ATAC sports successful exploration program

ATAC Resources Ltd. Oct. 12 announced that the results of its initial phase of surface exploration at PIL has turned up some of the highest-grade copper ever discovered on this property in the heart of British Columbia's Toodoggone district.

The first phase of exploration at PIL included prospecting, mapping, hyperspectral alteration sampling, soil sampling, and induced polarization (IP) geophysical surveys. A total of 295 rock samples and 589 soil samples were collected and sent for assay, and ten line kilometers of IP were completed at Spruce, PIL South, and the Copper Ridge targets.

"This initial program at PIL has defined a number of priority targets for follow-up work," said ATAC Resources President and CEO Graham Downs. "Sampling at Spruce returned the highest copper grades ever collected on the property."

Spruce is an outlying target found at the northern end of the 151.5-square-kilometer (58.5 square miles) PIL property.

The high-grade samples collected from this prospect include 18.4% copper with 111 grams per metric ton silver from float; 3.65% copper with 56 g/t silver, and 263 parts per million molybdenum from outcrop; and 0.25% copper with 26 g/t silver and 10.9% lead from outcrop.

While the nature and extent of mineralization at Spruce is not yet fully understood, follow-up work will be conducted in future seasons to characterize the target.

The ATAC exploration team also collected high-grade gold and silver samples from the Atlas target in the southern half of the PIL property.

"The Atlas target shows strong potential for high grade epithermal gold-silver mineralization," continued Downs.

Prospecting at Atlas returned an outcrop sample that averaged 78.3 g/t gold with 2,830 g/t silver on the eastern extent of the zone, approximately 400 meters east of a historical 2006 rock sample that returned 489.71 g/t gold with 6,514 g/t silver.

Extensive surface alteration and gold-silver anomalism in soils and rocks are present across this zone, which presents a large and compelling target area for epithermal gold-silver exploration.

Work at PIL South, which lies about 2,500 meters south of Atlas, returned multiple samples with elevated copper and molybdenum, including 3.89% copper with 173 g/t silver and 119 ppm molybdenum from outcrop, and 2.07% copper with 21 g/t silver and 96 ppm molybdenum in float.

"PIL South has an extensive copper-in-soil response that is now coupled with strong copper mineralization in outcrop samples," added Downs.

PIL South is a priority target that received additional prospecting and mapping during a second phase of the 2022 work program, with 83 additional rock samples collected and pending assays.

In addition to those high-priority target areas, sampling was also conducted at Copper Cliff and Copper Ridge, with sampling at the former identifying copper mineralization across 50 meters of outcrop – individual grab samples returning 2.23%, 1.81%, and 1.25% copper – and exploration at the latter has yet to explain the extensive copper-gold-molybdenum soil anomaly observed at surface.

However, prospecting in the main anomaly did return 1.56% copper from a narrow outcrop exposure in the center of the anomaly, but it did not identify more extensive mineralization.

"We're very pleased with our initial work at PIL and anticipate receiving a 3-year Notice of Work later this fall, which will allow us to ramp up work to drilling in future seasons," finished Downs.