The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
PolarX investigates idea of a central mill processing copper-rich ore from Zackly and Caribou Dome deposits on Alaska project North of 60 Mining News – July 30, 2021
A copper-stained outcrop at Mars, a porphyry target between Zackly and Caribou Dome on PolarX' Alaska Range property.
High-grade deposits rich in copper, gold, and silver to bulk tonnage porphyry targets sought after by many of the world's major copper producers, Australia-based PolarX Ltd. has no shortage of targets to explore across its 22-mile- (35 kilometers) long Alaska Range property.
As its name suggests, this property lies within the majestic and mineral-rich mountain range that arcs across the middle of the Far North state.
PolarX' 2021 program is focused on two high-grade copper deposits already identified at Alaska Range.
This includes scoping-level study and further exploration of Zackly, a high-grade gold-copper-silver skarn deposit that lies at the center of a 7.5-mile- (12 kilometers) long mineralized corridor that runs across the Alaska Range property.
Based on drilling by PolarX and previous explorers, Zackly Main hosts 3.4 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.2% (90.4 million pounds) copper, 2 grams per metric ton (213,000 oz) gold, and 14 g/t (1.5 million oz) silver.
Looking to expand this resource, PolarX focused its 2020 exploration on Zackly East, a particularly robust skarn discovery made by the company in 2018.
Highlights from drilling at Zackly East include:
• 54.6 meters averaging 2.8 g/t gold and 0.6% copper in hole ZX‐18020.
• 46.7 meters averaging 3.1 g/t gold and 0.6% copper in ZX‐18024.
• 11.6 meters averaging 1.86 g/t gold and 0.38% copper in ZX20035.
• 68.6 meters averaging 0.6 g/t gold and 0.3% copper in ZX20040.
PolarX says drilling has traced mineralization at Zackly East for more than 1,500 meters along strike and high-resolution magnetic data shows the structural system may extend for another 2,500 meters.
Based on the results of the 2020 program, PolarX has decided to initiate a scoping study that will evaluate an operation that includes Zackly Main, Zackly East, and the Caribou Dome copper deposit.
Ahead of this study, PolarX is carrying out a planned 3,000 meters of resource expansion drilling at Zackly East and Zackly Main.
Adding Caribou copper
Lying about 15 miles southwest of Zackly, Caribou Dome hosts 2.8 million metric tons of JORC-compliant resource averaging 3.1% (189.6 million lb) copper in nine lenses of volcanic sediment-hosted mineralization.
"We have always thought that Caribou had the potential to be a highly profitable open pit, what it doesn't yet have is the scale necessary to justify that size of investment," PolarX Managing Director Fraser Tabeart said during an interview on Proactive Investors.
To rectify this, PolarX is carrying out 1,500 meters of drilling focused on targets that would demonstrate the expansion potential of Caribou as well as metallurgical drilling to see if the ore there could be processed in the same facility as ore mined from Zackly. Either or both would increase the available tonnage for a centralized mill at Alaska Range.
PolarX says historical exploration revealed the lenses copper mineralization at Caribou Dome correlate with strong copper anomalism in surface soil sample assays and can also be broadly mapped and precited with induced polarization geophysical surveys that show the lenses as chargeability highs.
After a thorough review of geochemical and IP data, PolarX says it has prioritized three new undrilled targets to test this year.
All these targets are less than 500 meters from known mineralization and have the potential to host one or more lenses of massive sulfide copper mineralization.
PolarX also plans to drill four holes into the known high-grade lenses at Caribou Dome to provide fresh samples for metallurgical testing to assess the potential of processing ore from this massive sulfide deposit in combination with ore from a future mine at the Zackly skarn deposit to the northeast.
The scoping study being considered for later this year will help determine the minimum resource size required for a viable mining operation at Zackly, Caribou, or both.
In addition to the work at Zackly and Caribou Dome, the company also plans to deepen the discovery hole at Mars, a porphyry target between these deposits.
The Mars discovery hole, 19MAR001, cut 102 meters averaging 0.22% copper and 0.1 g/t gold. This hole, however, was terminated in porphyry mineralization due to difficult drilling and heavy snows bringing an end to the 2019 exploration season.
Further demonstrating the porphyry potential at Mars could attract a much larger mining company to investigate the bulk tonnage copper potential at this highly mineralized stretch of the Alaska Range.
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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