PolarX and Millrock Drill at Stellar Copper-Gold Project: Companies 'extremely encouraged' by presence of high-grade mineralization.

AuthorMackenzie, Kathryn
PositionSPECIAL SECTION Mining

Millrock Resources successfully completed a late-season drilling program at the Stellar Project in the Valdez Creek Mining District in the Central Alaska Range, reporting "visible results" during drilling at the high-grade Zackly copper-gold skarn deposit with mineralization observed in all holes.

Drilling at the Stellar Project, located about 186 miles north of Anchorage, commenced in late August. The program objective is to establish a modern resource for the Zackly deposit with the idea that, after further exploration, the project has the potential to be developed into a producing mine site.

"We know from historical work that was done in the 1980s and early '90s that there is a high grade copper-gold deposit named Zackly," says Frazer Tabeart, managing director and CEO of PolarX. "The style of mineralization at Zackly is often associated with larger porphyry systems, so if we can drill more holes and expand the amount of metal mineralization in the ground by making discoveries deeper or along strike, then it's possible that a major discovery leading to a mine could be developed."

Zackly: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

The Zackly area was explored from 1981 to 1994 by a number of hopeful companies. Some of the exploration programs included surface sampling, trenching, geophysics, and both core and reverse circulation drilling, totaling approximately 12,000 meters in about 85 holes. Three historical resource estimates in 1982, 1987, and 1993 were completed for the Zackly Main Skarn zone, one of the three known mineralized skarn zones located along the Zackly skarn trend.

Millrock President and CEO Gregory Beischer says Millrock, the previous project owner, was initially attracted to the area by the potential discovery of a large porphyry-style deposit. "This would be a great big prize to find, and we see some evidence that such a porphyry deposit could exist. There still will be a great deal of exploration work to do to make such a discovery, but indications are good so far and it appears that we've been able, through this recent drilling program, to re-establish the resource that was known and reported historically at Zackly, and it might even get a little bit bigger as a result of the work this year," says Beischer. He notes the company is looking forward to the 2018 drilling season when PolarX will drill for strike and depth extensions at Zackly and for a deeper porphyry deposit.

PolarX and Millrock have reason to remain optimistic...

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