The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - September 10, 2024
Core from the silver-rich Galena zone cut a depth of 212.6 meters in hole IC24-0005 at Warm Springs.
Core showing coarse-grained red sphalerite (zinc mineralization) cut at a depth of 96.65 meters in hole IC24-0012. (Assays are pending.)
The 2024 drilling at Warm Springs cut an upper gold-copper zone and a lower silver-zinc-lead zone.
Western Alaska Minerals Corp. Sept. 10 reported that this year's drilling encountered a zone of high-grade silver-zinc-lead mineralization at the Warm Springs target at Illinois Creek that has the potential to be much larger than the Waterpump Creek deposit already outlined on this property about 300 miles west of Fairbanks, Alaska.
In late August, the company reported that drilling had cut gold and copper mineralization at Warm Springs, a zone that is emerging as a new spoke along a trend of carbonate replacement deposit (CRD) mineralization that extends roughly five miles (eight kilometers) across the Illinois Creek property.
Zonation typical of CRD systems is believed to be responsible for depositing gold and silver at the past-producing Illinois Creek mine and Waterpump Creek, a distal deposit that hosts 2.39 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 279 grams per metric ton (21.4 million oz) silver, 11.25% (592 million pounds) zinc, and 9.84% (518 million lb) lead.
This year's drilling at Warm Springs has encountered an upper zone of gold-copper mineralization similar to Illinois Creek, which lies 1,400 meters to the west, and a deeper zone of strong silver-zinc-lead mineralization more akin to Waterpump Creek, which is about 6,000 meters to the north.
The 2024 drilling at Warm Springs cut an upper gold-copper zone and a lower silver-zinc-lead zone.
So far, Western Alaska has only received assays from two of the nine holes drilled this year at Warm Springs. Highlights from these holes include:
• 1.15 meters averaging 687 g/t silver and 33.64% lead from a depth of 221.6 meters in hole IC24-0005.
• 3.2 meters averaging 88.5 g/t silver, 4% zinc, and 2.39% lead from a depth of 352.2 meters in hole IC24-0005.
Western says this year's drilling at Warm Springs reveals multiple mineralization pulses in what is shaping up to be a large CRD hydrothermal system that contains gold, copper, silver, zinc, and lead.
Core showing coarse-grained red sphalerite (zinc mineralization) cut at a depth of 96.65 meters in hole IC24-0012. (Assays are pending.)
The upper zone at Warms Springs demonstrates intense silicification and brecciation associated with massive to semi-massive pyrite associated with gold-copper mineralization, while the lower zone hosts recrystallized ankerite (calcium-iron-magnesium-manganese carbonate mineral) associated with sphalerite (zinc) and galena (lead) mineralization.
"The results validate our hypothesis that the Illinois Creek CRD system has the potential to be huge," said Western Alaska Minerals CEO Kit Marrs. "This first discovery of gold-copper mineralization associated with large thicknesses of silicification, multiple pulses of brecciation and mineralization and zones of massive pyrite tells us that, as we predicted, we are getting close to the center of the CRD system."
The company says the zone of alteration and mineralization at Warm Springs is 10 times larger than Waterpump Creek, suggesting potential for a large CRD-style deposit.
"We are on to something with very large scale," Marrs added. "At Warm Springs we now have both scale and intervals of high-grade mineralization, a winning combination. And this is just the start."
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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