The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Infill drilling completed by American Pacific has upgraded inferred resources with high-grade copper to the higher confidence indicated category.
American Pacific Corp. Jan. 20 announced a significant upgrade to the mineral resource estimate for its Palmer copper-zinc-gold-silver project in Southeast Alaska.
The company gained full ownership of Palmer last November when its partner, Dowa Metals & Mining Alaska Ltd., agreed to sign over its joint venture interest and pay American Pacific $10 million (C$14 million) in exchange for an option to acquire up to 50% of the zinc concentrate produced from a future mine at the high-grade volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) project.
Now, American Pacific reports substantial upgrades and expansions to the resources at Palmer.
"This updated mineral resource estimate marks a major project milestone now that American Pacific has secured 100% ownership of the Palmer VMS project," said American Pacific CEO Warwick Smith.
According to the new calculation, the main Palmer deposit hosts 4.77 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 1.69% (178 million lb) copper, 5.17% (543 million pounds) zinc, 0.14% (14.2 million lb) lead, 28.4 grams per metric ton (4.4 million oz) silver, 0.29 g/t (439,000 oz) gold, and 20.6% (980,400 metric tons) barite.
While the overall tonnage in the indicated category is only slightly more than the previous estimate, the copper grades are 14% higher, which has resulted in a 16% (24 million lb) increase in contained copper.
In addition to adding significant copper to the indicated category, American Pacific reports a 25% increase in the tonnage reporting to the inferred resources at Palmer.
The Palmer and AG deposits host a combined 12 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.57% (151.5 million lb) copper, 3.92% (1.04 billion lb) zinc, 0.47% (124.2 million lb) lead, 66.3 g/t (25.6 million oz) silver, 0.33 g/t (128,100 oz) gold, and 25.5% (3.05 million metric tons) barite.
"Infill and geotechnical drilling over the last several years has been successful in increasing our confidence in the known deposits and we are thrilled to see significant increases in the in-situ copper estimate, in addition to an overall increase in contained tonnes for the project," Smith 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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