The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - June 12, 2024
Alaska Range hosts two high-grade copper deposits and has strong potential for porphyry copper mineralization.
PolarX Ltd. June 12 announced that it has exercised an option to secure an 80% interest in the Caribou Dome property and a 90% interest in the adjacent Senator property, both part of the company's 103-square-mile (266 square kilometers) Alaska Range copper-gold-silver project.
Lying just north of the Denali Highway about 160 miles (250 kilometers) northeast of Anchorage, the 22-mile-long Alaska Range land package comprises three primary groups of claims – Caribou Dome, Senator, and Stellar.
Caribou Dome, which lies at the southwest end of this large land package, and Senator, which lies immediately to the northeast, are being optioned from CD Development Corp. and its affiliates – SV Metals and Hatcher Resources Inc. The 58-square-mile (150 square kilometers) Stellar claims are already 100% owned by PolarX.
According to a calculation completed in mid-2023, Caribou Dome hosts 7.2 million metric tons of measured, indicated, and inferred resources averaging 3.1% (224,375 metric tons) copper and 6.5 grams per metric ton (1.5 million oz) silver.
The Zackly skarn deposit on the Stellar property hosts an additional 4 million metric tons of indicated and inferred resources averaging 1.1% (45,000 metric tons) copper, 1.6 g/t (213,000 oz) gold, and 12.6 g/t (1.6 million oz) silver.
Senator is an early-stage prospect area that lies between the two, where rock chip samples have returned grades as high as 12.1% copper.
A scoping study completed in 2023 and updated in January of this year outlines plans for a 750,000-metric-ton-per-year centralized mill that would process ore from both Caribou Dome and Stellar.
The mill, which would be constructed next to Caribou Dome and begin by processing material from that deposit, is expected to produce 148,155 metric tons of copper, 102,577 oz of gold, and 1.38 million oz of silver over 9.5 years of mining.
This operation is forecast to generate a pre-tax net present value (7% discount) of US$418 million (A$625 million) and an internal rate of return of 73.9%, with a capital payback period of 1.6 years.
The Alaska Range project has attracted the interest of Northern Star Resources Ltd., which underwrote an A$4.92 million (US$3.2 million) financing completed by PolarX in April and now owns a roughly 16% interest in the exploration company.
With a major backer and a positive scoping study in hand, PolarX has now paid US$1.26 million (A$1.88 million) to exercise its option to earn an 80% interest in Caribou Dome and a 90% interest in Senator.
CD Development, the vendor of the Caribou Dome project, will retain a 5% net smelter royalty (NSR), which can be purchased for US$5 million (A$7.5 million) in cash. PolarX plans to include that payment in future mine development expenditures.
The 10% in the Senator claims held by Hatcher Resources and the 20% interest in claims adjacent to Caribou Dome that are held by SV Metals would be converted into a 1% NSR if their interests are diluted to below 3% due to not contributing to future work programs.
The next steps at Alaska Range are expected to include additional metallurgical work to increase recoveries and concentrate grades, as well as resource expansion drilling at Caribou Dome and Zackly.
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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