North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Millrock Resources Inc. is a project generating mineral exploration company with seven projects in Alaska, three in British Columbia, 15 in Mexico and one in New Mexico.

In Alaska, Millrock struck a deal with Kinross Gold Corp. that provides the major the option to earn a 70 percent joint venture interest in Liberty Bell, a road-accessible project about 70 miles southwest of Fairbanks that is prospective for copper-gold porphyry and associated gold deposits.

Previous work at Liberty Bell has identified a gold-bearing skarn geologically similar to the Peak deposits being delineated at the Tetlin project near Tok.

To earn the 70 percent stake in Liberty Bell, Kinross must invest US$5 million in exploration over five years; pay US$145,000 in advanced royalty payments over the same timeframe; and pay an additional US$145,000 in management fees if Millrock manages the programs over the duration of the agreement. The 2017 program at Liberty Bell included sampling aimed at identifying targets for drilling in 2018.

While Millrock typically seeks partnerships with major mining companies, it has recently cut deals with juniors, including an arrangement that moved its Stellar copper-gold project in Southcentral Alaska into PolarX Ltd., an Australia-based junior that has been exploring Caribou Dome, a high-grade copper project adjacent to Stellar. As a result of the transaction, Millrock owns roughly 10.6 percent of PolarX's shares.

Zackly, a skarn deposit at Stellar, hosts a historical resource of 218,944 ounces of gold and 66.9 million pounds of copper contained in a deposit of 1.13 million metric tons grading 6.03 grams-per-metric-ton gold and 2.69 percent copper. A roughly 3,000-meter drill program, funded by PolarX and managed by Millrock, focused in 2017 primarily on upgrading the resource to modern standards and potentially expanding the deposit.

Millrock's Alaska portfolio also includes: Apex El Nido, a high-grade gold project in Southeast Alaska; Chisna, a copper-gold project about 65 miles south of Tok: and West Pogo, a gold property adjacent to Sumitomo Metal Mining's Pogo Mine.

Millrock also has generated three properties in the Golden Triangle region of northwestern British Columbia – Oweegee Dome, Willoughby and Todd Creek.

In June, Millrock cut deals to option Willoughby and Oweegee Dome to Sojourn Exploration Inc., a Vancouver, B.C.-based junior.

To earn full ownership of both properties, Sojourn must issue the 4.14 million shares to Millrock over the next two years and complete C$4 million of exploration on the property over the next three years. If Sojourn fully exercises its options on both properties, Millrock would own roughly 15 percent of Sojourn's shares.

Oweegee, which lies along the eastern boundary of Pretium's Brucejack property, has a long exploration history that includes airborne geophysics, ground sampling and drilling. One hole drilled there in 2007 cut 138.67 meters averaging 0.189 g/t gold and 0.074 percent copper, including a 17.14 meters section that averaged 0.468 g/t gold and 0.11 percent copper.

Willoughby, which lies adjacent to IDM Mining's Red Mountain property near Stewart, also has a long exploration history, including two phases of drilling.

Highlights from historical drilling include 20.5 meters averaging 24.99 g/t gold and 184.22 g/t silver; and 2.9 meters of 383 g/t gold and 213.6 g/t silver.

In August, Millrock's technical team began a C$500,000 Sojourn-funded exploration program that included stream sediment sampling, mapping, and prospecting at Oweegee Dome; and prospecting the margins of glaciers at Willoughby that have receded substantially since the last exploration there nearly a decade ago. This work will inform drilling planned for 2018.

-SHANE LASLEY