Gladiator renews Whitehorse copper legacy

Once home to a powerhouse of a copper mine, Gladiator Metals Corp. has rekindled a legacy of exploration in the Whitehorse Copper Belt, testing its mettle in an area that formerly produced roughly 267.5 million pounds of copper, 225,000 ounces of gold and 2.84 million oz of silver between 1967 and 1982.

Simply named Whitehorse Copper, this 5,380-hectare (13,294 acres) copper-molybdenum-silver-gold skarn project covers a significant portion of the region from which it derives its name.

Located practically in the backyard of Yukon's capital city, the Whitehorse Copper project covers a 35-kilometer (22 miles) by five-kilometer (three miles) contiguous high-grade copper belt with 30 known prospective targets that saw enormous quantities of copper, gold, and silver from 11.1 million tons of mineralized skarn ore milled up until nearly a half-century ago.

Disclosing its intention to option the property in late 2022, Gladiator quickly mustered its forces to update records with modern knowledge and paint a clearer picture of this past-producing property.

Of the 30 known targets, some of the more well-established and advanced are the War Eagle, Pueblo, Best Chance, Arctic Chief, North Star, Cub Trend, Chiefs Trend, Little Chief, and Cowley Park.

In its short time with the project, Gladiator has paid particular attention to Cowley Park, a target at the southern end of the project that had already reached feasibility before operations were shuttered in the early 1980s.

The company kicked off its inaugural drill program at Cowley Park in April, which included 2,632 meters of diamond drilling in 14 holes.

The results from Gladiator's maiden program confirmed the continuity of high-grade copper skarn mineralization at Cowley Park, with mineralization remaining open along strike and down dip in all directions.

Gladiator says the results from its first program reconcile positively with historical drilling in the area, highlighting the potential to improve the prospect both through systematic sampling of lower-grade sections of mineralization around the identified high-grade areas and by assaying for potential complementary co-products to copper mineralization, including molybdenum, gold, and silver.

Aside from attentions at Cowley Park, the company also examined Arctic Chief, a largely untested shallow, high-grade prospect located further north and about 6.4 kilometers (4 miles) southwest of Whitehorse.

According to historic accounts, Arctic Chief was reported as producing roughly 202,000 metric tons of copper ore averaging 1.4% copper and one gram per metric ton gold.

With recent-times examination, the company found that historical drill intersections at Arctic Chief, aside from previously mined areas, include mineralization that remains open both along strike and at depth.

"Gladiator is pleased to have identified another work area from its data compilation of historic drilling datasets," said Gladiator Metals CEO Jason Bontempo. "Drilling and past production from the Arctic Chief prospect remains shallow and is open in all directions."

While focus was paid largely toward Cowley Park and Arctic Chief, historically, the majority of the substantial resources mined out during the 20-year span came from the Little Chief mine. Taking a shot in the dark to assess its prospectivity, the company was surprised to discover a completely untouched mineralized zone just north of the primary open pit and underground mined area that once held Little Chief. Now called Middle Chief, this reevaluation determined the potential of more than 700 meters of strike at this historic site.

"Historical drilling and past production from the Little Chief mine area as a whole remains shallow, and this data compilation represents an opportunity to review the deposit in 3D for the first time to begin to appreciate the exploration potential of the high-grade copper-gold skarn, which remains open in all directions, for future resource growth," said Bontempo.