The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - August 30, 2024
Western Alaska Minerals completed 4,230 meters of drilling in 13 holes during the 2024 program at Illinois Creek.
Breccias in various stages of Warm Springs mineralization.
Core from two gold intercepts in hole IC24-0004.
Western Alaska Minerals Corp. Aug. 29 reported that drills encountered two gold zones at Warm Springs that could represent a new spoke along a trend of carbonate replacement deposit mineralization that extends roughly five miles (eight kilometers) across the Illinois Creek property in Alaska.
CRD deposits are created when mineralized fluids enriched with metals percolate through carbonate rocks, dissolving and replacing the original minerals. These types of deposits typically drop out copper, gold, and some silver from higher-temperature fluids near the source, and then silver, lead, and zinc as the hydrothermal fluids cool at a distance. This zonation is part of a continuous mineralized horizon that extends from the source of the fluids to their outermost reaches, a continuous state known as original continuity.
At Illinois Creek, this CRD zonation is believed to be responsible for the precious metals from the past-producing Illinois Creek mine, which still hosts 357,000 oz of gold and 13.4 million oz of silver in the indicated and inferred resource categories, to the Waterpump Creek deposit, which hosts 2.39 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 279 grams per metric ton (21.4 million oz) silver, 11.25% (592 million pounds) zinc, and 9.84% (518 million lb) lead.
Western Alaska's 2024 drill program tested two targets between these deposits at either end of the mineralized trend – Warm Springs, about 1,400 meters east of Illinois Creek and Last Hurrah, south of Waterpump Creek.
Core from two gold intercepts in hole IC24-0004.
In its first release of assay results from the 2024 program, Western Alaska reports that hole IC24-0004 cut two zones of gold-silver mineralization with associated copper at Warm Springs:
• 4.68 meters of sulfide mineralization averaging 1.29 g/t gold, 11.6 g/t silver, and 0.04% copper from a depth of 84.17 meters.
• 2.96 meters of oxide mineralization averaging 2.13 g/t gold, 7 g/t silver, and 0.03% copper from a depth of 244.4 meters.
"Finding gold at Warm Springs opens up a whole new gold target zone within the eight-kilometer-long trend between the Illinois Creek and Waterpump Creek resources," said Western Alaska Minerals CEO Kit Marrs. "This is an exciting complement to our high-grade silver-zinc-lead resource at Waterpump Creek."
Western Alaska's decision to test Warm Springs this year was based on the strong potential of a large hydrothermal system indicated by drilling completed by Anaconda in 1982, surface geology, and modeling of geophysical surveys.
Western Alaska says that seven out of the nine holes drilled at Warm Springs this year cut extensive alteration and oxide mineralization along with local base-metal sulfide mineralization.
"The appearance of gold and copper in the multiply brecciated alteration and mineralization zones cut in these latest holes at Warm Springs clearly indicates we're zeroing in on a repeatedly reactivated structure that acted as a major pathway for proximal/near-source mineralizing fluids," said Peter Megaw, a world-leading expert in CRD mineralizing systems and technical advisor to Western Alaska Minerals.
Breccias in various stages of Warm Springs mineralization.
IC24-0004, the first hole drilled at Warm Springs this year, was a 310-meter step-out south of two historical holes drilled by Anaconda and about 1,200 meters west of holes drilled by Western Alaska in 2022.
Hole IC24-0004 cut four mineralized zones representing multiple stages of precious and base metal mineralization.
"The CRD continuum model suggests the next steps are to link this to the distal silver-lead-zinc resource at Waterpump Creek and the more proximal gold-copper resource adjoining the historical Illinois Creek mine," said Megaw. "The possibility that this is a separate structure parallel to the Illinois Creek Fault is especially intriguing as it may indicate a whole new 'spoke' to the system."
The 2024 program at Illinois Creek, which wrapped up on Aug. 24, also included four holes at Last Hurrah. Western Alaska says these holes cut a few gossans but no significant mineralization.
In total, the company completed 4,230 meters of drilling in 13 holes at Illinois Creek – 2,883 meters in the nine holes at Warm Springs and 1,347 meters at Last Hurrah.
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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