The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Early results show trenches cut encouraging copper values North of 60 Mining News – September 3, 2021
Early results from 2021 trenching at the Connaught property about 40 miles west of Dawson City include 69 meters averaging 548 parts per million copper.
An aerial view of the trenches completed at Connaught this year.
ATAC Resources Ltd. Sept. 2 reported that trenching and other surface exploration has confirmed compelling porphyry copper-molybdenum-gold potential at Connaught, a western Yukon exploration project better known for high-grade silver-lead-gold veins that often also carried copper and zinc.
"We are extremely encouraged with the early exploration results from Connaught, as they strongly support the presence of a copper-molybdenum porphyry," said ATAC President and CEO Graham Downs.
Previous rock sampling at Connaught, a road-accessible silver property about 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Dawson City and 10 kilometers (six miles) east of the Alaska-Yukon border, has returned grades as high as 4,050 g/t silver, 79.4% lead, 10.9 g/t gold, 7.2% zinc, and 1.98% copper.
Last year, ATAC optioned two adjacent properties and staked claims to consolidate land on the eastern portion of Connaught that shows porphyry copper-molybdenum-gold potential. The company says the rocks, soil geochemistry, and geophysics in this portion of the now 137.3-square-kilometer (53 square miles) Connaught property are remarkably similar to the Taurus copper-molybdenum-gold porphyry deposit on Kenorland Minerals Ltd.'s Tanacross project just across the border in Alaska.
ATAC's 2021 exploration at Connaught focused on evaluating this porphyry copper potential.
Ten 100-meter-long trenches were completed in July across a pre-existing 1,100- by 500-meter copper-molybdenum soil anomaly. ATAC reports that nine of these trenches cut across visual copper mineralization, including malachite, azurite, tenorite, and chalcopyrite.
Partial assays for the first two trenches have been received.
Trench 21-A, the first trench dug this year, cut 93 meters averaging 331 parts per million copper, including a 30-meter section with 807 ppm copper. Highlight rock grab samples from trench 21-A returned grades as high as 0.69% copper (6,900 ppm).
ATAC decided to extend trench 21-A by 100 meters and dig a second 100-meter cross trench. Both the extension and cross trench revealed additional visual copper mineralization, assays are pending.
Trench 21-B, located 150 meters northwest of trench 21-A, cut 69 meters averaging 548 ppm copper, including 0.13% (1,300 ppm) copper over 15 meters in a quartz latite dyke, within the broader quartz monzonite porphyry. Assays are pending for the final 15 meters of this trench.
Rock grab samples from quartz monzonite porphyry in trench 21-D, located a further 150 meters northwest, returned 0.21% (2,100 ppm) copper. A second sample from intrusion breccia cut by this trench returned 0.17% (1,700 ppm) copper.
"The copper values at surface are very impressive given the extent of surface leaching in an unglaciated environment, and the soil and trenching results compare favorably with surface values at similar projects, such as the Casino deposit," said Downs.
Western Copper and Gold Corp.'s large Casino porphyry copper-gold mine project lies about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of Connaught.
Assays are pending for 831 meters of trenching, including the entire 100-meter length of trench 21-D, plus additional rock sampling completed this year at Connaught.
"Porphyry potential has long been recognized in this area, but systematic exploration for this style of deposit has never been undertaken," the ATAC CEO added. "We look forward to receiving the remaining results so that we can begin planning a maiden drill program targeting the porphyry next season."
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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