The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Elevated critical and precious metals sampled in two zones North of 60 Mining News – December 16, 2022
Sixty North Gold Mining CEO David Webb (front) and director Brian Malahoff investigate a past-producing gold mine site during a 2017 program at the Mon property in NWT.
Sixty North Gold Mining Ltd. Dec. 15 reported that sampling has identified two zones of elevated, copper, cobalt, nickel, and other metals along strike of the iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) discovery on its Mon gold property in Northwest Territories.
Located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Yellowknife, Mon is best known for its high-grade gold potential. A summer seasonal mine that operated at Mon from 1991 to 1997 produced 15,000 ounces of gold from 15,000 metric tons of ore.
In 2021, however, the Sixty North geological team collected a grab sample with more than 1% nickel, 0.18% cobalt, and 0.43 grams per metric ton gold in mineralization reminiscent of an IOCG system. Follow-up grab samples in early 2022 confirmed 0.31% nickel, 0.02% cobalt, 0.12 grams per metric ton gold, plus very elevated platinum and palladium.
The host albitite unit from which the discovery samples were collected was mapped for 3,000 meters along strike, and up to 620 meters in width.
"We are pleased to have identified a large prospective IOCG target on our property and have now refined target areas within the albitite to focus on. The Discovery outcrop identified economically significant Ni, Co, Au, Ag, Pt, Pd and REE concentrations in grab samples from mineralized breccias and fracture zones," said Sixty North Gold Mining President and CEO Dave Webb. "Follow-up sampling shows that anomalous to very anomalous breccias and fracture zones can be traced along geophysical anomalies and these correspond to material enrichments in the IOCG suite of elements."
The latest sample results are from two strongly elevated geochemical zones – Wayne and Bear –identified within the large albitite unit from recent results from 48 grab and chip samples.
Wayne correlates to an 890- by 90-meter weakly anomalous magnetic zone along strike from Discovery outcrop. Nine grab samples collected at Way returned up to 0.28% copper, 0.01% cobalt, and 0.21% nickel, 1.8 g/t silver, and slightly elevated rare earth elements.
Bear correlates with an 860- by 100-meter weakly anomalous magnetic zone. Nine grab samples collected from this zone returned up to 5.9 g/t gold, 11.35 g/t silver, along with anomalous copper (0.02%), zinc (0.08%), lead (0.14%), nickel (0.05%), palladium, silver to 11.35 gpt, copper to 0.02%, zinc to 0.08%, lead to 0.14%, and nickel to 0.05%, plus palladium.
Several other magnetic anomalies within the albitite unit were not sampled due to cover, or logistical constraints.
"Because of the size of IOCG deposits world-wide, often in the tens of millions of tonnes, with many exceeding hundreds of millions of tonnes, such as the Olympic Dam in Australia or the Salobo in Brazil, we are understandably excited about the potential," said Webb. "Further work will be focused on more detailed mapping and sampling on the known zones as well as the unsampled geophysical targets within the albitite zone. Petrographic samples were collected and are being evaluated."
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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