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

Silver Range Resources Ltd. Jan. 7 announced that has received prospecting permits covering a large gold target near Amaruq, a gold mine project currently being developed by Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.

Silver Range's new gold property, known as Atlantis, consists of two prospecting permits covering 31,778 hectares (78,525 acres) about 55 kilometers (34 miles) north-northwest of Amaruq.

Scheduled to go into production in the second half of this year, Amaruq hosts 20.1 million metric tons of probable reserves averaging 3.67 grams per metric ton (2.4 million ounces) gold; and 8.8 million metric tons of indicated resources averaging 3.62 g/t (1 million oz) gold outlined so far at Amaruq.

The ore from Amaruq will be processed at Agnico Eagle's Meadowbank gold mine which lies 55 kilometers (33 miles) further southeast.

Silver Range says the Meadowbank and Vault deposits at Meadowbank Mine are hosted in a mixed succession of Archean metavolcanics and metasedimentary rocks. However, the Amaruq deposit, which lies about midway between Meadowbank and Atlantis, is hosted in Archean mafic and ultramafic rocks.

The gold deposits at Amaruq and Meadowbank were discovered by Comaplex Resources Ltd. in the 1990s.

According to Silver Range, it was not known that the volcanic rocks hosting Amaruq extended to the area now covered by the Atlantis project until 2002, when it appeared on a map published by the Geological Survey of Canada.

Uranium North explored an area just west of Atlantis Project from 2011 to 2013 but there is no record of exploration in the immediate project area.

Silver Range considers the Atlantis Project to be highly prospective to host economic gold mineralization given the proximity of the project to the Meadowbank mine complex and the fact that the target is underlain by the same rock types hosting the Amaruq deposit.

The company said it intends to conduct preliminary prospecting, mapping and sampling at Atlantis during the coming summer exploration season.

Silver Range is a precious metals focused prospect generator with 24 properties in northern Canada – 15 in Nunavut, five in Northwest Territories and four in the Yukon – and 18 properties in Nevada.

–SHANE LASLEY