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

ATAC Resources Ltd. Jan. 25 announced its optioning of the 15.7-square-kilometer (3,880 acres) Catch property from Yukon-based geologist Ryan Burke.

"The addition of the Catch property to our growing copper and gold portfolio presents a rare opportunity to advance a brand new copper-gold discovery located at the underexplored northern end of a very fertile geological terrane," said ATAC President and CEO Graham Downs.

Catch is located in an underexplored part of southcentral Yukon, 56 kilometers (35 miles) southeast of Carmacks, and is accessible by floatplane.

Preliminary sampling of Catch has returned very encouraging results indicative of the potential for significant copper-gold porphyry mineralization.

Furthermore, the property is located 20 km (12.4 mi) from an all-season highway and powerline, within the traditional territory of the Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation.

"Preliminary results from initial exploration at Catch have already delineated a very significant zone of strongly elevated copper and gold," added Downs. "We believe this is evidence of a large mineralized system with potential for a copper-gold porphyry."

Property highlights include:

• A large, discovery-stage project in an area with no previous exploration, where preliminary sampling has identified extensive copper-gold mineralization.

• Prospecting and trench grab sampling yielded 23 samples returning more than 0.5% copper or 1 gram per metric ton gold, with results including 52.4 g/t gold with 0.12% copper and 41.7 g/t silver, 4.4 g/t gold with 0.88% copper, 1.3 g/t gold with 1.36% copper, and 1.9 g/t gold with 228 parts per million molybdenum.

• Seven hand trenches, totaling 40 meters, dug over a 400- by 250-meter area and 140-meter vertical extent averaged 0.27% copper and 0.41 g/t gold, with results pending for two additional trenches.

• Extensive copper and gold soil geochemistry anomalism, including 800- by 400-meters of greater than 400 parts per million copper and greater than 0.1 g/t gold in soil, and numerous other anomalies identified for follow up in 2022.

The property lies within the Quesnel Terrane and is juxtaposed against the Stikine Terrane by the 1,000-plus km (621.3-plus mi) long, deep seated, crustal scale strike-slip Teslin-Thibert fault approximately 3,000 meters west of the property's boundary.

Moreover, the Quesnel and Stikine Terranes are characterized by similar Late Triassic to early Jurassic volcanic-plutonic arc complexes that are well-endowed with copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry deposits – e.g., Mt. Milligan, KSM, Red Chris, Mt. Polley, Highland Valley Copper, etc.

Catch is also underlain by augite phyric basalt of the Semenof Formation, centered on a 7,000- by 3,000-meter regional magnetic high. Bedrock exhibits strong propylitic alteration and intense localized oxidation, brecciation, and malachite staining.

"We look forward to receiving the remaining outstanding assays and will undertake systematic exploration starting early this summer," finished Downs.

ATAC will be able to acquire a 100% interest in the Catch property by making aggregate cash payments of C$325,000, aggregate issuance of 2 million shares (to a maximum cash-equivalent value of C$380,000) and incurring C$3.6 million in exploration expenditures on or before December 31, 2026.

Following completion of the option, the property will remain subject a 2% net smelter return royalty, of which one half can be purchased by ATAC for C$1 million.

Furthermore, a milestone payment of C$1 per ounce of gold equivalent will also be due to the vendor upon identification of a measured or indicated mineral resource on Catch equal to or greater than one million ounces of gold-equivalent.