.
In August, Enduro closed C$11.8 million in financing that included the participation of former Goldcorp Chairman and CEO Rob McEwen.
Following the closing of this financing, Enduro launched a 4,688-meter summer drill program to test new high-grade gold targets along the McLymont fault, as well as continuing systematic step-outs at the recently discovered NE Extension where one hole drilled in 2019, NW19-012, cut 188 meters averaging 1.1 grams per metric ton gold, 1.15 g/t silver, and 0.09% copper, including 44.03 meters of 4.03 g/t gold, 4.06 g/t silver, and 0.29% copper.
One 2020 hole drilled 160 meters to the northeast of NW19-012 cut 28.3 meters averaging 10.03 g/t gold and 0.36% copper, including 8.9 meters averaging 31.09 g/t gold and 1.07% copper.
The late season program also induced polarization geophysics, hyperspectral and geochemical surveys, and mapping along the McLymont Fault. These surveys are designed to collect information ahead of drilling to test a theory that the NW Zone may be linked to Goldfish, a new prospect about 1,500 meters to the northwest.
In addition to COVID-19 mandates, inclement weather in northwestern BC contributed to the challenges of exploring Newmont Lake during 2020.
"Unpredictable weather made for a dynamic start to the exploration season," said Evans.
The company plans to get an early jump on 2021 exploration with a winter program at Newmont Lake.
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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