The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Infill holes hit strong copper and zinc grades, as expected North of 60 Mining News – January 28, 2022
Ambler Metals completed 10 infill and eight geotechnical holes at the Arctic Mine project during the 2022 drill program at the Upper Kobuk Minerals project in Northwest Alaska.
Trilogy Metals Inc. Jan. 25 reported that the latest batch of assays from the infill drilling at Arctic continues to confirm that high copper and zinc grades are the rule and not the exception at this volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska.
A 2020 feasibility study details plans for a financially robust mining operation at this world-class deposit that would produce 1.9 billion pounds of copper, 2.3 billion lb of zinc, 388 million lb of lead, 386,000 ounces of gold, and 40.6 million oz of silver over an initial 12-year mine life.
This operation is based on 43 million metric tons of reserves averaging 2.32% copper, 3.24% zinc, 0.57% lead, 0.49 grams per metric ton gold, and 36 g/t silver.
While high-grade VMS deposits are typically mined from underground, the Arctic feasibility study details plans for a lower-cost open-pit mine feeding a 10,000-metric-ton-per day mill.
Ambler Metals LLC, a joint venture operating company equally owned by Trilogy and South32 Ltd., completed an 18-hole (4,131 meters) diamond drill program last year designed to upgrade a portion of the indicated resources at Arctic to the higher confidence measured category, as well as provide material for metallurgical testing and geotechnical information.
In November, the company reported results from two of the infill holes drilled to upgrade the resource. The best hole, AR21-0176, cut three mineralized intervals. This includes 19.91 meters averaging 6.75% copper, 7.59% zinc, 1.68% lead, 1.26 g/t gold, and 97.13 g/t silver.
When you include the value of all the metals, this 19.91-meter intercept comes to 11.76% copper-equivalent, very robust mineralization, even for Arctic.
While not quite as spectacular, the latest two infill holes cut strong VMS mineralization over impressive widths.
Hole AR21-0182, drilled about 200 meters northeast of AR21-0176, cut six mineralized intervals, including:
• 27.65 meters of 2.75% copper, 2.65% zinc, 0.46% lead, 0.66 g/t gold, and 42.81 g/t (4.67% copper-equivalent) from a depth of 119.3 meters.
• 10.91 meters of 3.31% copper, 8.22% zinc, 1.78% lead, 0.81 g/t gold, and 70.85 g/t silver (8.07% copper-equivalent) from a depth of 155.1 meters.
Hole AR21-0184, drilled about 300 meters northwest of AR21-0176, cut two mineralized intervals:
• 14.46 meters of 1.96% copper, 5.57% zinc, 1.71% lead, 0.73 g/t gold, and 51.13 g/t silver (5.5% copper-equivalent) from a depth of 127.6 meters.
• 4.19 meters of 1.9% copper, 5.42% zinc, 1.14% lead, 0.81 g/t gold, and 49.6 g/t silver (5.23% copper-equivalent) from a depth of 152.4 meters.
All reported intervals are thought to be close to the true width and represent the actual thickness of mineralization.
"The exciting results from holes AR21-0182 and AR21-0184 confirm the high copper and zinc grades over mineable widths that are to be expected from the infill drill program at Arctic. Good continuity of grade and thickness, such as what we are seeing at Arctic, are characteristic of world-class volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits," said Trilogy Metals Vice President of Exploration Richard Gross. "We are looking forward to more results like these that will be used to estimate the first measured resource at Arctic."
So far, Trilogy has received results from four of the 10 infill holes and two of the eight geotechnical holes drilled at Arctic last summer.
The results of the remaining 12 holes are expected to be announced over the next couple of months.
"As we keep drilling into the Arctic project area, we keep getting more pleasant surprises from the assay lab as the infill results continue to demonstrate very high polymetallic grades over very compelling widths," said Trilogy Metals President and CEO Tony Giardini. "I look forward to seeing the results from the remaining 12 drill holes from the 2021 field season and I also look forward to the upcoming 2022 field season which will begin in June."
Earlier this year, the Ambler Metals JV announced a US$28.5 million for the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects during 2022. This program is slated to include further drilling, engineering studies, and the initiation of permitting for a mine at Arctic, along with a regional exploration program to investigate other mineralized targets across the wider 427,690-acre package of state, patented and NANA-owned Alaska Native lands that blanket a large portion of the Ambler District.
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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