The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - May 23, 2024
An aerial view of the Whistler deposit, where one hole drilled last year cut 547 meters averaging 0.17% copper, 0.77 g/t gold, and 1.55 g/t silver.
U.S. GoldMining Inc. May 22 reported that its upcoming drill program at Whistler will focus on resource upgrade and expansion drilling at the Whistler and Raintree deposits on this porphyry copper-gold project about 105 miles northwest of Anchorage, Alaska.
"We are excited to commence our 2024 exploration program at the Whistler gold-copper project and to build on the success we achieved in 2023," said U.S. GoldMining CEO Tim Smith.
Based on 70,247 meters of drilling completed from 1986 through 2011, the Whistler property hosts 118.2 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.16% (422 million pounds) copper, 0.51 grams per metric ton (1.94 million ounces) gold, and 2.19 g/t (8.3 million oz) silver; plus 317 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.1% (711.4 million lb) copper, 0.46 g/t (4.67 million oz) gold, and1.58 g/t (16.1 million oz) silver.
These resources, which were recalculated in 2021, are found within the Whistler and Raintree West deposits toward the north end of the 53,700-acre property and the Island Mountain deposit about 14 miles to the south.
U.S. GoldMining, which listed on Nasdaq last April with a US$20 million public offering, completed an inaugural exploration program in 2023 that included four holes drilled in and around the Whistler deposit.
Highlights from the 2023 drilling include:
• 241 meters averaging 0.16% copper, 0.33 g/t gold, and 1.86 g/t silver from a depth of two meters in hole WH23-01.
• 142.3 meters averaging 0.21% copper, 0.17 g/t gold, and 1.05 g/t silver from a depth of 305 meters in hole WH23-02.
• 547.2 meters averaging 0.17% copper, 0.77 g/t gold, and 1.55 g/t silver from a depth of 53 meters to the bottom of the hole WH23-03.
U.S. GoldMining is particularly excited about the 547 meters of 1.06 g/t gold-equivalent mineralization cut in WH23-03. This was the longest mineralized intercept encountered so far at Whistler, and the hole was still in mineralization when drilling was stopped last fall due to a freeze-up of the water supply for the rig.
"With 2023 drill results from the Whistler deposit's high-grade core returning over 1.0 g/t gold equivalent, the Whistler project represents one of the largest undeveloped gold-copper resources in the United States not yet in the hands of a major," said Smith.
This year's drilling at the Whistler deposit will target the expansion and optimization of the existing pit-constrained gold-copper mineral resource area, as well as test for the potential continuation of the higher-grade core mineralization encountered in hole WH23-03.
U.S. GoldMining says the expansion of higher-grade mineralization beneath the existing mineral resource estimate could lead to the identification of zones amenable to bulk underground mining.
The company also plans to carry out resource expansion drilling at Raintree West.
In addition to drilling, U.S. GoldMining geologists will be refining other targets within Whistler Orbit, a roughly 5-mile-diameter (7.6 kilometers) area surrounding Whistler and Raintree that includes several other earlier staged porphyry copper-gold targets.
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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