The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Program focused on expanding, upgrading copper resources North of 60 Mining News – May 7, 2021
Granite Creek Copper geologist investigates core from drilling carried out at Carmacks in the 1980s.
Granite Creek Copper Ltd. May 6 announced that two drills have been mobilized to the Carmacks (formerly Carmacks and Stu projects) to begin a roughly 10,000-meter 2021 drill program focused on expanding and upgrading copper-gold-silver resources at the Yukon project.
"We continue to aggressively advance the Carmacks project, with its attributes of high-grade, near-surface copper, gold, and silver mineralization in an underexplored district-scale land position, and with the support of rising copper prices as we begin a new bull market commodity cycle," said Granite Creek Copper President and CEO Tim Johnson.
After acquiring Copper North Mining Corp. late last year, Granite Creek expanded its land position within Yukon's Minto Copper Belt to 176 square kilometers (68 square miles). This merged land package includes the Carmacks deposit, which hosts 23.76 million metric tons of resources averaging 0.85% (446 million pounds) copper, 0.31 grams per metric ton (237,000 ounces) gold, and 3.14 g/t (2.4 million oz) silver.
Carmacks says that while the oxide portion of Zone 1, which hosts this resource, has been well defined and is categorized in the measured and indicated category, only about half of the underlying sulfide resource is in the measured and indicated category, while the remainder is in the lower confidence inferred category. Starting at 200 meters below the surface, the sulfide in Zone 1 has the potential to add additional tonnage to the contained resources and could become a part of an updated economic study.
"We see a number of exciting opportunities to optimize the resource on the project, and excellent potential to expand the known high-grade copper mineralization zones – which remain open along strike and at depth – as well as to make significant new discoveries at a number of major untested targets," said Johnson.
This year's initial drill program will follow up on Granite Creek's 2020 inaugural drill program. Highlights from this five-hole program include:
• 127.3 meters averaging 0.61% copper, 0.13 g/t gold, and 2.14 g/t silver in hole CRM20-001.
• 4.6 meters averaging 4.63% copper, 3.41 g/t gold, and 23.78 g/t silver in hole CRM20-002.
"Given the early start of the drill program, assay results should be released throughout the summer as they become available," said Johnson. "In the ensuing weeks our geological team will assess the feasibility of running a second phase drill program later in the season. We look forward to the exciting exploration season ahead and to providing additional updates."
Granite Creek is found within the 180-kilometer -(112 miles) long Minto Copper Belt, which hosts the Yukon's only producing copper mine.
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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