PolarX’s drilling program over its Zackly East discovery in Alaska has extended the strike length of the prospect to more than 300 metres. With another 2,000 metres of the structure remaining to be tested and assay results pending, the weeks and months ahead could serve up some fruitful times at this intriguing northern discovery.
The second batch of results from the new prospect continues to return anomalous intercepts, including 1.5 metres at 5 grams per tonne gold, 3.15 per cent copper and 26 grams per tonne silver from only 11.6 metres down-hole.
The Zackly East discovery lies immediately along strike from the main Zackly deposit, which already hosts a resource of 3.4 million tonnes at a solid 2.0 g/t gold and 1.2 per cent copper. While the potential remains uncertain, it does seem destined to grow as the company continues to extend the footprint of the prospect through ongoing exploration.
Previous intercepts from the discovery include 54.6m at 2.8 g/t gold and 0.6 per cent copper from 2.5m, 46.7m at 3.1 g/t gold and 0.6 per cent copper from 37m and 68.62m at 0.64 g/t gold, 0.31 per cent copper and 4.86 g/t silver from 8.49m down-hole.
PolarX Managing Director, Dr Frazer Tabeart said: “These latest assays mean we have now outlined gold and copper over a 320m length at Zackly East.”
“We still have assays pending from another seven drill holes and we have another 2km of the same structure to drill. The results provide more evidence that there is a nearby porphyry in addition to the four porphyry targets we have already discovered at Alaska Range.”
“With copper prices at a near all-time high, and predicted longer-term supply-side constraints, there’s never been a better time to explore for the red metal, particularly in safe, Tier 1 jurisdictions. Add in the precious metals that we have discovered in the Alaska Range, and you have a compelling project.”
PolarX’s Zackly prospect forms part of the company’s Stellar copper-gold project in the Alaska Range, in the northern US state of Alaska. The prospect is located six hours drive north of Anchorage and is accessed via a network of predominantly bitumen roads during the summer season, which extends from May through to October each year.
The Stellar project covers a section of the revered Pacific Copper-Gold porphyry belt with PolarX’s tenure spanning across more than 35km of prospective copper-gold stratigraphy. The targeted styles of mineralisation at Stellar range from colossal copper-gold porphyries through to the related skarn-styles of deposit, an example of which is now being drilled out by the company at Zackly.
Exploration at Stellar has delineated two resource positions, one at Caribou and the other at Zackly and an ensemble of copper-gold targets across the company’s tenure including the Senator, Mars, Gemini and Jupiter prospects which form a pipeline of targets for future exploration.
PolarX’s program this field season has concentrated on drilling the Zackly East target which appears to host similar geology to the Main Lode resource, immediately to the west. The company has drilled 23 diamond drill holes at Zackly East, thus far confirming the presence of copper-gold mineralisation along more than 320m of strike, with extension mapping highlighting mineralisation along an additional 2,000m of strike to the east that will require drill testing as apart of the ongoing exploration program.
The results for the second batch of drilling at Zackly East have now been received with a further eight holes having now been reported. The afore-mentioned drill result forms part of a wider intersection which returned 57.04m at 0.19 per cent copper, 0.26 g/t gold and 3.96 g/t silver.
In addition, the other seven reported drill holes returned anomalous levels of both copper and gold and curiously, elevated levels of silver. One drill hole returned 6m at 5.12 g/t silver from 71.5m whilst a second hole weighed in at 8.03m with 4.74 g/t silver, pointing to a pervasive silver footprint across the deposit which may serve as a vector for the targeting of future drilling.
The company has also acquired an ultra-detailed geophysical survey across the Zackly targets, which has delineated the east-west structure hosting the deposit along several kilometres of strike. Interestingly, the survey has also highlighted two potential porphyry targets to the north and east of Zackly, which may represent the source of the mineralisation for the deposit and will require further investigation during the 2021 field season.
PolarX still has seven drill holes still in the laboratory for Zackly East. With planning now underway for the 2021 season, the company looks to be unearthing a large copper-gold bearing system in the Alaskan Range with the identification of the potential source porphyries a possible game-changer for the northern hemisphere explorer as it looks with optimism to the new year.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
