The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
All four 2023 step-out holes cut strong VMS mineralization North of 60 Mining News - October 30, 2023
New 24-man exploration camp at Sun.
Click on image for larger Sun deposit drill map.
The 2023 step-out drilling shows the down-dip continuation of VMS mineralization at the Sun deposit. Click on image for larger cross-sections.
Valhalla Metals Inc. Oct. 30 reported that all four step-out holes drilled this year at its Sun project in the World Class Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska cut significant zones of volcanogenic massive sulfide mineralization enriched with copper, zinc, silver, and gold.
Lying alongside the route of the proposed Ambler Access Project, colloquially known as the Ambler Road, Sun hosts VMS deposits similar to the Arctic Mine project being advanced by Ambler Metals about 37 miles (60 kilometers) to the west. VMS mineralization was discovered at Sun in 1966, and several companies have explored the property over the years.
The latest exploration at Sun was carried out by Andover Mining Corp. from 2007 to 2014, which culminated in an NI-43-101-compliant resource calculation that was updated for Valhalla in 2018.
According to the calculation, the Sun and adjacent SW Sun deposits host 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.
Valhalla's 2023 program at Sun included 1,104 meters of drilling in four holes designed to fill in gaps within inferred areas of the resource and test the continuation of mineralization downdip and along strike.
Highlights from this drilling include:
• 13.7 meters averaging 1.24% copper, 3.45% zinc, 0.92% lead, 55.8 g/t silver, and 0.16 g/t gold in hole Sun 23-01.
• 14.6 meters averaging 0.63% copper, 2.4% zinc, 0.61% lead, 43.8 g/t silver, and 0.11 g/t gold in hole Sun 23-02.
• 13.8 meters averaging 1.89% copper, 3.35% zinc, 1.23% lead, 94.4 g/t silver, and 0.29 g/t gold in hole Sun23-03.
• 21.4 meters averaging 1.31% copper, 11.03% zinc, 3.23% lead, 108.3 g/t silver, and 0.24 g/t gold in hole Sun 23-04.
"These are four great step-out holes demonstrating that the VMS system continues to depth with mineable grades and thicknesses of copper, zinc and precious metals. All we need to do is keep drilling to expand the known resources," said Valhalla Metals Chairman Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse. "If the Biden Administration wants Critical Metals, we know where to find them!"
Valhalla's 2023 program also included the construction of a new 24-man camp; relogging of six historical holes; a ground gravity survey; and lidar and orthophotography surveys over Sun and Smucker, a VMS project about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Sun.
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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