The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Drills extend gold mineralization, copper found to the south North of 60 Mining News - December 1, 2023
Click on image for larger Trapper gold assay map.
Click on image for larger Thorn copper-gold targets map.
Brixton Metals Corp. Dec. 1 reported that its exploration drilling continues to encounter intriguing gold mineralization at the Trapper target on the company's Thorn copper-gold project in Northern British Columbia.
Lying in the northwestern corner of BC and about 55 miles (90 kilometers) east of Juneau, Alaska, the 2,863-square-kilometer (1,105 square miles) Thorn project hosts both porphyry copper-gold-silver-molybdenum and high-grade epithermal gold targets.
BHP Group Ltd., which invested 19.9% interest in Brixton in 2022 and maintained that position by participating in a C$14.6 million (US$10.8 million) financing that closed in November, is primarily interested in Thorn's copper potential but is also supporting the drilling of the more gold-dominant Trapper target on the property.
Drilling by Brixton in 2021 and 2022 cut a wide section of strong gold mineralization at Trapper. Highlights from these holes include:
• 139 meters averaging 2.14 grams per metric ton in hole THN21-186.
• 304.5 meters averaging 1.19 g/t gold in hole THN22-237.
• 398.3 meters averaging 0.95 g/t gold in hole THN22-243.
• 253 meters averaging 1.4 g/t gold in hole THN22-244.
This year's step-out drilling at Trapper continued to encounter gold mineralization but across lower widths and with lesser grades.
Highlights from the first batch of Trapper holes reported include:
• 55.7 meters averaging 0.82 g/t gold from a depth of 152.3 meters in hole THN23-268, including seven meters averaging 2.67 g/t gold.
• 98 meters averaging 0.62 g/t gold from a depth of 98 meters in hole THN23-270, including six meters averaging 5.07 g/t gold.
The final batch of assays from the 23 holes drilled at Trapper this year returned similar results. Highlights include:
• 276 meters averaging 0.34 g/t gold from a depth of 12 meters in hole THN23-287, including 19 meters averaging 2.34 g/t gold.
• 179.5 meters averaging 0.51 g/t gold from a depth of nine meters in hole THN23-288, including six meters averaging 4.58 g/t gold.
Brixton says that drilling at Trapper has only begun to test the more than four-kilometer- (2.5 miles) long gold anomaly found there.
"A nearly 2km gap remains to be tested through drilling between this main area to the southeast where previous operators drilled 1.78 g/t gold over 32.67 meters, including visible gold," said Brixton Metals Chairman and CEO Gary Thompson.
In addition to the gold historically drilled to the southwest, grab samples collected by Brixton geologists in the Inlaw Creek area about 500 meters north of the 2023 drill returned assays of up to 152 g/t gold.
"While we now have three seasons of drilling under our belt at Trapper Gold Target, we believe that we are only getting started with uncovering the gold potential and we are looking forward to advancing the target further in 2024," added Brixton Metals Vice President of Exploration Christina Anstey.
Overall, Brixton completed 16,731 meters of drilling at Thorn during the 2023 season. In addition to the 6,625 meters of drilling at Thorn, this program included 10,106 meters of drilling at the Camp Creek porphyry copper-gold target.
So far, the company has only reported assays from three holes drilled at Camp Creek this year, which included the widest intercept of porphyry mineralization on the property. This hole, THN23-261, cut 1,562.4 meters averaging 0.19% copper, 0.05 g/t gold, 2.81 g/t silver, and 189 parts per million molybdenum. This roughly one-mile-long intercept included an 855-meter subsection averaging 0.29% copper, 0.06 g/t gold, 2.44 g/t silver, and 314 ppm molybdenum.
The 855-meter subsection of hole THN23-261 is similar to the mineralization drilled by Brixton over the previous two seasons. Highlights from the 2021 and 2022 drilling at Camp Creek include:
• 976.5 meters averaging 0.22% copper, 0.07 g/t gold, 2.06 g/t silver, and 154.4 parts per million molybdenum in hole THN21-183.
• 821.3 meters averaging 0.24% copper, 0.1 g/t gold, 2.44 g/t silver, and 174.3 ppm molybdenum in hole THN21-184.
• 967.7 meters averaging 0.25% copper, 0.09 g/t gold, 2.39 g/t silver, and 186 ppm molybdenum in hole THN22-201.
• 709 meters averaging 0.24% copper, 0.06 g/t gold, 2.42 g/t silver, and 140.5 ppm molybdenum in hole THN22-213.
• 779.7 meters averaging 0.23% copper, 0.05 g/t gold, 2.46 g/t silver, and 234.7 ppm molybdenum in hole THN22-213.
The 2023 exploration program carried out in partnership with BHP also included extensive soil and rock sampling at the Metla, Plum, South Trapper, North, East, West, and South targets spanning the highly mineralized Thorn property.
Highlights from the rock sampling include:
• 33.3% copper, 7 g/t gold, and 238 g/t silver (East).
• 20.8% copper, 0.9 g/t gold, and 149 g/t silver (East).
• 13% copper, 0.9 g/t gold, and 30.3 g/t silver (Plum).
• 6.5% copper (South Trapper).
• 5.3% copper (South Trapper).
• 3% copper, 0.6 g/t gold, and 75.9 g/t silver (Metla).
• 2.6% copper and 104 g/t silver (Metla).
• 39 g/t gold and 65.9 g/t silver (South).
• 19.7 g/t gold, 142 g/t silver, and 0.1% copper (South).
• 14.6 g/t gold, 120 g/t silver, and 0.1% copper (South).
The high-grade copper samples collected from South Trapper are about five kilometers (three miles) south of the 2023 drilling at the more gold-dominant Trapper Target.
Thompson said Brixton plans to follow up on the new South Trapper copper target in 2024.
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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