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The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - November 21, 2024
A drill tests Odie, one of three Canwell targets tested during Alaska Energy Metals' 2024 drilling at Nikolai.
Alaska Energy Metals Corp. Nov. 21 reported that thick zones of nickel, cobalt, chromium, and platinum group metals encountered in holes drilled this year at the Emerick, Odie and Upper Canwell prospects underscore the broader critical minerals discovery potential at the company's Nikolai project.
Nikolai is comprised of two blocks of claims – Eureka and Canwell – that each host compelling nickel targets. Alaska Energy Metal's inaugural drill program at Nikolai in 2023 built upon previous exploration to outline a massive deposit of disseminated nickel-copper-cobalt-platinum group metals mineralization at Eureka.
Based on the 2023 and previous exploration, Eureka hosts 813 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.22% (3.88 billion lb) nickel, 0.07% (1.28 billion lb) copper, 0.02% (303 million lb) cobalt, and 0.15 grams per metric ton (4.03 million oz) palladium-platinum-gold; plus 896 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.21% (4.23 billion lb) nickel, 0.05% (1.04 billion lb) copper, 0.02% (327 million lb) cobalt, and 0.12 g/t (1.34 million oz) palladium-platinum-gold.
While additional grid-based drilling could easily expand this contiguous and continuous deposit of disseminated mineralization, Alaska Energy Metals focused its 2024 drilling primarily on Canwell, a block of claims approximately 12 miles (19 kilometers) northeast of Eureka, where outcroppings of massive sulfides with very high-grade nickel have been found on the surface.
To test Canwell's potential, the company drilled one hole into three of the most prospective targets identified on the property – Emerick, Odie, and Upper Canwell.
Highlights from the 1,048 meter of exploration drilling at Canwell include:
• 56.5 meters averaging 0.26% nickel, 0.62% chromium, 7% iron, 0.01% cobalt, 0.01% copper, 0.02 g/t palladium, and 0.03 g/t platinum in hole CAN-24-001 (Emerick).
• 193.6 meters averaging 0.26% nickel, 0.69% chromium, 8.58% iron, 0.01% cobalt, 0.01% copper, 0.04 g/t palladium, and 0.04 g/t platinum in hole CAN-24-00 (Odie).
• 429.3 meters averaging 0.24% nickel, 0.64% chromium, 8.12% iron, 0.01% cobalt, 0.01% copper, 0.03 g/t palladium, and 0.04 g/t platinum.
Considering that the distance between the northwesternmost hole at Emerick and the southeasternmost hole at Upper Canwell is roughly five miles (eight kilometers), the remarkable consistency of the grade of mineralization between these three holes is intriguing.
"[T]he potential for coarser-grained nickel sulfides and additional disseminated sulfide zones on the Nikolai Project is encouraging, and we are excited to continue advancing the geologic understanding of the property," said Alaska Energy Metals Chief Geologist Gabe Graf.
In addition to disseminated critical minerals, the hole drilled at Upper Canwell cut a 1.4-meter section of blebby nickel sulfides that averages 0.65% nickel, 0.66% chromium, 8.9% iron, 0.02% cobalt, 0.06% copper, 0.28 g/t palladium, and 0.25 g/t platinum.
Graf said, "the blebby sulfides intersected at the Upper Canwell prospect is the first subsurface indication for higher-grade sulfides on the property."
Alaska Energy Metals was not able to test the geophysical target originally targeted at Upper Canwell due the difficulties of drilling along the intracontinental Denali Fault that marks the southern border of the famed Tintina Gold Belt that spans Alaska.
The blebby sulfides indicate the potential for buried zones of massive sulfides similar to the small outcrops of very high-grade nickel that have been found on the surface at Canwell.
"After 20 years of limited exploration on the Canwell property, the information collected from these drill holes will aid our understanding of the mineralized ultramafic systems within the Wrangellia Terrane of Interior Alaska," Graf added. "We look forward to getting back into these areas in the next exploration season."
CORRECTION: This article was updated on Dec. 4 to correctly state that Canwell is approximately 12 miles northeast of Eureka.
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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