PolarX has hit it in one with its first very long hole drilled into an identified IP anomaly racking up 400m of visible sulphides within porphyry-style mineralised vein sets and associated alterations at the Mars porphyry copper-gold target in central Alaska, USA.
Previous surface geochemical sampling at Mars recorded anomalous gold, copper and molybdenum and the company is now eagerly awaiting assays to confirm the tenor of the mineralisation.
Interestingly, the company said the mineralised veins appear to intensify with depth towards the end of the hole at 417m.
PolarX told the market this week that rough visual assessments of the drill core point to between 0.5% and 2% chalcopyrite – or copper sulphide mineralisation – over the last 96 metres of the drill hole, indicating that PolarX may have a large porphyry-related system on its hands at Mars.
Management said that the hole had intersected multiple stages of the porphyry-style veining that contained visible iron, copper and molybdenum sulphides from near-surface to the end of hole.
The surface sampling had already recorded strongly anomalous porphyry pathfinder elements over about 1.2 square kilometres above the IP target, which adds more than a touch of excitement to this week’s 400m drill hole.
The company said that gold mineralisation may well accompany the copper mineralisation seen at Mars – which is also typical of porphyry systems – however, only a full suite of laboratory assays will be able to ascertain this with any degree of certainty.
Sample analysis is currently underway.
PolarX Managing Director Dr Frazer Tabeart said: “Visual confirmation of even more intense porphyry‐style veining containing chalcopyrite and molybdenite from 321m to the end of the first hole at 417m depth at Mars is extremely promising.”
“The 400m+ down‐hole thickness of mineralisation, the large size of the copper‐gold‐molybdenum surface geochemical and geophysical anomalies at Mars support our view that a very large mineralised system may be present.”
The Mars target occurs within the broader Stellar project in central Alaska and is an area that is subject to a strategic partnership with TSX-listed Lundin Mining Corporation.
The prospect lies at the far southwestern end of a 12km mineralised zone that also hosts the high-grade Zackly copper-gold skarn deposit, where the company has already defined an inferred mineral resource of 3.4 million tonnes grading 1.2% copper and 2g/t gold.
PolarX also recently completed five deep exploratory diamond holes at the large Saturn target, about 12km east-southeast of Mars in the same mineralised corridor, pointing to a possible porphyry source at depth.
Mars and Saturn lie within the company’s larger Alaska Range project, with those particular targets straddling the area subject to the partnership with Lundin Mining Corporation – but does not include Zackly.
The exploration and drilling programs at Mars and Saturn are funded from the proceeds of a $4.3m share placement to Lundin Mining, who has an exclusive right to commence an earn-in option for a 51% interest in PolarX’s Stellar project, via spending on staged exploration and staged payments to the ASX-listed company.
PolarX’s Alaska Range project sits at the intersection of two major geological faults in Alaska where the company last year discovered the mineralised corridor, bounded by Mars and Saturn, from a detailed aeromagnetic survey.
The present thinking is that the large circular magnetic anomaly delineating the Saturn target may well be the source of the mineralised fluids feeding PolarX’s Zackly deposit and other anomalous copper-gold occurrences nearby.
The company plans to shortly commence a resource extension drilling program at Zackly, which will be funded by its own recent $3.5m capital raise via a rights issue.
The initial drilling results from both Mars and Saturn will have the company buoyant, as they seem to support PolarX’s geological model for substantial porphyry copper-gold systems being present within the project holdings.
PolarX’s ongoing programs are just the first steps towards piecing together the underlying potential of this underexplored, but strongly prospective region in Alaska.
The region has previously generated 40 million ounces of gold but is still widely considered to be an “immature” goldfield by global standards.
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