The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - March 8, 2024
Gladiator technician examining core from drilling at the company's highly prospective Whitehorse Copper project in Yukon, Canada.
Plan view of recently collated Little Chief and Middle Chief drill hole data showing historic open pit, as well as areas of historical production and unmined mineralization.
Gladiator Metals Corp. March 5 announced an update on drilling at the company's Whitehorse Copper project, reporting initial assays from 2,162 meters of drilling in six holes completed so far as part of the planned 10,000 meters of drilling at the Middle Chief prospect in Yukon, Canada.
"Gladiator has received initial assays from its ongoing, 10,000-meter diamond drill program at the Middle Chief prospect area," said Gladiator Metals CEO Jason Bontempo. "These results confirm and support the significant widths of high-grade copper skarn mineralisation identified from Gladiators data compilation of historical datasets at Middle Chief and point to further extensions of the defined mineralised bodies."
Located in the backyard of Yukon's capital city, the Whitehorse Copper project is a 5,280-hectare (13,294 acres) copper-molybdenum-silver-gold skarn exploration project that covers a significant portion of what has historically been known as the Whitehorse Copper Belt.
Exploring the 35-kilometer (22 miles) by five-kilometer (three miles) contiguous high-grade copper belt with at least 30 known prospective targets within the region, historical mining saw production of approximately 267.5 million pounds copper, 225,000 ounces gold, and 2.84 million oz silver from 11.1 million tons of mineralized skarn ore milled between the years 1967 and 1982.
Kicking off the 2024 exploration program at Middle Chief in early January, Gladiator focused on this target due to a plethora of historical records that suggested numerous zones of mineralization that were otherwise left unmined.
"Gladiator has commenced the first diamond drilling campaign at the Middle Chief Prospect since mine closure in 1982," said Bontempo. "The planned 10,000-meter diamond drilling is designed to test areas of high-grade copper skarn mineralization identified from its data compilation of historic drilling datasets at the Middle Chief target as well as near mine extensions to the historic Little Chief mine. These targets represent near surface areas of mineralization open in all directions with limited exploration or development away from historical underground infrastructure".
The former Little Chief mining trend is the largest historically producing mine in the Whitehorse Copper Belt, with a total mined production of approximately 8.54 million tons averaging 1.5% copper and 0.75 grams per metric ton gold.
Production there commenced in May 1967, with mining of the open pit completed in 1969. Underground mining development commenced in 1971 and then ceased operation in 1982 due to the prevailingly low copper price environment.
Plan view of recently collated Little Chief and Middle Chief drill hole data showing historic open pit, as well as areas of historical production and unmined mineralization.
Upon review, the company identified down dip potential for the mineralization to continue, where little or no drilling has been completed to date, and mineralization remains open.
The recently collated historic drilling (628 underground holes and 166 surface holes in 68,940 meters), none of which had been previously reported by Gladiator, highlight significant mineralization that potentially remains intact; this includes the following drill holes from Middle Chief that have been collared underground; highlights include:
• 49.83 meters averaging 3.06% copper from 70.26 meters in LCU-009.
• 23.01 meters averaging 2.07% copper from 87.78 meters in LCU-013.
• 54.10 meters averaging 2.05% copper from 77.42 meters in LCU-017.
• 33.99 meters averaging 2.10% copper from 148.89 meters in LCU-023.
• 32.92 meters averaging 2.08% copper from 86.87 meters in LCU-151.
• 9.30 meters averaging 4.73% copper from surface in LCU-371.
• 22.52 meters averaging 2.23% copper from 79.86 meters in LCU-500.
• 32.22 meters averaging 2.11% copper from 83.91 meters in LCU-503.
• 24.9 meters averaging 2.27% copper from 93.97 meters in LCU-551.
• 11.06 meters averaging 3.79% copper from 89.37 meters in LCU-571.
• 30.17 meters averaging 1.97% copper from 31.09 meters in LCU-578.
The compilation of the available data completed by Gladiator is the first time that the mineralization has been able to be reviewed and modeled in three dimensions, providing Gladiator with a unique opportunity to target further mineralization and utilize modern geophysics such as downhole electromagnetics (DHEM).
Planned to continue over the next three months, drilling will be complemented by DHEM surveying of the holes to identify undrilled extensions to the mineralization.
Historical drilling at the Little Chief and Middle Chief prospects was selectively sampled for copper only.
Given the recent significant gold intervals returned from the latest assay results, Gladiator intends to assay all future drilling and sampling for additional credits, including gold, silver and molybdenum, which were proven significant contributors to the economics of historic operations at Little Chief.
Assay results from the six holes so far have confirmed the extensive, unmined, high-grade mineralization highlighted by the company's data compilation of historical drilling.
Mineralization so far remains open in all directions, with some holes finishing in high-grade copper and gold mineralization due to difficult ground conditions – this includes holes LCG-001D3 and LCG-002, which both failed to reach planned depth and hole LCG-003 collapsing within the mineralization zones. Despite this, the hole finished in significant mineralization, returning 0.25 meters averaging 2.76% copper and 0.28 g/t gold from a depth of 269.5 meters.
Highlights from the initial assays include:
• Recovered core averaging 2.71% copper and 1.39 g/t gold within a 13.75-meter mineralized zone from a depth of 256 meters in LCG-003 to end of hole (approximately 270 meters) that failed in 0.25 meters averaging 2.76% copper and 0.28 g/t gold.
• 22 meters averaging 1.41% copper and 0.28 g/t gold from 208 meters in LCG-001D1.
• Six meters averaging 1.56 % copper and 1.06 g/t gold from 213 meters in LCG-001, and 16 meters averaging 1.29% copper and 0.61 g/t gold from 249 meters.
• 10 meters averaging 0.83% copper and 0.19 g/t gold from 62 meters in LCG-001D2; four meters averaging 1.03% copper and 0.19 g/t gold from 84 meters; and 10 meters averaging 1.35% copper and 0.51g/t gold from 196 meters.
"Mineralisation remains open in all directions with some holes finishing in high grade copper-gold mineralization," finished Bontempo.
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