The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Strong metal prices bolster Alaska gold-silver-copper project North of 60 Mining News – June 25, 2021
A drill tests Island Mountain deposit during the 2010 program at the Whistler gold-silver-copper project in Alaska.
Looking south toward the Whistler deposit, which hosts the majority of the resources at GoldMining's Whistler project.
GoldMining Inc. June 21 published an updated mineral resource estimate for its Whistler gold-silver-copper project adjacent to Nova Minerals Ltd.'s Estelle gold project in Southcentral Alaska.
According to the new calculation, the Whistler, Island Mountain, and Raintree West deposits at Whistler host 118.2 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.51 grams per metric ton (1.94 million ounces) gold, 2.19 g/t (8.3 million oz) silver, and 0.16% (422 million pounds) copper; plus 317 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.46 g/t (4.67 million oz) gold, 1.58 g/t (16.1 million oz) silver; and 0.1% (711.4 million lb) copper.
"With approximately 3 million ounces of indicated gold-equivalent resource and 6.5 million ounces of inferred gold-equivalent resource, Whistler is currently one of the largest known mineral resources in Alaska, a proven mining jurisdiction," said GoldMining CEO Alastair Still. "The updated resource estimate also includes approximately 422 million pounds of copper in Indicated resources and approximately 711 million pounds of copper in Inferred resources, which enhances the attractiveness of the project, especially given current copper price and the long-term outlook for copper demand."
GoldMining, then known as Brazil Resources, acquired the Whistler project from Kiska Metals in 2015.
Based on more than 70,000 meters of drilling in 182 holes, GoldMining first updated the Whistler resource in 2016.
The 2016 estimate has been updated with new metal prices of US$1,600/oz for gold, US$21/oz for silver, and US$3.25 for copper. GoldMining says updated recoveries, smelter terms, costs, and geologic modeling with drilling and exploration completed prior to 2016 were also factored into the 2021 calculation.
With these new inputs, the amount of gold in the indicated category increased by 9.9%, silver by 35.9%, and copper by 23%; and gold in the inferred category increased by 0.9%, silver increased by 29%, and copper by 0.3%.
"The updated resource at Whistler provides a clear and modernized view of the potential of this large-scale gold-copper project," said Still.
"This work builds upon the staged approach of advancing our portfolio of gold and gold-copper projects throughout the Americas such as the previously announced initiation of Preliminary Economic Assessments on our Yellowknife, La Mina, and São Jorge Projects in Canada, Colombia, and Brazil respectively," the GoldMining CEO added.
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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