PolarX Ltd. Oct. 5 reported that its 2021 core drill program at Caribou Dome discovered widespread zones of finely disseminated and vein-hosted native copper over a 1,200-meter-long corridor on this project in Alaska.

Part of PolarX' larger Alaska Range property, Caribou Dome hosts 2.8 million metric tons of combined measured, indicated, and inferred resources averaging 3.1% (189.6 million pounds) copper in nine lenses of volcanic sediment-hosted mineralization.

The Australia-based exploration company completed four exploration holes in September to test two of three co-incident copper geochemical and induced polarization geophysical anomalies identified outside the resource area at Caribou Dome.

Finely disseminated and vein-hosted native copper was encountered in volcanic rocks in three of these holes drilled roughly 1,150 meters apart. These holes lie within a larger 1,500- by 300-meter IP anomaly.

The company says the native copper observed in these holes appears to have geological similarities with the deposits on the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan, which were a prime source of copper production in the United States until the late 1950s, after which porphyry copper-derived production took over. Several significant deposits that operated in this region until the 1990s produced more than 11 billion lb of copper from ore that averaged 1.85% copper.

"This discovery is a potential game-changer for PolarX because the same volcanic host rocks, along with multiple IP (geophysical) and geochemical targets, are widespread at Caribou Dome, meaning the exploration upside here is immense," said PolarX Managing Director Frazer Tabeart. "With copper being such an important metal for the green energy transition, we're increasingly well placed to play a role in this market."

In addition to testing potential expansion of the high-grade copper resource at Caribou Dome, the 2021 program included drilling into known massive sulfide lenses to collect fresh samples for metallurgical testing to support a scoping study on the potential of processing ore from Caribou Dome in combination with ore mined from the high-grade Zackly copper-gold project about 15 miles (nine kilometers) to the northeast.

Based on drilling by PolarX and previous explorers, Zackly Main hosts 3.4 million metric tons of Australian Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (JORC) compliant inferred resource averaging 1.2% (90.4 million lb) copper, 2 grams per metric ton (213,000 oz) gold, and 14 g/t (1.5 million oz) silver.

Assays are pending from the metallurgical and exploration holes drilled at Caribou Dome this year.

PolarX Ltd.

The native copper at Caribou Dome was encountered while testing co-incident copper geochemical and induced polarization geophysical anomalies on the property.

"We eagerly await the first assays from these new holes, and we will then plan a follow-up program to start quantifying the scale of this discovery at the first opportunity," said Tabeart.

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