Kiska Metals Corp. Sept. 1 said Rio Tinto subsidiary Kennecott Exploration Co will not exercise its rights to back into the Whistler Project, located 160 kilometers northwest of Anchorage, Alaska. As a result, Kiska now controls a 100 percent interest in the Whistler Project. Kennecott retains a 2 percent net smelter royalty on the property.
“Kennecott has been an excellent partner, providing valuable expertise and insight into the project. We appreciate their input and the prompt decision regarding their right to back in,” said Kiska Metals President and CEO Jason Weber. “In securing a 100 percent ownership interest, we look forward to growing the resource at the Whistler Deposit, developing new porphyry discoveries and substantiating Whistler as North America's next gold camp.”
Exploration at the Whistler Project is ongoing with two drills currently operating.
One rig is now operating on the Whistler Deposit, which hosts a NI43-101-compliant indicated resource of 1.31 million ounces gold-equivalent and an inferred resource of 4.44 million ounces gold-equivalent. Five holes are expected to be completed at the Whistler Deposit by the end of this season. Results of these holes, together with eight holes completed after the current resource estimate was completed in early 2008, will be incorporated into an updated NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate for the Whistler Deposit. Completion of the estimate is expected in early November.
A second rig is advancing the Island Mountain Breccia discovery, where drilling in 2009 intersected two zones of gold mineralization. An upper gold-copper zone averages 0.72 g/t gold, 2.4 g/t silver and 0.16 percent copper over 150 meters and a lower gold intersection averages 1.22 g/t gold over 107 meters. Island Mountain is hosted within a 2.8-by-1.9 mile, or 4.5-by-3-kilometer, area of anomalous gold-copper soil and rock geochemistry and is located 14 miles, or 23 kilometers, south of the Whistler Deposit.
