The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - November 20, 2023
Click on image for larger map of Eureka Zone resource pits, along with historical and 2023 holes drilled at this emerging nickel-cobalt-copper-PGM-gold deposit at the Nikolai project.
Cross section through the Eureka East resource pit.
Cross section through the Eureka West resource pit.
With a new 1.55-billion-pound nickel resource calculation at Nikolai, Alaska Energy Metals Corp.'s C$2 million (US$1.5 million) acquisition of historical exploration data for this base and precious metals project in Alaska is already paying dividends for the mineral exploration company.
Utilizing historical drill hole information included in the well-kept and organized database from roughly C$30 million of exploration carried out since 1995, Stantec Consulting Services Inc. calculated an NI 43-101-compliant resource for two sections of the roughly 10-mile- (16 kilometers) long Eureka Zone at Nikolai.
This inaugural calculation outlines 319.6 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.22% (1.55 billion lb) nickel, 0.02% (115 million lb) cobalt, 0.05% (372 million lb) copper, and 0.13 grams per metric ton (1.34 million ounces) palladium-platinum-gold.
This resource is contained within two pits about 2,000 meters apart – Eureka East and Eureka West – along the Eureka Zone trend.
"The two areas in which we were able to calculate an inferred mineral resource, based only on historical drill holes, are approximately two kilometers apart," said Alaska Energy Metals President and CEO Greg Beischer. "Other sparse, historical holes drilled between the deposits indicate a reasonable likelihood that further grid-based drilling will ultimately connect the two deposits together."
The company began the drilling needed to connect these deposits of metals critical to the transition to low-carbon energy and transportation with an eight-hole program carried out this summer.
In October, Alaska Energy Metals reported assays from four of the holes drilled at Eureka Zone this summer. Highlights from these four holes drilled in and around Eureka East include:
• 341.6 meters averaging 0.23% nickel, 0.08% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.107 g/t palladium, 0.051 g/t platinum, and 0.011 g/t gold in hole EZ-23-001.
• 296.6 meters averaging 0.23% nickel, 0.09% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.115 g/t palladium, 0.052 g/t platinum, and 0.013 g/t gold in hole EZ-23-002.
• 324.6 meters averaging 0.23% nickel, 0.08% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.119 g/t palladium, 0.053 g/t platinum, and 0.011 g/t gold in hole EZ-23-003.
• 356.2 meters averaging 0.22% nickel, 0.08% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.122 g/t palladium, 0.057 g/t platinum, and 0.014 g/t gold in hole EZ-23-005.
The grades in these holes demonstrate remarkable consistency, not only to each other but also to the resource pits.
Given this uniformity, it is expected that holes drilled 250 to 300 meters apart will provide plenty of density to connect the Eureka East and Eureka West zones into a single resource that is roughly 3,500 meters long, 300 meters thick, and continues below the roughly 500-meter-deep pit outlined in the inaugural resource.
"The rapid growth in resources speaks to the consistency and predictability of the deposit, which remains open in all directions," said Beischer. "Eureka is quickly evolving into one of the larger nickel resources on the continent."
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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