The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - May 23, 2024
Brixton has begun its 2024 drilling with a hole to test high-grade core of the Camp Creek target indicated by the two meters of 0.66% copper, 0.24 g/t gold, 12 g/t silver, and 112 ppm molybdenum cut near the bottom of hole THN23-277.
Brixton Metals Corp. has launched a 12,000- to 17,000-meter drill program focused on testing several porphyry copper-gold targets across its 2,863-square-kilometer (1,105 square miles) Thorn project in Northern British Columbia.
Having successfully completed an oversubscribed C$14.5 million (US$10.6 million) financing in November that included the participation by BHP Group, which holds a 19.9% interest in Brixton, Brixton is fully funded for the 2024 exploration program.
This program will include drilling several new porphyry copper-gold targets, drilling within the core of the Camp Creek porphyry, the collection of 2,500 rock and soil samples, and geophysics.
"The Brixton team is excited to kick off the 2024 season," said Brixton Metals Chairman and CEO Gary Thompson. "The company has C$12.5 million budgeted for the Thorn project in exploration expenditures with the focus on new copper-gold porphyry mineralization."
While new targets are Brixton's primary focus this year, the 2024 drilling started with a hole testing for a high-grade copper core to the Camp Creek porphyry.
While a resource has yet to be calculated for Camp Creek, drilling over the previous three seasons has demonstrated this target to host a large body of porphyry copper-gold-silver-molybdenum mineralization.
Highlights from drilling at Camp Creek since 2021 include:
• 976.5 meters averaging 0.22% copper, 0.07 grams per metric ton gold, 2.06 g/t silver, and 154.4 ppm 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.
• 779.7 meters averaging 0.23% copper, 0.05 g/t gold, 2.46 g/t silver, and 234.7 ppm molybdenum in hole THN22-221.
• 1,562.4 meters averaging 0.19% copper, 0.05 g/t gold, 2.81 g/t silver, and 189 ppm molybdenum in hole THN23-261.
Brixton's first hole of the 2024 season (THN24-28) is being drilled from the same pad as a 2023 hole (THN23-277) that cut increasingly strong copper mineralization to the bottom of the hole.
The bottom 84 meters of THN23-277averaged 0.25% copper, 0.09 g/t gold, 3.78 g/t silver, and 142 ppm molybdenum. While the abundance of copper mineralization and quartz vein density was increasing, this hole ended at a depth of 1,041 meters due to poor ground conditions.
A second hole slated to be drilled at Camp Creek will step out from holes THN21-184 and THN21-201.
THN21-184 ended in strong copper mineralization, with the bottom 318 meters of this 1,184-meters hole averaging 0.42% copper, 0.17 g/t gold, 3.87 g/t silver, and 294 ppm molybdenum.
THN21-201 cut a 150-meter zone of particularly strong mineralization averaging 0.6% copper, 0.19 g/t gold, 5.12 g/t silver, and 391 ppm molybdenum.
The objective of the two 2024 holes at Camp Creek is to test for a high-grade copper core to the porphyry.
Trifecta, Cirque, and North Copper are at the top of the list of porphyry targets across the wider Thorn property to be drilled this year.
Lying about 1,500 meters southeast of Camp Creek, about the same distance west of the Outlaw gold target, and about 1,000 meters northeast of the Chivas copper target, Trifecta is an intriguing copper target at the intersection of two major mineralized trends.
Sampling of a massive magnetite-pyrite-chalcopyrite vein in outcrop at Trifecta returned 2.46% copper, 71.4 g/t silver, and 0.36 g/t gold. The mineralization identified at surface is thought to be related to a copper porphyry at depth.
The Cirque target, which lies about 3,000 meters northeast of Camp Creek, will also be drilled this year.
Julian Mining encountered sporadic copper at cirque during drilling carried out in 1965. The best hole out of the 13 drilled during the 1965 program cut 10.7 meters averaging 0.19% copper and 710 ppm molybdenum.
Brixton geologists revisited Cirque last year and identified a 1,000- by 2,000-meter northwest trending area of copper mineralization. The widespread alteration and pyrite-chalcopyrite mineralization identified suggests the potential that a copper-molybdenum porphyry system at Cirque remains untested.
North Copper, a roughly 15-kilometer- (nine miles) by five-kilometer (3 miles) target area about 15 kilometers northwest of Camp Creek, is another area of widespread copper mineralization that will be drilled this year.
Mineralization at North Copper consists of broad, pervasive zones of disseminated and vein-hosted pyrite with localized areas of chalcopyrite and molybdenite that may represent the periphery of a porphyry system, as well as higher-grade narrow polymetallic vein zones and skarn-style mineralization that are more representative of distal environments.
Samples collected from the North Copper area last year returned up to 0.7% copper and 2,290 ppm molybdenum.
A ground magnetotelluric (MT) geophysical survey covering a roughly 90-square-kilometer- (35 square miles) area is planned prior to drilling.
While Brixton's 2024 program is focused primarily on drilling porphyry copper targets, the company continues to review gold targets for drill testing in 2024.
Bornite copper mineralization and visible gold in a sample collected from the Metal target about 25 kilometers southeast of the Camp Creek porphyry copper-gold target on Brixton's Thorn project in Northern B.C.
These may include selective drilling at the Trapper epithermal gold target, where one past hole cut 64 meters averaging 5.7 g/t gold; the Outlaw sediment-hosted gold target, which one hole drilled in 2014 (THN-14-128) cut 59.65 meters averaging 1.15 g/t gold and 5.64 g/t silver; and the Metla target, where surface rock grab samples have returned up to 62.7 g/t gold.
Brixton is also collaborating with the University of British Columbia's Mineral Deposit Research Unit as part of the BC Porphyry Study. A master's research project is already underway at the Camp Creek porphyry target, with the goal of establishing geochemical and alteration vectors towards blind porphyry mineralization.
In addition, an alteration mapping project is underway to characterize the large alteration footprint centered on Camp Creek. With porphyry deposits frequently found in clusters, the use of petrographic, geochemical, and mineral spectrometer analyses will assist in the identification of potential porphyry centers outside of the currently drilled areas.
"The scale of surface copper-gold mineralization is remarkable, and Brixton is well positioned to generate new discoveries," said Thompson.
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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