The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - December 6, 2024
A rig tests the southeast edge of the Eureka nickel deposit during late-season drilling at the Nikolai project.
Alaska Energy Metals Corp. Dec. 3 announced that its 2024 resource expansion drilling at Nikolai has confirmed that the higher-grade core zone within the 8.1-billion-pound Eureka deposit extends at least another 600 meters to the southeast.
According to a calculation completed in February, the Eureka deposit 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 much of the company's 2024 program focused on testing for new zones of high-grade nickel-copper-cobalt-platinum group metal (PGM) mineralization on the Canwell block of claims approximately 12 miles (19 kilometers) to the northeast, the company also drilled four holes at the southeast end of the Eureka deposit this year.
Highlights from the first two 2024 holes at Eureka include:
• 308.2 meters averaging 0.21% nickel, 0.08% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.09 g/t palladium, 0.04 g/t platinum, and 0.02 g/t gold from a depth of 53.9 meters in hole EZ-24-009; which includes a 70.8-meter core zone averaging 0.25% nickel, 0.14% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.16 g/t palladium, 0.06 g/t platinum, and 0.03 g/t gold.
• 337.4 meters averaging 0.22% nickel, 0.07% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.1 g/t palladium, 0.04 g/t platinum, and 0.01 g/t gold from a depth of 45.7 meters in hole EZ-24-010; which includes a 76.2-meter core zone averaging 0.25% nickel, 0.14% copper, 0.02% cobalt, 0.14 g/t palladium, 0.06 g/t platinum, and 0.02 g/t gold.
Hole EZ-24-009 was drilled at the southeast edge of the current Eureka Zone resource, and EZ-24-010 was drilled approximately 300 meters further southeast.
"These two drill holes further increase the drilled strike extent of the Eureka Zone by 600 meters and confirms the higher-grade core zone extends to the southeast outside of the current resource," said Alaska Energy Metals Chief Geologist Gabe Graf.
The company also reported that 5.6 meters of coarse-grained magmatic sulfides were cut near the top of the higher-grade core zone in hole EZ-24-009. A one-meter section of these coarse sulfides averaged 0.72% nickel, 0.18% copper, 0.04% cobalt, 0.4 g/t palladium, 0.03 g/t platinum, and 0.02 g/t gold.
"For the first time, coarse-grained magmatic sulfides were intersected and are being considered as an additional future exploration target," Graf added.
Coarse-grained magmatic sulfides drilled in hole EZ-24-009.
Alaska Energy Metals is awaiting assays from a pair of holes drilled about 750 meters southeast of EZ-24-010. Given the remarkable consistency of mineralization within the deposit, as well as in historical holes drilled further southeast, it is expected that this year's drilling will significantly expand the resource.
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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