The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
To include 2,000 meters at Rackla and then 5,000 at Connaught North of 60 Mining News – May 20, 2022
Trench work undertaken at ATAC Resources' Connaught copper-gold property in the Yukon last year.
ATAC Resources Ltd. May 19 announced the start of the 2022 field season with crews mobilizing to the Nadaleen project at the eastern end of the company's Rackla Gold property in the Yukon, before drilling a copper discovery on its Connaught property near the territory's western border.
In early 2020, ATAC published results from an updated preliminary economic assessment for Osiris, a Carlin-type gold deposit at Nadaleen that hosts 12.4 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 4.23 grams per metric ton (1.69 million ounces) gold.
The company will begin this year's exploration with 2,000 meters of diamond drilling focused on expanding the gold resources at Osiris, with the remaining 5,000 meters to be drilled on the company's Connaught property.
"We are excited to begin our fully-funded 2022 exploration program, with 7,000 meters of drilling planned," said ATAC Resources President and CEO Graham Downs. "This will be our largest program in five years, with work spanning the exploration pipeline from grassroots to resource growth."
All zones comprising the Osiris deposit remain open to expansion with numerous high-grade intervals at the margins of and outside the current resource having yet to see follow-up drilling.
"Nadaleen hosts district-scale mineralization, with a significant and globally rare resource averaging 4 g/t gold that remains open in multiple direction," added Downs.
Once drilling is underway, the 5,000 meters of reverse circulation (RC) drilling at Connaught will evaluate target areas A and C, which were identified through last year's exploration.
Just 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Dawson City, it will focus on drill testing multiple copper-molybdenum-gold porphyry targets which have never been drilled.
"Maiden drilling of porphyry targets at Connaught has the potential for a major new copper discovery," continued the ATAC CEO. "We also look forward to our first season of exploration at our recently acquired Catch and PIL properties, with the ability to rapidly accelerate work if results warrant."
In addition to drilling at Nadaleen and Connaught, ATAC's 2022 exploration will include prospecting, mapping, and geophysics at its Catch property in the Yukon and PIL project in Northern British Columbia.
Optioned from Yukon-based geologist Ryan Burke in January, Catch is a project in southeastern Yukon that is prospective for significant porphyry copper-gold mineralization.
This year's program at Catch will include prospecting, mapping, and 20-line-kilometers of induced polarization geophysical surveys to follow up on extensive copper and gold anomalies identified on the property.
ATAC says this preliminary exploration at Catch is scheduled to get underway by mid-June.
Located about 15 kilometers (nine miles) east of Benchmark Metals' Lawyers gold-silver project, the road-accessible PIL property covers numerous highly prospective copper-gold porphyry and epithermal gold-silver targets.
ATAC, which optioned this property from Finlay Minerals Ltd. in February, plans to carry out an initial phase of prospecting, mapping, and an induced polarization geophysical survey to evaluate the copper-gold porphyry and high-grade epithermal gold on the project.
The company plans to send a crew to PIL in July.
You can read more about ATAC Resources' projects at ATAC reignites Rackla exploration in Yukon in the March 4, 2022 edition of North of 60 Mining News.
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