The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - September 30, 2024
U.S. GoldMining CEO Tim Smith talks with drillers testing the Whistler deposit.
Cross-section of hole WH23-03 drilled through the core of the Whistler deposit.
Cross-section of hole Whistler WH24-01 cross-section drilled at Raintree West.
U.S. GoldMining Inc. Sept. 30 reported encouraging results from the first two holes of the 4,000-meter drill program completed this year at its Whistler copper-gold-silver project in Alaska's West Susitna Mineral District.
Lying about 100 miles northwest of Anchorage and at the end of a proposed road that would link the project to Alaska's highway system, Whistler hosts three deposits – Whistler, Raintree West, and Island Mountain – that contain 6.6 million ounces of gold, 1.13 billion pounds of copper, and 24.4 million oz of silver in all resource categories.
U.S. GoldMining is currently focused on upgrading and expanding resources within the Whistler Orbit, a roughly five-mile-diameter (7.6 kilometer) area encompassing Whistler and Raintree, along with more than a dozen earlier staged porphyry copper-gold targets.
Whistler, the largest and most advanced deposit on the property, 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.
This resource is based on 70,247 meters of diamond drilling completed prior to the acquisition of Whistler by GoldMining Inc., which spun the Alaska asset out into U.S. GoldMining Inc. last year.
Picking up where it left off at the end of its inaugural drill program carried out at Whistler in 2023, U.S. GoldMining re-entered and extended hole WH23-03, which cut 547.2 meters averaging 0.17% copper, 0.77 g/t gold, and 1.55 g/t silver and remained in gold mineralization when drilling ended due to a freeze-up of the water supply for the rig last fall.
This year, the hole was extended to a depth of 874.5 meters. Porphyry-style mineralization was encountered to a depth of 717 meters before entering into barren country rock.
Combined with the drilling completed last year, hole WH23-03 cut 652.5 meters averaging 0.16% copper, 0.73 g/t gold, and 1.5 g/t silver from a depth of seven meters. This comes to 1 g/t gold-equivalent, which includes the combined value of the copper, gold, and silver encountered.
Cross-section of hole WH23-03 drilled through the core of the Whistler deposit.
WH23-03 cut several higher-grade subintervals, including:
• 176 meters averaging 0.19% copper, 1.24 g/t gold, and 1.7 g/t silver (1.55 g/t gold-equivalent) from a depth of 131 meters.
• 57 meters averaging 0.17% copper, 1.07 g/t gold, and 1.2 g/t silver (1.36 g/t gold-equivalent) from a depth of 575 meters.
The company says the results from WH23-03 have further increased confidence in the continuity of mineralization within the Whistler deposit's higher-grade core.
"The 2023 drill program returned the longest drill intercept of consistent mineralization ever recorded at the project: 547.2 meters at 1.06 g/t AuEq (gold-equivalent) in WH23-03," said U.S. GoldMining CEO Tim Smith. "We are further encouraged that we have now extended this by an additional plus-100 meters to enlarge the continuously mineralized intercept within the Whistler deposit high-grade core to 652.5 meters at 1 g/t AuEq."
The company also reported assays from one hole drilled to provide insights into the geological model and expansion potential at Raintree West.
Lying approximately 2,000 meters northeast of the Whistler deposit, Raintree West 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.
U.S. GoldMining drilled infill hole WH24-01 to collect additional information about the style, geometry, continuity, and controls on mineralization within Raintree West. This hole cut two styles of mineralization – porphyry copper-gold-silver mineralization and porphyry-distal (possibly epithermal) veins containing abundant silver, lead, and zinc.
"At Raintree, the drilling has returned both porphyry and vein-type mineralization, which both remain open along strike and to depth, warranting additional follow-up exploration," Smith said.
Cross-section of hole Whistler WH24-01 cross-section drilled at Raintree West.
Highlights from hole WH24-01 include:
• 17 meters averaging 0.07% copper, 0.33 g/t gold, 42 g/t silver, 0.75% zinc, and 0.33% lead (0.45 g/t gold-equivalent) from a depth of 249 meters.
• 61.8 meters averaging 0.09% copper, 0.36 g/t gold, 4.43 g/t silver, 0.39% zinc, and 0.14% lead (0.53 g/t gold-equivalent) from a depth of 311 meters.
U.S. GoldMining recently wrapped up its 2024 program at Whistler, which included 4,005 meters of drilling.
"I want to acknowledge our professional and hard-working field teams that executed the 2024 exploration program safely, without a single lost time incident to date, and delivered on budget and ahead of schedule," Smith added.
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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