Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. March 30 announced plans for an US$8.8 million program this year at the Palmer zinc-copper-silver-gold-barite project in Southeast Alaska.

Funded by Dowa Metals & Mining Alaska Ltd., Constantine's joint venture partner at Palmer, the 2021 program will include roughly 6,000 meters of exploration, resource upgrade, and geotechnical drilling.

According to the most recent calculation, Palmer hosts 4.68 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 5.23% (539 million pounds) zinc, 1.49% (154 million lb) copper, 30.8 grams per metric ton (4.6 million ounces) silver, 0.3 g/t (451,000 oz) gold and 23.9% (1.12 million metric tons) barite; plus 9.59 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 4.95% (1.05 billion lb) zinc, 0.59% (124 million lb) copper, 69.3 g/t (120.6 million oz) silver, 0.39 g/t (21.4 million oz) gold and 27.7% (2.65 million metric tons) barite.

A 2019 preliminary economic assessment outlined plans for a 3,500-metric-ton-per-day mill at Palmer that would produce 1.07 billion lb of zinc, 196 million lb of copper, 18 million oz of silver, 91,000 oz of gold and 2.89 million metric tons of barite over an initial 11-year mine life.

With the goal of advancing this polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulfide project to the feasibility study level, Constantine Mining LLC Joint Venture plans to complete 1,800 meters of drilling to explore for the fault offset continuation of the thick South Wall deposit; 2,500 meters of drilling to upgrade inferred resources in a thick copper-rich area in the lower reaches of South Wall; and 1,700 meters of geotechnical drilling to support the planned underground exploration program.

The JV will also carry out engineering and environmental studies this year, including a seismic survey and overburden drilling to establish overburden stratigraphy, groundwater monitoring wells and bedrock information to expand the hydrological database of the project area and for infrastructure planning.

"Last year's US$2.2 million Palmer program was very successful in advancing our understanding of the South Wall offset geology and expanding our environmental knowledge of the project," said Constantine Metal Resources President and CEO Garfield MacVeigh. "The 2021 drill focused work program at Palmer will allow us to explore for the faulted offset of the thick high-grade South Wall zone, upgrade the resource within the thickest portion of the South Wall zone and provide important information to guide the planned underground exploration that will be a major step towards advancing the project to feasibility."

Dowa Metals & Mining Alaska has committed to fund the entire 2021 work program which will result in dilution of Constantine's 49% JV interest. Dilution is pro-rated according to expenditures and Constantine's interest in the JV will be diluted to no less than 44%.

Constantine Metal Resources Ltd.

Much of the 2021 drill program at the Palmer VMS project will focus on upgrading and expanding the resources at the lower reaches of the South Wall zone.

Constantine will remain as operator of the project to oversee the 2021 work program.

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