The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Aussie junior to use funds for Nevada and Alaska exploration North of 60 Mining News – December 23, 2022
PolarX' Alaska Range copper-gold-silver project is located about 100 miles southwest of Northern Star's Pogo gold mine.
The Star Canyon target on PolarX' Humboldt Range gold-silver project in Nevada. Click on image for larger map.
Northern Star Resources Ltd. Dec. 21 acquired a 10% interest in mineral exploration company PolarX Ltd.
Both Australia-based companies have interests in Alaska – Northern Star owns and operates the high-grade Pogo gold mine, and PolarX is exploring the district-scale Alaska Range copper-gold-silver project about 100 miles (165 kilometers) southwest of Pogo.
For Northern Star, Pogo Mine is the company's first operation outside of Australia. The major gold producer with a market cap of A$12.9 billion (US$8.7 billion), however, has expressed interest in expanding its North American portfolio.
The company's growth strategy is focused on strategic acquisitions and exploration in highly-prospective geological settings located in low-risk jurisdictions such as Australia and North America.
PolarX, an Australian junior exploring for gold and associated metals in Alaska and Nevada, fits within this criterion.
PolarX' roughly 22-mile- (35 kilometers) long Alaska Range project hosts Zackly, a high-grade gold-copper-silver skarn deposit, and Caribou Dome, a high-grade carbonate-hosted copper deposit about 15 miles (24 kilometers) to the southwest.
Zackly hosts 4 million metric tons of indicated and inferred resources averaging 1.1% (45,000 metric tons) copper, 1.6 grams per metric ton (213,000 ounces) gold, and 12.6 g/t (1.6 million oz) silver.
According to a 2017 calculation, Caribou Dome hosts an additional 2.8 million metric tons of resources averaging 3.1% (86,000 metric tons) copper.
A scoping study completed earlier this year outlined plans for an operation that would produce 70,180 metric tons of copper, 102,577 oz gold, and 799,407 oz of silver over 6.5 years of mining at Zackly and Caribou Dome.
PolarX is also exploring Humboldt Range, a gold-silver project in Nevada that lies about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Coeur Mining Inc.'s Rochester silver-gold mine.
One hole drilled by PolarX this year at Humboldt cut 9.2 meters averaging 124 g/t gold and 49 g/t silver immediately above 73.2 meters of Carlin-style mineralization averaging 0.28 g/t gold and 1.2 g/t silver.
Northern Star's investment in PolarX, which involved the acquisition of 135.33 million shares at A0.8 cents per share, will be used for exploration at Humboldt Range and Alaska Range.
"PolarX welcomes Northern Star's entry into the share register as a fellow Australian company operating in North America and looks forward to a mutually rewarding relationship," the Australian mineral explorer penned in a statement.
With the participation by Northern Star, PolarX has raised A$3.6 million (US$2.4 million) over the past month as drilling continues at Humboldt Range.
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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