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Plans 9,000m of drilling, plus environmental, social initiatives North of 60 Mining News - March 8, 2023
The Schaft Creek joint venture plans to carry out roughly 9,000 meters of geotechnical, metallurgical, and resource infill drilling during the 2023 program at its copper-gold project.
Copper Fox Metals Inc. March 2 outlined a C$17.2 million (US$12.5 million) program for its Schaft Creek copper-gold-molybdenum-silver project in Northern British Columbia that will include 9,000 meters of geotechnical and metallurgical drilling, along with environmental baseline studies and engagement with the Tahltan First Nation.
"The emphasis in 2023 will be to advance the Schaft Creek project by augmenting the metallurgical, geotechnical, and environmental data while aligning these activities with the cultural and social traditions of the Tahltan Nation," said Copper Fox Metals CEO Elmer Stewart. "These activities are focused on continuing the investigations and confirmations of value-add opportunities to allow potential initiation of a future prefeasibility study."
Being advanced under a joint venture between Teck Resources Ltd. (75%) and Copper Fox (25%), Schaft Creek hosts 1.35 billion metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 0.26% (7.76 billion pounds) copper, 0.17 grams per metric ton (7 million ounces) gold, 1.25 g/t (54.3 million oz) silver, and 0.017% (510.6 million lb) molybdenum.
A preliminary economic assessment prepared for Copper Fox in 2021 outlined plans for a 133,000-metric-ton-per-day mill and open pit mine at Schaft Creek that is forecast to produce roughly 5 billion lb of copper, 3.7 million oz of gold, 226 million lb of molybdenum, and 16.4 million oz of silver over 21 years of mining.
The 2022 program at this Northern BC program at this large porphyry copper-gold project in Northern BC included 4,688 meters of drilling focused on collecting samples to complement historical metallurgical test work.
This year's program will include roughly 1,000 meters of additional metallurgical drilling to update throughput and recoveries assumptions, with some holes allocated to infill the resource model. The primary objective this year, however, is approximately 8,000 meters of geotechnical drilling to ensure sufficient data is available to support an updated mine plan design with increased pit slope angles and reduced strip ratio.
As the joint venture looks ahead to potential mine permitting, the 2023 program will also include the initiation of a two-year environmental baseline field campaign, as well as further work on the site's original archaeology impact assessment and cultural heritage in collaboration with the Tahltan Nation.
The JV said it will also work to strengthen and fulfill its commitments included in a communication and engagement agreement with the Tahltan and is seeking further collaboration with the Northern BC First Nation on cultural and social traditions initiatives.
Looking ahead to larger field programs moving forward, the 2023 work at Schaft Creek will also include upgrades to the camp that include improvements to the kitchen facility, bunkhouses, existing aircraft runway, and other site infrastructure.
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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