The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Final 2022 assay returns 5.1m of 789 g/t silver, 37% zinc-lead North of 60 Mining News – January 20, 2023
Under ultraviolet light, the massive sulfide mineralization cut in hole WPC22-21 glows bright red against the duller purple color of the carbonate host rock.
Western Alaska Minerals Corp. Jan. 17 reported another hole with bonanza-grade silver-zinc-lead mineralization from its 2022 drill program at the Waterpump Creek carbonate replacement deposit on the company's Illinois Creek property about 300 miles west of Fairbanks, Alaska.
Drilled at the southern end of the more than 400 meters of high-grade mineralization that has been traced with drilling so far at Waterpump Creek, hole WPC22-21 cut 5.1 meters of massive sulfides averaging 789 grams per metric ton (25.4 ounces per metric ton) silver, 14.9% zinc, and 22% lead.
With the assays from this hole, Western has received all the results from 22 holes drilled at Waterpump Creek in 2022.
"Bonanza silver grades averaging 25.4 oz/T with combined lead-zinc grades of 36.9% in the last hole of our 2022 drilling program are a great way to end the season," said Kit Marrs, CEO. "This intercept continues the upper zone or manto at Waterpump Creek and mirrors similar high-grades in drill holes extending approximately 400 meters to the north."
Highlights from the 2022 drilling at Waterpump Creek include:
• 5.1 meters averaging 459 g/t (14.8 oz/t) silver, 12.1% zinc, and 14.8% lead in hole WPC22-07.
• 10.9 meters averaging 157 g/t (5 oz/t) silver, 9.9% zinc, and 6.4% lead in hole WPC22-08.
• 11.5 meters averaging 337 g/t (10.8 oz/t) silver, 16.7% zinc, and 10% lead in hole WPC22-11.
• 2.8 meters averaging 1,304 g/t (41.9 oz/t) silver, 2.5% zinc, and 37.1% lead 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.
• 11.4 meters averaging 284 g/t (9.1 oz/t) silver, 14.8% zinc, and 10.9% lead in hole WPC22-20.
• 22.7 meters averaging 293 g/t (9.4 oz/t) silver, 20.3% zinc, and 9% lead in hole WPC22-22.
The 101.7-meter intercept in hole WPC22-18 appears to be a chimney that fed the high-grade manto (flat-lying) bands of high-grade CRD mineralization that has been traced for more than 400 meters at Waterpump Creek.
"The emerging Waterpump Creek manto is a beautiful example of the high-grade, multi-stage mineralization features characteristic of a large CRD system," said Dr. Peter Megaw, WAM's Exploration Advisor. "Next we need to continue tracing this mineralization towards its source and seeing if we can leapfrog that process by locating the source with geophysics and surface geochemistry."
A CSAMT (controlled-source audio-magnetotellurics) geophysics program completed over the roughly five miles (eight kilometers) between the Illinois Creek oxide gold-silver mineralization and the Waterpump Creek target area during the 2022 field season shows a complex interplay of stacked thrusts and high-angle and possibly post-mineral faulting.
To continue to expand upon the deposit traced during 2022, as well as test the wider potential indicated by drilling and geophysics, Western plans to carry out up to 17,000 meters of drilling at Illinois Creek this year.
"We expect to continue expanding the zone to the south with an aggressive multi-rig program in 2023," said Mars.
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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