The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2022 - January 19, 2023
Alaska geologist and Valhalla Metals director Curt Freeman and chairman Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse at Sun, a high-grade copper-zinc-gold-silver deposit in Alaska's Ambler District.
Originally formed as a private company in 2018, Valhalla Metals Inc. launched onto the TSX Venture Exchange in the fall of 2022 with two high-grade volcanogenic massive sulfide projects at either end of Alaska's famed Ambler Mining District that are enriched with copper, zinc, silver, and gold.
"In a time when the United States is working to secure domestic sources of critical minerals, we are happy that we could successfully complete the transaction to acquire two high-grade copper-zinc and precious metal rich massive sulfide projects, in northwestern Alaska – Sun and Smucker," said Valhalla Metals Chairman Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse.
Sun, which lies alongside the proposed Ambler Road that will provide access to a future mine at the Arctic VMS deposit on Ambler Metals' Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects to the west, is the most advanced of the two initial projects in Valhalla's portfolio.
According to a 2018 calculation, Sun hosts 1.71 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 4.32% (163 million pounds) zinc, 1.48% (55.8 million lb) copper, 1.11% (42 million lb) lead, 60 grams per metric ton (3.3 million oz) silver, and 0.21 g/t (12,000 oz) gold; plus 9.02 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 4.18% (831.3 million lb) zinc, 1.21% (239.6 million lb) copper, 1.46% (290.3 million lb) lead, 81.7 g/t (22.7 million oz) silver, and 0.25 g/t (73,000 oz) gold.
"The historic work completed at Sun to date represents a good start with established resources, but we believe we can greatly expand and advance the Sun deposit by drilling down-dip and along strike," said Van Nieuwenhuyse. "A detailed VTEM conductor plate model of the area shows several other newly identified high-quality targets leaving plenty of work to be done."
This conductor plate, which dips southeast from the currently outlined Sun deposit, was lit up by VTEM (versatile time domain electromagnetic) and ZTEM (z-axis tipper electromagnetic) geophysical surveys flown during 2019.
So far, drills have only traced the Sun deposit to a depth of 200 meters; the wider and stronger geophysical target extends 900 meters further down-dip.
If this conductive target turns out to be a continuation of the zinc-rich VMS mineralization outlined so far, Sun has the potential to rival Ambler Metals' Arctic deposit in terms of size.
Valhalla's Smucker project, which lies about 15 miles northwest of the proposed Arctic Mine, is another promising VMS target with exploration upside.
First discovered by Anaconda in 1975, Smucker hosts more than eight million metric tons of historical resource averaging 0.8% copper, 6.8% zinc, 2.3% lead, and 200 g/t silver.
Valhalla, which staked state mining claims over the Smucker project in 2017, said the extensions of the mineralized horizon remain largely untested and open at depth and laterally.
Van Nieuwenhuyse said Valhalla "will bring the most up-to-date exploration techniques to bear on these exciting, but under-explored VMS deposits with focused exploration programs over the next several years."
To further explore these two Northwest Alaska VMS projects, Valhalla has listed on the TSX Venture Exchange via the reverse takeover of SolidusGold Inc. and closed financing that involved the issuance of 20.46 million shares at C50 cents each for gross proceeds of C$10.23 million.
"We successfully raised significant funds, which in today's markets is a testament to the experience and expertise of the Valhalla management and board," said Van Nieuwenhuyse.
This team includes former SolidusGold President and CEO Sorin Posescu, a geologist that worked on Novagold's Donlin Creek and Galore Creek projects over the course of a more than 25-year career and who now serves as CEO of Valhalla; and Joe Piekenbrock, an award-winning Alaska geologist that served as vice president of exploration for both Novagold and Trilogy, who sits on the Valhalla board.
Valhalla's financing was backed by Marubeni Metals & Minerals (Canada) Inc., a Quebec-based subsidiary of Japan-based Marubeni Corp., which made a C$8.29 strategic investment to acquire 16.58 million of the shares of the Alaska-focused mineral exploration company.
With its treasury full and a team of award-winning Alaska geologists in its boardroom, Valhalla is ready to expand the deposits of precious, base, and critical minerals on its properties in Alaska's Ambler Mining District. This work will begin with a 5,000-meter drill program slated for Sun during the upcoming drill season.
"We are excited to get exploration underway – Welcome to Valhalla!" Van Nieuwenhuyse declared upon the September launch of the newly listed exploration company.
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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