Mining News: News Nuggets: Partners define new Copper Joe drill targets

Kiska Metals Corp. Oct. 6 provided an exploration update on its Copper Joe property in Alaska as well as its Kliyul and Chuchi properties in British Columbia. In partnership with First Quantum Minerals, Kiska recently completed a geological mapping program and a magnetotelluric geophysical survey at Copper Joe, a porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum exploration project located roughly 110 miles (175 kilometers) northwest of Anchorage. Kiska said this work has defined two compelling porphyry targets, the Evening Star and Morning Star prospects. The Evening Star prospect is defined by a 2,500-meter-diameter area of intense phyllic alteration that hosts an outer margin with significant D-style quartz-pyrite veining and a 1,000-meter-wide inner zone defined by significant banded quartz-molybdenite veining. Kiska said porphyry footprint modeling and other analysis suggests that this inner zone represents the high-level core of the porphyry system that provides a compelling drill target. Morning Star is situated about 2,200 meters southwest of the Evening Star prospect in a relatively low-lying area mostly covered by glacial till. Morning Star is defined by narrow outcrop exposures in creek gullies that contain chalcopyrite mineralization in veins over a 400-meter wide area. Previous grab samples collected from this area returned up to 0.73 percent copper and 0.42 grams per metric ton gold. Morning Star has yet to be tested by geophysical surveys or drilling. “Copper Joe is in a frontier district where the potential for a new mineral discovery is high,” said Kiska Vice President of Exploration Mike Roberts.

In British Columbia, Teck Resources Ltd. completed a mapping, geophysical survey and diamond drilling program at Kiska’s Kliyul porphyry copper-gold project. Teck can earn a 51 percent interest in in this northcentral B. C. property by investing C$5.5 million in it by Jan. 31, 2018. The primary focus of this year’s program was to drill the main Kliyul Zone, where historical shallow drilling returned significant zones of copper-gold mineralization that remain open to depth and along trend. Teck completed four holes for a total of 1,908 meters of drilling. Teck also conducted 9.4 line-kilometers of induced polarization geophysics. The results of the program are pending. Kiska is currently preparing to complete an IP geophysical survey at Chuchi, another northcentral B. C. copper-gold project. This road-accessible project hosts a porphyry system where drilling in the early 1990s returned significant intervals of copper-gold mineralization. This year’s geophysical survey is designed to determine its size of the porphyry system and define new drill targets at Chuchi.

- Shane Lasley