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The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Drills four holes at Tanacross and flies geophysics at Healy North of 60 Mining News – November 17, 2023
Kenorland Minerals Vice President of Operations Janek Wozniewski collects soil samples in 2022 at the Tanacross copper-gold project along the Yukon border in eastern Alaska.
Kenorland Minerals Ltd. Nov. 15 announced that its 2023 program in Alaska included 2,541 meters of drilling funded by Antofagasta Minerals at its Tanacross copper-gold-molybdenum project along the Yukon border in eastern Alaska, as well as geophysics on its Healy gold project in the Goodpaster Mining District.
In April, Kenorland announced that Antofagasta Minerals, a subsidiary of Chilean copper miner Antofagasta PLC, budgeted US$3.8 million for the 2023 program at Tanacross.
This program is part of Antofagasta's option to earn a 70% interest in the 113,400-acre porphyry copper-gold by investing US$30 million in exploration over eight years.
Since the discovery of the East Taurus deposit at Tanacross in 1971, 17,076 meters of drilling in 67 holes have been completed on this property.
Highlights from historical drilling include:
• 175 meters averaging 0.31% copper, 0.1 grams per metric ton gold, and 0.032% molybdenum in hole 96DDH030.
• 208.5 meters averaging 0.23% copper, 0.14 g/t gold, and 0.32% molybdenum in hole 96DDH032.
• 232.6 meters averaging 0.31% copper, 0.25 g/t gold, and 0.036% molybdenum in hole 08DDH040.
• 285 meters averaging 0.23% copper, 0.16 g/t gold, and 0.036% molybdenum in hole 19ETD050.
• 412.4 meters averaging 0.11% copper, 0.12 g/t gold, and 0.015% molybdenum in hole 19ETD051.
In 2021, Kenorland completed detailed soil sampling and mapping over the East Taurus, West Taurus, South Taurus, and Big Creek target areas of the property. High-resolution drone magnetic surveys were also flown over the same area, and a Titan high-powered induced polarization and a magnetotelluric survey was completed at South Taurus.
Antofagasta began its earn-in on Tanacross in 2022 with US$1 million investment for Kenorland's additional geophysical, geological, and geochemical surveys to help refine drill targets.
This year, Kenorland completed four holes a Tanacross – two at each of the West Taurus and East Taurus target areas.
The two large step-out holes at West Taurus encountered variably altered and mineralized intrusions but did not return any economically significant intervals.
The holes at East Taurus tested the east and west flanks of the mineralized body identified so far. The hole drilled on the east side, 23ETD062, cut 186.1 meters averaging 0.14% copper, 0.05 g/t gold, and 0.02% molybdenum. This included a 40.1-meter subsection averaging 0.19 copper, 0.09 g/t gold, and 0.04% molybdenum.
Kenorland says the high-priority South Taurus target area, along with the McCord, Big Creek, and East Denison prospects, remain untested.
In addition to drilling at Tanacross, Kenorland's 2023 exploration in Alaska included the flying of an extremely low frequency electromagnetic geophysical survey over the gold system on its Healy property.
The company optioned Healy from Newmont Corp. in 2018 and has since earned a 70% JV interest in the gold project about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s high-grade Pogo gold mine.
Mapping, soil sampling, geophysical surveys, and reverse circulation drilling carried out by Kenorland during the 2018 through 2020 field seasons identified three primary drill targets – Bronk, Thor, and Spike.
Highlights from a 14-hole diamond drill program Kenorland completed at Healy in 2021 include:
• 11.9 meters averaging 1.29 g/t gold in hole 21HDD017 (Thor).
• 13.38 meters averaging 1.22 g/t gold in hole 21HDD019 (Thor).
Drilling also cut multiple intervals of lower-grade gold at Bronk.
Kenorland says the broadly disseminated and vein-hosted low-level gold mineralization encountered confirms the presence of a large gold system.
Induced polarization and magnetotelluric geophysical surveys completed towards the end of the 2021 drill program revealed significant untested geophysical anomalies associated with mineralization, controlled by structural and lithological traps.
Results from this year's ELF-EM geophysical survey will be used to refine the targets for further drilling at Healy.
Overall, Kenorland anticipates that roughly C$31.4 million will be invested in its projects in Alaska, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec this year. Out of this total, C$26.4 will be financed by Kenorland's partners on these projects.
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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