The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Assays from largest-ever Arctic drill program begin to roll in North of 60 Mining News – December 2, 2022
Ambler Metals completed 8,376 meters of drilling this year at Arctic, the largest ever single-season drill program at the world-class VMS deposit in Northwest Alaska.
Trilogy Metals Inc. Nov. 29 reported that the first assays from the 2022 program at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects are from infill holes that cut multiple zones of high-grade copper, zinc, lead, gold, and silver mineralization that has come to be expected within the Arctic deposit.
The 10,738-meter drill program at UKMP this year included 8,376 meters of drilling at Arctic, the most ever drilled into this world-class volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit during a single season, with the balance testing regional targets in the Ambler VMS Belt on state lands that make up UKMP and copper-rich targets similar to Bornite on NANA-owned property in the Cosmos Hills and the Ambler Lowlands.
"We are pleased to collaborate with Ambler Metals, South32 and NANA on the largest exploration program in the history of the Arctic deposit, and to continue unlocking its world-class mining district potential as a critical source of green metals for the US economy, in line with President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act," said Trilogy Metals President and CEO Tony Giardini.
The 2022 infill drilling at Arctic was carried out by Ambler Metals, a joint venture company equally owned by Trilogy and South32 Ltd., to improve the confidence in the resource and for geotechnical studies to further de-risk the project.
A 2020 feasibility study for developing a mine at Arctic details a financially robust operation that would produce 1.9 billion lb of copper, 2.3 billion lb of zinc, 388 million lb of lead, 386,000 oz 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.
During a 2021 program focused largely on upgrading resources within the Arctic deposit, Ambler Metals cut stacked layers of high-grade volcanogenic massive sulfide mineralization.
One such hole, AR21-0181, cut six mineralized intervals; the best three are:
• 13.1 meters of 4.42% copper, 7.91% zinc, 1.13% lead, 0.70 g/t gold, and 72.37 g/t silver from a depth of 131.7 meters.
• 25.43 meters of 2.35% copper, 4.56% zinc, 1.09% lead, 0.11 g/t gold, and 20.49 g/t silver from a depth of 155 meters.
• 22.56 meters of 2.6% copper, 5.6% zinc, 1.19% lead, 0.81 g/t gold, and 89.15 g/t silver from a depth of 201.3 meters.
With the Arctic deposit made up of multiple lenses of VMS mineralization, having a drill cut several layers of high-grade metals is common, and this year is no different.
For example, hole AR22-0192 cut four mineralized intervals, including:
• 9.63 meters averaging 3.58% copper, 5.89% zinc, 1.07% lead, 0.32 g/t gold, and 53.52 g/t silver from a depth of 118.5 meters.
• 7.36 meters averaging 2.38% copper, 2.4% zinc, 0.81% lead, 0.35 g/t gold, and 51.25 g/t silver from a depth of 145.3 meters.
Hole AR22-0195 cut five mineralized intervals, including:
• 5.55 meters averaging 3.84% copper, 7.4% zinc, 1.37% lead, 0.36 g/t gold, and 63.7 g/t silver from a depth of 93 meters.
• 1.52 meters averaging 2.57% copper, 0.72% zinc, 0.2% lead, 0.15 g/t gold, and 31.13 g/t silver from a depth of 253.4 meters.
Exploration outside of the Arctic deposit included drilling at two VMS targets in the Ambler Belt, 98-9 and East Dead Creek, and two carbonate-hosted copper targets near Bornite were drill tested. Trilogy anticipates assays from this drilling to roll in over the coming months.
In addition, crews carried out mapping, prospecting, and sampling over a roughly 15,000-acre (50 square kilometers) area of UKMP.
"We are encouraged by the results of this first set of holes, received from a record total number of meters drilled at Arctic (8,376 meters) in one season, in addition to seven regional drill holes, and extensive geological mapping and soil sampling at several other VMS prospects in the belt, including Ambler, Dead Creek, Sunshine and COU," said Trilogy Metals Vice President of Exploration Richard Gosse. "We look forward to announcing more results from this comprehensive program in the next few months, with a view of upgrading the indicated resources at Arctic to measured."
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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