Kutcho Copper Corp. Oct. 2 said it has received enough information from drilling the Esso deposit to include in a feasibility study for the Kutcho high-grade copper-zinc project in northern British Columbia.

A prefeasibility study prepared for Kutcho Copper when the company acquired the project from Capstone Mining Corp. in 2017 outlines a mine forecast to produce 378 million pounds of copper and 473 million lb of zinc, plus by-product gold and silver, over 12 years of production.

This is based on 10.44 million metric tons of reserves averaging 2.01 percent (463 million lb) copper, 3.19 percent (734 million lb) zinc, 0.37 grams per metric ton (125,000 oz) gold and 34.6 g/t (11.62 million oz) silver.

Esso hosts about 2.34 million tons of these reserves averaging 2.32 percent (119 million lb) copper, 5.53 percent (285 million lb) zinc, 0.59 g/t (40,000 oz) gold and 57.5 g/t (4.3 million oz) silver.

In September, Kutcho Copper published results from the initial holes drilled at Esso.

Hole KC18-038-W1 cut 28 meters averaging 2.09 percent copper, 6.1 percent zinc, 65.8 g/t silver and 0.82 g/t gold, or 5.7 percent copper-equivalent. This longer intercept included 10.4 meters of massive sulfide mineralization averaging 3.8 percent copper, 14.4 percent zinc, 134.6 g/t silver and 1.84 g/t gold, or 12 percent copper-equivalent.

KC18-227-W1 cut 3.2 meters of massive to semi-massive sulfide mineralization that returned 1.17 percent copper, 2.5 percent zinc, 45.7 g/t silver and 0.57 g/t gold, or 3 percent copper-equivalent.

The latest hole, KC18-225-W1, cut 11.53 meters of 1.02 percent copper, 0.5 percent zinc, 54 percent silver and 0.25 percent gold, or 1.9 percent copper equivalent. This intercept included a 1.53-meter section averaging 3.43 percent copper, 0.2 percent zinc, 320 g/t silver and 0.36 g/t gold, or 6.6 percent copper-equivalent.

"We have now completed all the field work required on the Esso deposit for the feasibility study," said Kutcho Copper President and CEO Vince Sorace. "The results from hole KC18-225-W1 are particularly exciting as it consists of a previously unrecognized stringer zone to the Esso lens that lies outside of the current mineral resource block model and may be discordant to the main trend of mineralization. As a result, the intersection remains open down-dip and along strike."

"We will now embark on generating a new mineral resource estimate for Esso while completing resource expansion drilling on the Main deposit," he added.

The company also reported nine holes drilled across the Main deposit to collect metallurgical samples, geotechnical information and convert mineral resources from inferred to indicated categories.

Highlights from the latest holes drilled in Main include:

• 3.1 meters of 1.65 percent copper, 5.2 percent zinc, 38.9 g/t silver and 0.41 g/t gold, or 4.4 percent copper-equivalent, in KC18-237;

• 18.8 meters of 1.8 percent copper, 1.4 percent zinc, 30.2 g/t silver and 0.28 g/t gold, or 2.8 percent copper-equivalent in KC18-239;

• 14.4 meters of 1.62 percent copper, 4.4 percent zinc, 31.9 g/t silver and 0.54 g/t gold, or 4.1 percent copper-equivalent in KC18-240; and

• 21.9 meters of 1.74 percent copper, 2.5 percent zinc, 37.5 g/t silver and 0.32 g/t gold, or 3.3 percent copper-equivalent, in KC18-242.

Kutcho said its drilling confirms mineralization tenor and grade throughout the Main deposit and continues to demonstrate the high grade in the deposit.

With the goal of advancing Kutcho to the feasibility stage by the end of 2019, this year's program includes geotechnical work on the deposits; resource-reserve drilling; metallurgical work; environmental baseline studies; and road engineering studies along a proposed corridor to access the Kutcho project from Highway 37.

In addition to the feasibility work, Kutcho completed mapping and sampling at TCS, a greenfield exploration property about 90 kilometers (56 miles) west of the Kutcho deposits and 16 kilometers (10 miles) east of Dease Lake.

Kutcho said previous exploration at TCS has identified mineralized and altered bedrock in creek outcrops and a 600- by 800-meter copper-zinc soil anomaly.

This year's exploration was carried out to potentially delineate drill targets for future campaigns.

–SHANE LASLEY