The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2024 - January 15, 2025
A quartz-chalcopyrite-molybdenite vein encountered at depth of hole THN24-293 at the Cirque target on Brixton Metals' Thorn property in northwestern British Columbia.
Core showing copper and molybdenum mineralization encountered at various depths in hole THN24-292.
Brixton tested several targets associated with strong copper geochemistry during 2024.
Visible gold observed in core at a depth of 268.5 meters in hole THN24-308 drilled at Trapper.
Bornite copper mineralization and visible gold in a sample collected from the Metla target about 25 kilometers southeast of Camp Creek on Brixton's Thorn project in Northern BC.
With the financial and technical backing of BHP Group, Brixton Metals Corp. carried out a C$12.5 million ($9.2 million) program last year focused on expanding the mile-thick zones of porphyry copper-gold mineralization at Thorn and testing some of the other exploration targets across the district-scale project in Northern British Columbia.
Lying in B.C.'s northwestern corner, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) northwest of Juneau, Alaska, the 2,945-square-kilometer (1,137 square miles) Thorn project covers 16 large-scale copper- and gold-enriched prospects. So far, Brixton's drilling at Thorn has focused largely on Camp Creek, a 1,500- by 2,000-meter exploration target where drills have cut nearly a mile (more than 1,500 meters) of porphyry copper-gold mineralization.
The large body of porphyry copper mineralization at Camp Creek and the discovery potential across the wider Thorn propery attracted the attention of BHP Group, which invested C$13.6 million (US$10 million) to acquire a 19.9% interest in Brixton at the end of 2022 and maintained its equity position by participating in an overscribed C$14.5 million (US$10.6 million) financing at the end of 2023.
The latter fundraising financed a 2024 exploration program that included additional drilling at Camp Creek, testing severalnew porphyry copper-gold targets, sampling, and geophysics.
"The company has C$12.5 million budgeted for the Thorn project in exploration expenditures with the focus on new copper-gold porphyry mineralization," Brixton Metals Chairman and CEO Gary Thompson said at the onset of the season.
Core showing copper and molybdenum mineralization encountered at various depths in hole THN24-292.
While new targets were the primary focus of 2024 drilling at Thorn, the 2024 program began with a hole testing for a high-grade copper core to the Camp Creek porphyry.
While a resource has yet to be calculated for Camp Creek, drilling over the previous three seasons has demonstrated this target to host a large body of porphyry copper-gold-silver-molybdenum mineralization.
Highlights from the 2021-2023 drilling at Camp Creek include:
• 976.5 meters averaging 0.22% copper, 0.07 grams per metric ton gold, 2.06 g/t silver, and 154.4 parts per million molybdenum in hole THN21-183.
• 821.3 meters averaging 0.24% copper, 0.1 g/t gold, 2.44 g/t silver, and 174.3 ppm molybdenum in hole THN21-184.
• 967.7 meters averaging 0.25% copper, 0.09 g/t gold, 2.39 g/t silver, and 186 ppm molybdenum in hole THN22-201.
• 1,562.4 meters averaging 0.19% copper, 0.05 g/t gold, 2.81 g/t silver, and 189 ppm molybdenum in hole THN23-261.
Two holes drilled at Camp Creek in 2024 cut similar long sections of porphyry mineralization:
• 960.4 meters averaging 0.21% copper, 0.06 g/t gold, 2.71 g/t silver, and 279 ppm molybdenum depth of 314.5 meters in hole THN24-290, including a 452-meter subsection averaging 0.28% copper, 0.08 g/t gold, 3.39 g/t silver, and 272 ppm molybdenum.
• 61.5 meters averaging 0.89 g/t gold, 10.5 g/t silver, and 0.13% copper from of 61.5 meters, and 1,126 meters averaging 0.18% copper, 0.05 g/t gold, 1.82 g/t silver, and 167 ppm molybdenum from a depth of 398 meters in hole THN24-291.
THN24-290 fills a gap in previous drilling and THN24-291 extends the body of porphyry mineralization being outlined at Camp Creek to the northwest.
Cirque, Trifecta, and North Copper were outlying porphyry targets across the wider Thorn property tested last year.
Brixton tested several targets associated with strong copper geochemistry during 2024.
Located about 3,000 meters northeast of Camp Creek, Cirque is a target where drilling carried out nearly 60 years ago cut 10.7 meters averaging 0.19% copper and 710 ppm molybdenum.
Prospecting carried out by Brixton geologists in 2023 a 1,000- by 2,000-meter northwest trending area of copper mineralization that suggests the larger potential at Cirque remains untested.
Highlights from the 2024 Cirque drilling include:
• 87 meters averaging 0.2% copper, 0.04 g/t gold, 2.61 g/t silver, and 34 ppm molybdenum from a depth of 126 meters in hole THN24-292.
• 78 meters averaging 0.19% copper, 0.02 g/t gold, 2.37 g/t silver, and 34 ppm molybdenum from a depth of 145.5 meters in hole THN24-293.
"The presence of porphyry style mineralization and alteration is highly encouraging and gives us a strong foundation to build on as we continue to explore and advance this target," said Brixton Metals Vice President of Exploration Christina Anstey.
Lying about 1,500 meters southeast of Camp Creek, about the same distance west of the Outlaw gold target, and about 1,000 meters northeast of the Chivas copper target, Trifecta is an intriguing copper target at the intersection of two major mineralized trends.
Sampling of a massive magnetite-pyrite-chalcopyrite vein in outcrop at Trifecta returned 2.46% copper, 71.4 g/t silver, and 0.36 g/t gold. The mineralization identified at surface is thought to be related to a copper porphyry at depth.
North Copper, a roughly 15-kilometer- (nine miles) by five-kilometer (3 miles) target area about 15 kilometers northwest of Camp Creek, is another area of widespread copper mineralization drilled last year.
Samples collected from North Copper in 2023 returned up to 0.7% copper and 2,290 ppm molybdenum.
Visible gold observed in core at a depth of 268.5 meters in hole THN24-308 drilled at Trapper.
In addition to its drilling at Camp Creek and other similar porphyry copper targets at Thorn, Brixton continued to expand upon the epithermal gold mineraliztion at Trapper.
Lying about 10 kilometers (six miles) south of Camp Creek, Trapper has been the target of drilling since 2021. Highlights from the 2021 to 2023 programs at Trapper include:
• 139 meters averaging 2.14 grams per metric ton in hole THN21-186.
• 304.5 meters averaging 1.19 g/t gold in hole THN22-237.
• 398.3 meters averaging 0.95 g/t gold in hole THN22-243.
• 253 meters averaging 1.4 g/t gold in hole THN22-244.
• 98 meters averaging 0.62 g/t gold in hole THN23-270.
• 179.5 meters averaging 0.51 g/t gold in hole THN23-288.
Bornite copper mineralization and visible gold in a sample collected from the Metla target about 25 kilometers southeast of Camp Creek on Brixton's Thorn project in Northern BC.
During the 2024 program, Brixton completed another 2,746 meters of drilling in 11 holes at Trapper. Highlights include:
• 254 meters averaging 0.48 g/t gold from a depth of six meters in hole THN24-300, including six meters averaging 4.19 g/t gold and 22.1 g/t silver.
• 216.8 meters averaging 0.25 g/t gold from a depth of 154 meters in hole THN24-303, including 11 meters averaging 2.34 g/t gold and 1.52 g/t silver.
• 227.5 meters averaging 0.5 g/t gold and 3.2 g/t silver in hole THN24-304, including two meters averaging 44.43 g/t gold and 79.3 g/t silver.
"The Trapper target remains open in multiple directions and with supporting geochemical, geophysical and structural data, several promising areas for potential expansion have been identified," said Brixton Metals Vice President of Exploration Christina Anstey. "We look forward to drilling at the Trapper Target in 2025."
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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