The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Company buys drills for aggressive 25,000m program in 2023 North of 60 Mining News – November 4, 2022
Western Alaska Minerals CEO Kit Marrs in the core shack at the Illinois Creek precious and base metals project.
Click on image for larger cross-section map.
Western Alaska Minerals Corp. Oct. 31 announced that assay results confirm that its 2022 drilling continues to expand the high-grade silver-lead-zinc mineralization at the Waterpump Creek carbonate replacement deposit on the company's Illinois Creek project about 300 miles west of Fairbanks, Alaska.
Previous exploration carried out by Anaconda Minerals Company and Novagold Resources Inc. outlined 166,000 tons of historical resource at Waterpump Creek averaging 295 grams per metric ton silver, 16.1% lead, and 5.5% zinc.
Drilling by Western has shown that Waterpump Creek is much larger and higher grade than the historical resource indicates, and the company believes other similar deposits may have developed along the Illinois Creek Fault
A hole drilled by Western at the end of the 2021 season, WPC21-09, cut 10.5 meters averaging 522 g/t silver, 22.5% zinc, and 14.5% lead in the area of the historical resource.
Encouraged by the results, the company has focused its 2022 program on systematically tracing this mineralization to the south. Highlights from previously reported 2022 holes include:
• 5.1 meters averaging 459 grams (14.8 ounces) per metric ton silver, 12.1% zinc, and 14.8% lead from a depth of 136.4 meters in hole WPC22-07.
• 11.5 meters averaging 337 g/t (10.8 oz/t) silver, 16.7% zinc, and 10% lead from a depth of 139.1 meters in hole WPC22-11.
• 3.5 meters averaging 151 g/t (4.9 oz/t) silver, 22.3% zinc, and 5.1% lead from a depth of 152.7 meters in hole WPC22-11.
• 2.8 meters averaging 1,304 g/t (41.9 oz/t) silver, 2.5% zinc, and 37.1% lead from a depth of 150.1 meters in hole WPC22-13.
• 2.4 meters averaging 820 g/t (26.4 oz/t) silver, 15% zinc, and 13% lead from a depth of 158.4 meters in hole WPC22-13.
• 48.8 meters averaging 144 g/t (4.6 oz/t) silver, 9% zinc, and 5.5% lead in hole WPC22-17.
• 101.7 meters averaging 160 g/t (5.1 oz/t) silver, 5.4% zinc, and 5.3% lead in hole WPC22-18.
The latest assay results are from hole WPC22-20, which encountered two thick multistage massive sulfide horizons about 50 meters south of WPC22-18.
Hole WPC22-20 cut:
• 11.4 meters averaging 284 g/t (9.1 oz/t) silver, 14.8% zinc, and 10.9% lead from a depth of 166.6 meters, including a 1.1-meter subsection averaging 883 g/t (28.4 oz/t) silver, 12.2% zinc, and 45.2% lead.
• 20.7 meters averaging 171 g/t (5.5 oz/t) silver, 9.4% zinc, and 5.8% lead from 185.2 meters, including 2.7 meters averaging 297 g/t (9.5 oz/t) silver, 2.8% zinc, and 10.6% lead.
Western says both intercepts in hole WPC22-20 show classic multi-phase CRD-style massive sulfide mineralization with silver-rich lead mineralization stages cutting earlier zinc-rich stages.
"These two thick intercepts tie together with similar mineralization in nine other holes to give us 400 meters of continuous high-grade mineralization fed from the chimney we cut in WPC22-018," said Western Alaska Minerals CEO Kit Marrs.
The first 23 holes drilled into the Waterpump Creek structural zone have traced a 30- to 75-meter-wide continuous elongate ribbon (manto) of massive sulfides for 400 meters. The mineralization affects reactive dolomite lying beneath an impermeable schist along the WPC Creek structure.
The 101.7-meter high-grade intercept in hole WPC22-18 lies at the intersection of the Waterpump Creek and Illinois Creek structures. The wider intercept in WPC22-18 includes sections with mineralogy and grades similar to those of WPC22-20 and all the other sulfide-bearing holes in the area but also encountered a late massive pyrite stage that is not seen in the surrounding holes. This combination strongly suggests that WPC22-18 cut a feeder chimney through which mineralizing fluids rose before traveling laterally through WPC22-20 to create the emerging elongated sulfide manto that Western has traced with its 2022 drilling.
"The multi-stage high-silver mineralization cutting across the multi-stage high-zinc mineralization seen in WPC22-20 indicates that a long-lived source pumped one pulse of metal-bearing fluids after another into the system's plumbing," said Peter Megaw, exploration advisor to Western Alaska Minerals. "Once you see that kind of system strength it is time to look around for more because very few CRD systems have only one spoke to their wheel and you can track them back to the intrusive hub, which at Illinois Creek is likely a porphyry copper deposit."
As a result of the drilling achievements in 2022, coupled with the late-summer closing of a C$12 million financing, Western is already making plans for a 25,000-meter drill program in 2023.
"We think we've latched onto a major silver-lead-zinc system so the company has purchased three more drill rigs for more aggressive exploration starting next spring," said Marrs.
The three new rigs will focus on expanding and upgrading the high-grade Waterpump Creek manto with 15,000 meters of the proposed 2023 drilling.
The balance of the planned program will involve the two company-owned drills already at Illinois Creek testing for other spokes to the CRD system in areas where north-south structures intersect the Illinois Creek Fault.
The existing camp will be expanded to accommodate crews for the five drill rigs. Camp material, equipment and new fuel storage have been transported to Illinois Creek so that operations will be ready to ramp up early next spring.
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.
Reader Comments(0)