The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Copper targets reveal gold for Gladiator

North of 60 Mining News - May 10, 2024

Company plans to conduct DHEM surveys to reassess, will now include monitoring for gold, silver, molybdenum.

Gladiator Metals Corp. May 8 announced further assays from the ongoing 10,000-meter drill program at the company's Whitehorse Copper project in Yukon, Canada.

Located in the backyard of Yukon's capital city, the Whitehorse Copper project is a 5,280-hectare (13,294 acres) copper-molybdenum-silver-gold skarn exploration project that covers a significant portion of what has historically been known as the Whitehorse Copper Belt.

Exploring the 35-kilometer (22 miles) by five-kilometer (three miles) high-grade copper belt with at least 30 known prospective targets within the region, historical mining saw production of approximately 267.5 million pounds copper, 225,000 ounces gold and 2.84 million oz silver from 11.1 million tons of mineralized skarn ore milled between the years 1967 and 1982.

Gladiator began its 2024 exploration season in early January by drilling the Chiefs Trend, a highly prospective region with significant widths of unmined, copper-gold skarns over more than 700 meters of strike.

Focusing on this area due to a plethora of historical records that suggest numerous zones of mineralization were left otherwise unmined, the company began the year at the Middle Chief target.

"Gladiator has commenced the first diamond drilling campaign at the Middle Chief prospect since mine closure in 1982," said Gladiator Metals CEO Jason Bontempo. "The planned 10,000-meter diamond drilling is designed to test areas of high-grade copper skarn mineralization identified from its data compilation of historic drilling datasets at the Middle Chief target as well as near mine extensions to the historic Little Chief mine. These targets represent near surface areas of mineralization open in all directions with limited exploration or development away from historical underground infrastructure."

Highlights from the first assays drilled at Middle Chief include:

• 13.75 meters averaging 2.71% copper and 1.39 g/t gold from a depth of 256 meters in LCG-003 to end of hole, which failed in 0.25 meters averaging 2.76% copper and 0.28 g/t gold.

• 22 meters averaging 1.41% copper and 0.28 g/t gold from 208 meters in LCG-001D1.

• Six meters averaging 1.56 % copper and 1.06 g/t gold from 213 meters in LCG-001, and 16 meters averaging 1.29% copper and 0.61 g/t gold from 249 meters.

• 10 meters averaging 0.83% copper and 0.19 g/t gold from 62 meters in LCG-001D2, four meters averaging 1.03% copper and 0.19 g/t gold from 84 meters, and 10 meters averaging 1.35% copper and 0.51g/t gold from 196 meters.

"Gladiator has received further assays from its ongoing, 10,000-meter diamond drill program at the Chiefs Trend," said Bontempo. "These results confirm and support the significant widths of high-grade copper skarn mineralization identified from Gladiator's data compilation of historical datasets and point to further extensions of the defined mineralized bodies."

Gladiator Metals Corp.

Plan view of recently collated Little Chief and Middle Chief drill hole data showing historic open pit, as well as areas of historical production and unmined mineralization. Recent drilling highlighted showing extensions to mineralization as well as recently identified high-mag anomalies from drone magnetics (pink shading).

The latest assays come from 3,581 meters drilled in 20 holes. Highlights from this round of results include:

• 11 meters averaging 1.67% copper and 0.63 g/t gold from a depth of 194 meters in hole LCG-009.

• 20.44 meters averaging 2.17% copper and 0.34 g/t gold from 221.6 meters to end of hole LCG-009D1.

• 8.7 meters averaging 2.06% copper and 0.13 g/t gold from 167 meters in LCG-009D2.

"These results continue to confirm the extent of unmined mineralization and highlight the near-term, high-grade copper resource potential of the Chiefs Trend," said Gladiator's CEO. "Initial step out drilling on the Chiefs Trend, 200 meters to the north of Middle Chief has also encountered significant widths and grades of copper mineralization pointing to the exploration potential of the trend which is being followed up by ongoing drilling."

The company adds that significant exploration upside remains with extensive widths of anomalous copper intersected in the initial 200-meter spaced step out drilling north of the known Middle Chief mineralization.

In addition to the drilling, Gladiator plans to complete down-hole electromagnetic (DHEM) surveys prior to recommencing drilling targeting extensions to the known Middle Chief mineralization. These results are expected to confirm mineralization to be associated with magnetite alteration as indicated in the recently completed drone-borne magnetic survey where magnetic anomalism was reported over 500 meters at Middle Chief extending into Big Chief.

"The significant gold assays coincident with high-grade copper mineralization identified in these initial assay results point to the upside potential of the Chiefs Trend with the historic drilling only assaying for copper," finished Bontempo.

Drilling has now defined unmined, near-surface magnetite-copper skarn mineralization over more than 600 meters of strike north of the historical mining operations at Little Chief.

As for its most recent results, while historical drilling at the Chiefs Trend prospects was selectively sampled for copper only, the company says that given the recent significant gold intervals returned from these initial assay results, it intends to assay all future drilling and sampling for additional credits including gold, silver, and molybdenum which were proven significant contributors to the economics of historic operations at Little Chief.

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 05/20/2024 07:48