NANA Regional Corp. is on the hunt for mineral deposits that will continue to sustain the economic well being of its 12,500 shareholders beyond the life of the Red Dog Mine.

"We know that one day we will be done mining at Red Dog, and it is our hope that we will keep finding deposits around the area," NANA Regional Corp. President and CEO Marie Greene told Mining News during an April 11 interview.

Aqqaluk, a zinc-rich deposit that NANA and partner Teck Resources Ltd. began mining in 2010, is expected to extend the life of Red Dog until 2031.

Knowing that it takes an average of 16 years to advance an exploration project to production, NANA's board of directors has charged the company's resource development department with seeking other deposits to mine once the high-grade zinc ore at Aqqaluk is spent.

"There are deposits that we are familiar with now, other than the Aqqaluk," Greene said. "We have always known there are minerals in the upper Kobuk area. The question has always been: How much is there?"

To answer that question, NANA has forged a partnership with Novagold Resources Inc. to investigate the mineral potential of both Inupiat-owned lands and public lands held by the exploration company in the upper Kobuk region of Northwest Alaska.

Though the parties are still hammering out the details of the business arrangement, the pact is expected to include an exploration agreement that unites NovaGold's Ambler project - a 90,624-acre tract of state and federal mining claims in the upper Kobuk region - with NANA lands immediately to the south.

For NANA, the pending agreement will allow the Inupiat-owned Alaska Native regional corporation to be involved in the exploration and development of deposits on NovaGold's Ambler property, including the world-class Arctic Deposit. In return, NovaGold will get to explore the copper-rich Bornite deposit and other upper Kobuk region mineral prospects known to exist on NANA lands.

The Vancouver B.C.-based explorer also will gain access across NANA's lands, which encompass a key infrastructure corridor for development of the Arctic deposit.

The option of a joint venture partnership if any of the deposits advance to a production decision is also expected to be part of the agreement.

"This will benefit their deposit as much as it will benefit NANA. It is a good fit," Greene told Mining News.

Arctic, Bornite drilling slated

The potential of building a mine at the Arctic deposit was underscored by a preliminary economic assessment prepared for NovaGold earlier this month

The study anticipates that a 4,000-metric-ton-per-day-mine at the deposit would produce some 1.7 billion pounds of copper, 2 billion pounds of zinc, 291 million pounds of lead, 266,000 ounces of gold and 22 million ounces of silver over a 25-year mine-life.

"This preliminary economic assessment demonstrates the robust economics of developing one of the highest-grade VMS (volcanogenic massive sulfide) deposits in the world," Van Nieuwenhuyse said. "As we advance the Arctic deposit, we will continue collaborating with our Alaskan Native partner and neighboring landholder, NANA Regional Corporation, to explore and develop the Ambler region."

NovaGold said it plans to complete 10,000 meters of exploration and geotechnical drilling at the Ambler project in 2011. This work will focus on upgrading the resource as well as collecting geotechnical information, both vital to advancing the project to viability.

"Ambler offers an exciting exploration opportunity in a strong base metals market," said Joe Piekenbrock, NovaGold's vice president of exploration. "This year we'll focus on converting inferred resources to the measured and indicated classifications and increasing the overall resource base, as well as identifying new targets for continued exploration."

The 2011 exploration program is also anticipated to include drilling at Bornite, a large under-explored copper deposit located about 17 miles, or 27 kilometers, southwest of Arctic.

"The plan is to have a drill at Arctic and a drill at Bornite," said Lance Miller, vice president of NANA's resources department.

A historical resource calculated for Kennecott Exploration Co. estimates that Bornite contains 50 million metric tons averaging 1.2 percent copper with 454,000 metric tons grading up to 4 percent copper. The deposit also contains zinc, cobalt and germanium.

"Bornite will be exciting but the most advanced project with the highest value, as we know it, is Arctic," Miller said. "So, NANA will have an opportunity to get a piece of that."

Busy summer

Though NANA is particularly excited about the potential of the upper Kobuk region, the corporation will be involved in other mineral investigations during the 2011 season. NANA's Red Dog partner, Teck, will be seeking additional zinc-rich deposits to mine in Northwest Alaska after the ore in Aqqaluk is spent.

In 2011, the Vancouver B.C.-based major plans to continue its investigation of Anarraaq, a massive ore-body on state lands a few miles north of Red Dog, as well as seeking out new deposits on the NANA-owned lands that encompass the mine.

"Teck is doing exploration outside of Red Dog on the joint (NANA-Teck) lands," Miller said.

According to a 2004 report written for the Society of Economic Geologists, the Anarraaq deposit consists of a barite body, estimated to be as big as 1 billion metric tons, and a zinc-lead-silver zone with a resource of about 18 million metric tons grading 18 percent zinc, 5.4 percent lead, and 85 g/t silver.

While NANA's partners explore the upper Kobuk and Red Dog regions, the Inupiat corporation will have its own team of geologists investigating the Fairhaven Mining District, a region of the northern Seward Peninsula that is prospective for base and precious metals.

"We are going to have a few geologists going out doing exploration, looking at the base metal stuff, the Anugi Trend, as well as sources for the gold in the Fairhaven District," Miller explained.

Some 570,000 ounces of placer gold has been produced from the streams in the Fairhaven District, but the region has seen very little exploration for the lode source of these alluvial deposits.

Anugi is a lead-zinc-silver prospect discovered by geologists working for NANA in the early 1990s. Rock samples taken from the area returned grades of 7,264 parts-per-million lead, 5,243 ppm zinc, 15.6 ppm silver and 116 ppm copper. A trench sample containing 14,579 ppm lead, 737 ppm zinc, 48 ppm silver and 60 ppm copper also was collected at Anugi.

In addition to exploration being carried out by NANA and its partners, Zazu Metals Corp. plans to continue its exploration of the Lik zinc-lead deposit north of Red Dog, and Andover Venture Inc. plans to resume drilling on its Sun copper-silver-zinc-lead deposit in the upper Kobuk region.

Added Miller: "There is a lot going on in the region this summer."

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

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.

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: (907) 726-1095
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-lasley-ab073b12/