The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2023 - January 18, 2024
At a depth of 177.6 meters, hole CMR23-152 cut native copper encountered in Southwall Zone 1 at the Palmer VMS project.
American Pacific Mining Corp. landed on the North of 60 Mining New scene with the 2022 buyout of Constantine Metal Resources Ltd., giving the company a roughly 45% interest in the Palmer volcanogenic massive sulfide project in Southeast Alaska.
This project is being advanced under a joint venture with Dowa Metals & Mining Company Ltd. that was established before American's acquisition of Constantine.
A preliminary economic assessment that was updated in 2022 outlines an underground mine and a 3,500-metric-ton-per-day mill at Palmer that would produce 1.07 billion pounds of zinc, 196 million lb of copper, 18 million ounces of silver, and 91,000 oz of gold over an initial 11-year mine life.
The Southwall and RW zones that make up the main Palmer deposit host 4.68 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 5.23% (539 million lb) zinc, 1.49% (154 million lb) copper, 30.8 grams per metric ton (4.6 million oz) silver, and 0.3 g/t (451,000 oz) gold; plus 5.34 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 5.2% (612 million lb) zinc, 0.96% (113 million lb) copper, 29.2 g/t (5 million oz) silver, and 0.28 g/t (48,100 oz) gold.
During 2023, American Pacific carried out a US$25.5 million program funded by JV partner Dowa Metals & Mining Co. that included 8,257 meters of resource definition and exploration drilling.
The bulk of the 2023 drilling targeted high-priority areas of two mineralized lenses that make up the Southwall Zone of the Palmer deposit.
American Pacific says this resource definition drilling will provide insights to support feasibility-level studies of the Palmer deposit and future discovery-focused drilling throughout the mineralized district.
In addition to the resource drilling, American Pacific carried out a 2,365-meter geotechnical program to gain a better understanding of the rock mechanics and hydrogeology, which are essential to mine engineering and evaluating potential locations for project infrastructure that is slated to include underground development that will provide a platform for feasibility level drilling.
Another important facet of the 2023 program at Palmer is broadening the understanding of environmental conditions in and around the project area, including baseline studies to properly evaluate new areas for potential infrastructure.
American Pacific says providing the community with confidence that the environmental studies and monitoring at Palmer go above and beyond regulatory compliance is a top priority of the JV's environmental team.
The company ended the 2023 season with exploration drilling Christmas-Red Creek, a road-accessible VMS discovery target about 3,000 meters east of the Palmer deposit.
One of 12 known VMS showings at Palmer, Christmas-Red Creek hosts geochemical and alteration characteristics similar to the AG deposit, which hosts 4.3 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 4.64% zinc, 0.12% copper, 119.5 g/t silver, and 0.53 g/t gold.
"The regional exploration upside and potential for additional discoveries is considered excellent at Palmer, and we are pleased to incorporate this initial [approximately] 500 meters before the end of this year's drill campaign," said American Pacific Mining CEO Warwick Smith. "During the season our technical team also completed mapping and sampling of numerous exploration targets and we look forward to more discovery-focused drilling as we aim to both de-risk and expand mineral resources at Palmer going forward."
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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