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The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Hints of a 6,000m belt of silver-zinc-lead deposits emerge North of 60 Mining News – April 1, 2022
The 2022 drilling at Illinois Creek will focus on Waterpump Creek, where one hole drilled last year cut 10.5 meters averaging 522 g/t silver, 22.5% zinc, and 14.5% lead.
Geological, geochemical, and geophysical evidence suggests the potential for a belt of carbonate replacement silver-zinc-lead deposits extending 6,000 meters northeast from the past-producing Illinois Creek mine to Waterpump Creek.
Western Alaska Minerals Corp. March 29 said a new geological interpretation based on 2021 and historical data suggests that the historical and high-grade Waterpump Creek silver-zinc-lead deposit may be part of a belt of similar carbonate replacement deposits along a 6,000-meter-long corridor that extends to the Central Illinois Creek pit. Expanding Waterpump Creek and testing this belt are expected to be the primary targets of an initial 6,000-meter drill program slated to start in May.
The more than 49,000-acre Illinois Creek Mining District property is home to the past-producing Illinois Creek Mine; Waterpump, which lies about four miles northeast of the Illinois Creek open pit; Honker, a high-grade gold target about six miles north of the historical mine; and Round Top, a large porphyry copper deposit about 10 miles to the northeast.
Much of Western Copper's 2021 exploration focused on Waterpump Creek, which hosts 166,000 tons of historical resource averaging 295 grams per metric ton silver, 16.1% lead, and 5.5% zinc, based on 58 holes historically drilled by Anaconda Minerals Company and Novagold Resources Inc.
Looking to upgrade and expand upon this historical resource, Western Alaska completed nine holes targeting both shallow high-grade oxide mineralization and deeper high-grade sulfide mineralization at Waterpump during 2021.
Highlights from the 2021 drilling include:
• 16.7 meters (15.7 meters true-thickness) averaging 256 grams per metric ton silver, 0.7% zinc, and 6.4% lead from a depth of 23.2 meters in hole WPC21-02.
• 1.5 meters (1.4 meters true-thickness) averaging 1,337 g/t silver from a depth of 50.9 meters; and 9.7 meters (9.1 meters true-thickness) averaging 89 g/t silver, 6.3% zinc, and 7.7% lead from a depth of 63.1 meters in hole WPC21-03.
• 11.9 meters (11.2 meters true-thickness) averaging 149 g/t silver and 2% zinc from a depth of 35.6 meters in hole WPC21-05.
• 10.5 meters (9.1 meters true-thickness) averaging 522 g/t silver, 22.5% zinc, and 14.5% lead from a depth of 109.4 meters in hole WPC21-09.
High-grade sulfide mineralization encountered in WPC21-09 and the historical Anaconda and Novagold drilling is open down dip and to the north and south
"Drill hole WPC21-09 was an extraordinary drill intercept and has transformed the company," said Western Alaska Minerals President and CEO Kit Marrs. "We now have both excellent precious metal and polymetallic base metal potential."
A re-interpretation of the stratigraphic relationships in the Illinois Creek district suggests the transformative silver-zinc-lead potential at Waterpump Creek could be larger than previously recognized.
Results from an extensive multi-element soil geochemistry survey completed in 2021, compilation and further interpretation of historical geophysical surveys, and re-logging of limited available core from the 2005-2006 Novagold drill program provided information for the recent analysis carried out by the Western Alaska technical team.
The company says this analysis shows fold-thrust belt geometries that define a series of stacked carbonate replacement manto targets, which are flat-lying mineralized bodies, between Waterpump Creek and the Illinois Creek pit. Fold-thrust belts are a critical control for major carbonate replacement deposit belts of the world, and this new interpretation highlights the tremendous potential of the target-rich Illinois Creek property.
As a result of the success of the 2021 drilling at Waterpump Creek and the ongoing re-interpretation of the district geology, Western Alaska plans to focus its 2022 exploration on testing the sulfide silver-zinc-lead potential now apparent on the Illinois Creek property versus the existing oxide gold-silver resources associated with the past-producing Illinois Creek Mine.
According to a 2020 calculation, Illinois Creek hosts 8.7 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.9 grams per metric ton (253,000 oz) gold and 34.4 g/t (9.6 million oz) silver; and 3.3 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.99 g/t (104,000 oz) gold and 36.2 g/t (3.8 million oz) silver.
"Going forward, this year's drill program will focus on the sulfide CRD potential now apparent on the Illinois Creek property and include defining a resource at Waterpump Creek and exploring the high-grade potential at Last Hurrah," said Marrs. "Our two company-owned drill rigs are on-site and ready to start drilling in mid-May."
Approximately 4,000 meters of the initial 6,000 meters of planned drilling will focus on immediate step-outs at Waterpump Creek to gauge the overall footprint of the mineralization encountered in hole WPC21-09.
The balance will test the 6,000-meter-long Waterpump Creek-Last Hurrah-Illinois Creek carbonate replacement deposit trend.
An extensive controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotellurics (CSAMT) geophysical survey planned for early in the season will help with targeting along this trend.
Snow removal from the runway at Illinois Creek is slated to begin in early April, and two C-130 Hercules flights to mobilize drill and camp expansion materials are scheduled to arrive later in the month. Line cutting for the geophysical survey and drilling is expected to begin in mid-May.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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