The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - September 6, 2024
The Whiskey Bravo airstrip serves as the headquarters for U.S. GoldMining and Nova Minerals' exploration in the West Susitna Mineral District.
A drill expands resources at RPM, a higher-grade deposit where Nova Minerals plans to develop its first gold mine on the Estelle property.
U.S. GoldMining CEO Tim Smith talks with the drill crew testing extensions of a higher-grade core are of the Whistler copper-gold deposit.
Clockwise from top left: Drill rig at Raintree West deposit; processing of drill core in the Whistler Core Shack; Whistler site management and U.S. GoldMining Sustainability Committee; exploration geologists collect samples from an outcrop of porphyry alteration in the Whistler Orbit.
The route for the proposed 100-mile-long West Susitna Road.
WEST SUSTINA MINERAL DISTRICT – The 4,000-foot Whiskey Bravo airstrip about 100 miles northwest of Anchorage as the Cessna 206 flies is serving as the operational headquarters of an emerging Alaska mining district with the potential to be a domestic source of minerals and metals critical to America's economic wellbeing, national security, and clean energy ambitions.
The rich mineral potential of this district is underscored by U.S. GoldMining Inc.'s Whistler copper-gold project exploration camp at one end of the airstrip and Nova Minerals Ltd.'s Estelle gold-antimony exploration camp toward the other end.
While these companies have no formal affiliation and are advancing their exploration projects independently, they share a vision of putting the West Susitna Mineral District on the map – a common goal made all the more likely by their individual and collective success.
"Currently, both U.S. GoldMining and Nova Minerals are still in the exploration phase of defining and optimizing their mineral resources, but as their future potential mining studies are advanced, we would expect joint trade-off studies that will optimize synergies to share infrastructure and other elements of mine design, which will see sharing of technical information and potentially new joint studies," U.S. GoldMining CEO Tim Smith told Mining News.
U.S. GoldMining and Nova Minerals' individual and collective success will be further enhanced by the completion of the West Susitna Road, a project being advanced by state agencies that would connect the Whiskey Bravo Airstrip to Alaska's highway system.
"We work closely with each other – rising tides lift all boats," Nova Minerals CEO Chris Gerteisen said during a Sept. 2 interview with Mining News.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who visited the Whistler and Estelle project in 2023, says the road would open up a region west of more than half of Alaska's population to new recreational and economic opportunities.
"The West Susitna Road is important for local residents and gaining fair access to hunting, fishing, and potential jobs," Dunleavy said. "My administration is constantly looking at ways to grow our economy and this project is a great opportunity for not only south-central Alaska but the entire state. I am committed to this project and unlocking resources that benefit all Alaskans."
These resources include the rich stores of precious metals and critical minerals found in the West Susitna Mineral District at the western terminus of the proposed road.
The Whiskey Bravo airstrip was built by Kiska Metals more than a decade ago to support exploration and development of the Whistler copper-gold-silver project. Hit hard by the market downturn that impacted most junior mining companies in 2012, Kiska sold the Whistler project to GoldMining Inc. in 2015.
With the price of gold and demand for copper on the rise, coupled with Alaska's proposal to build a road to the West Susitna Mineral District, GoldMining spun Whistler out into U.S. GoldMining, an Alaska-focused subsidiary that listed on Nasdaq with a US$20 million public offering in 2023.
U.S. GoldMining CEO Tim Smith talks with the drill crew testing extensions of a higher-grade core are of the Whistler copper-gold deposit.
"Alaska's policy under Governor Dunleavy's administration of investing in critical infrastructure to stimulate growth in Alaska's economy, was an important catalyst for U.S. GoldMining to launch its highly successful IPO in April 2023," said Smith.
Another catalyst was the large stores of copper, gold, and silver already outlined in three deposits at Whistler and the discovery potential across the 84 square miles (217 square kilometers) of state mining claims held by U.S. GoldMining.
According to a calculation completed in preparation for the IPO, three deposits at Whistler – Whistler, Raintree, and Island Mountain – host 6.6 million ounces of gold, 1.13 billion pounds of copper, and 24.4 million oz of silver in all resource categories.
"This 'trifecta' of commodities in the West Susitna is highly attractive at a time when all are currently experiencing strengthening commodity prices – gold and copper recently achieving all-time highs of approximately $2,500 per oz and $5.00 per lb respectively, and silver recently at a ten-year high of approximately $30/oz," Smith penned in an email.
U.S. GoldMining has identified multiple prospects near its camp at the end of the Whiskey Bravo airstrip that could substantially expand the quantities of this metal trifecta at Whistler.
U.S. GoldMining began exploring Whistler's potential following the successful completion of its IPO and Nasdaq listing last year.
Toward the ultimate goal of unlocking the value of Whistler, as well as the West Susitna Mineral District as a whole, U.S. GoldMining's work at Whistler has three components – resource upgrade and expansion, environmental baseline studies, and stakeholder engagement.
"Tracking in parallel with our technical programs at Whistler, we have progressed activities to ensure all stakeholders, including policy makers, regulators and the community are informed of our ongoing progress and potential future mine development activities," said Smith. "As such, we are committed to transparent and open stakeholder engagement as an important foundation to earning social license for the Whistler project."
On the exploration front of the trifecta of Whistler initiatives, U.S. GoldMining is finishing up a 10,000-meter drill program launched last year that is focused on the Whistler Orbit, a roughly five-mile-diameter area near the Whiskey Bravo airstrip and camp that encompasses the Whistler and Raintree deposits.
The company views Island Mountain, which lies about 12 miles south of the Whistler Orbit, as a compelling secondary deposit that would add value after a mine is established.
With the ultimate goal of upgrading and expanding resources to a level that it can develop a mine plan around, U.S. GoldMining has focused much of its drilling at Whistler, the largest and most advanced deposit on the property.
According to the 2021 calculation, the Whistler deposit hosts 107.8 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.5 g/t (1.75 million oz) gold, 0.17% (399.4 million lb) copper, and 1.95 g/t (6.8 million oz) silver; plus 153 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.35 g/t (2.83 million oz) gold, 0.13% (455.3 million lb) copper, and 1.48 g/t (7.3 million oz silver.)
Hole WH23-03, which cut 547.2 meters averaging 0.17% copper, 0.77 g/t gold, and 1.55 g/t silver, underscores the potential to upgrade and expand the Whistler deposit.
Not only was this the longest copper-gold-silver intercept ever drilled at Whistler, but the hole was also still in mineralization when drilling was stopped at a depth of 600 meters last fall due to a freeze-up of the water supply for the rig.
Once the winter snow melted, the drill crew continued this hole to a depth of 874 meters. Assays are pending from the bottom 274 meters of this hole and the other holes drilled so far this year.
As part of its Whistler Orbit focus, U.S. GoldMining is also drilling Raintree, a deposit about 2,000 meters northeast of Whistler that hosts 7.76 million metric tons of open-pit mineable indicated resource averaging 0.49 g/t (121,000 oz) gold, 0.09% (14.9 million lb) copper, and 4.88 g/t (1.2 million oz) silver; plus 11.77 million metric tons of open-pit mineable inferred resource averaging 0.62 g/t (235,000 oz) gold, 0.07% (18 million lb) copper, and 4.58 g/t (1.7 million oz) silver.
Raintree also hosts higher-grade underground mineable resources.
The 2024 exploration program also includes surface exploration of some of the more than one dozen earlier staged porphyry gold-copper targets that have been identified by geophysics and sampling within the Whistler Orbit.
At the same time, environmental specialists have been collecting baseline water quality samples and have completed an eagle habitat survey so far this year. Wetland mapping and archaeological surveys are planned for the second half of the 2024 field season.
All of this baseline work is vital to future planning and permitting a mine at this gold-copper-silver project in the West Susitna Mineral District.
A drill expands resources at RPM, a higher-grade deposit where Nova Minerals plans to develop its first gold mine on the Estelle property.
Toward the goal of elevating the West Susitna Mineral District to the West Susitna Mining District, Nova Minerals is rapidly advancing exploration and mine development studies at its Estelle gold-antimony project immediately west of Whistler.
According to a calculation completed earlier this year in compliance with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) S-K 1300 reporting guidelines, Estelle hosts 244 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 0.3 grams per metric ton (2.72 million ounces) gold, plus 231 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.3 g/t (2.45 million oz) gold.
This resource is divided into two project areas at Estelle – the large bulk-tonnage Korbel area at the north end of the 198-square-mile (514 square kilometers) property and the higher-grade RPM area about 16 miles (25 kilometers) to the south.
To unlock Estelle's gold potential, Nova is focusing this year's drilling on expanding and upgrading the resources at RPM.
"We are going straight for RPM – smaller mine, lower capex and very high margin," Gerteisen told Mining News.
Two adjacent deposits at RPM host 4.4 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 2.5 g/t (330,000 oz) gold, plus 46 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.5 g/t (800,000 oz) gold.
These resources do not include results from 6,600 meters of drilling completed late last year at Estelle.
The results from the late 2023 holes and the drilling completed this year will be used to upgrade and expand resources for a feasibility study that will detail plans for an initial smaller-scale operation at RPM that can generate cash flow to help fund the development of a larger operation at Estelle.
"We have only scratched the surface at the high-grade RPM deposit with targeted drilling this year aimed to prove up resources in support of our efforts of an initial lower capex, smaller scale operation at RPM, to achieve production and cashflow as soon as possible," said Gerteisen.
While unlocking the multimillion-ounce gold potential at Estelle remains Nova's primary focus, the company has also discovered high-grade antimony on the property that has drawn attention from top brass at the Pentagon and could add to the impetus for building a road and developing the West Susitna Mineral District.
Securing reliable supplies of this mineral critical to fireproofing compounds, night vision gear, ammunition, and various other military and civilian applications is top strategic concern for U.S. Department of Defense officials.
Antimony's criticality and strategic value took a sharp rise with the recent announcement that China will be placing state-controlled restrictions on the export of antimony starting on Sept. 15.
No antimony is currently mined in the U.S., and China controls nearly half of the global supply of this critical metalloid.
To curb America's heavy reliance on China, Russia, and others for its antimony supply, DOD has invested heavily in advancing Perpetua Resources Inc.'s Stibnite gold-antimony project in Idaho and is looking for other secure sources.
With Stibnite only expected to supply about one-third of America's antimony needs, DOD is very interested in the high-grade antimony discovered during a property-wide exploration program carried out last year at Estelle.
One of the most compelling antimony targets discovered at Estelle is Stibium, where one sample collected last year returned 2.1% stibnite (an antimony mineral), 12.7 g/t gold, and 1,600 g/t silver.
With the price and criticality of antimony on the rise, Nova is investigating the possibility of accelerating the development of pilot-scale operations at Stibium with DOD support.
In preparation for this, the company is collecting a 2,500-kilogram, two-meter-wide antimony-enriched sample at Stibium for metallurgical testing at laboratories in Alaska and Australia.
"We are hitting the new Stibium prospect with intensity; identifying massive stibnite veins in outcrop and expanding our geochemical coverage to highlight the extent of this impressive gold and antimony occurrence," said Hoffman.
Estelle's antimony potential is further underscored by Nova's ongoing talks with Defense Department officials and an invitation for Gerteisen to discuss the role this West Susitna Mineral District property could play in shoring up domestic supplies of the critical mineral at a DOD-related conference to be held later this month.
Unlocking the critical mineral and precious metal potential at Estelle and Whistler hinges in no small part on the development of the West Susitna Road. This roughly 100-mile-long road would run west from Port MacKenzie, home to a small port and agricultural area across Cook Inlet from Anchorage, to the Whiskey Bravo airstrip.
The state plans to build this road in two phases. The first phase, slated to begin as early as next year, would be a 22-mile section built by the Alaska Department of Transportation that extends the West Susitna Parkway about seven miles west of the Susitna River.
This segment of the road is anticipated to cost $58.2 million to construct. With federal funds doing the heavy lifting, the state's contribution to build the first 22 miles of the West Susitna Road is estimated to be $5.3 million.
Like most large infrastructure projects in the state, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) – a quasi-state-owned public corporation created by the Alaska Legislature in 1967 – is leading the effort to permit, fund, and construct the remaining roughly 75 miles of the road.
The route for the proposed 100-mile-long West Susitna Road.
An economic study conducted by Alaska-based McKinley Research forecasts that the development of road-enabled mines at Whistler and Estelle would result in 700 to 900 direct jobs that would pay $83 million to $106 million in annual wages.
The study, however, identified benefits beyond future mines in the West Susitna Mineral District.
"It would also mean new recreational opportunities for Alaskans and thousands of additional acres of land available for agriculture to help our state be more food secure," said Gov. Dunleavy.
Access to new frontier lands is also expected to generate new property tax revenue for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough at the eastern end of the road, which will provide Alaskans easier access to 6 million acres of recreation area for hunting, fishing, boating, snowmachining, and other outdoor activities.
U.S. GoldMining and Nova Minerals have been actively engaged in discussing the shared economic benefits that would come with developing the West Susitna Road and Mineral District with Alaska stakeholders.
"Tracking in parallel with our technical programs at Whistler, we have progressed activities to ensure all stakeholders, including policy makers, regulators and the community are informed of our ongoing progress and potential future mine development activities," said Smith. "As such, we are committed to transparent and open stakeholder engagement as an important foundation to earning social license for the Whistler project."
Gerteisen sees the development of mines at both Estelle and Whistler and the road that will support them as a large economic boost for the Mat-Su Borough where he lives, as well as the state as a whole.
"We are big buy Alaska, hire Alaska people," he said.
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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