ASX-listed PolarX’s Alaska Range project in the US is starting to look interesting with recent boots on the ground work identifying a potential 600-metre extension to the Zachly East Skarn, which already plays host to a one kilometre long mineralised system and a resource of 41,000 tonnes of copper, 213,000 ounces of gold and 1.5 million ounces of silver, right from surface.
The recent fieldwork included geological mapping and two excavator-dug trenches focussed on a skarn discovered by PolarX in 2018 when an impressive drill result of 55m at 2.8 grams per tonne gold and 0.6% copper was unearthed in addition to a slightly higher grade 47m intersection grading 3.1g/t gold and 0.6% copper.
By working the trenches, the company says its Geologists have been able to identify the geological and structural characteristics of the copper-gold mineralisation at the project to assist in planning the next phase of exploration.
Composited rock samples collected in the trenches show surface copper mineralisation with one trench containing two anomalous zones with 16m grading 509 parts per million copper and 20m grading 566 ppm copper. The second trench contained one mineralised zone with 14m grading 1265ppm copper.
The historical diamond drill holes were located along strike from the new trenches, potentially opening up a 600m long extension to the mineralised zone.
The Zachly and Zachly East skarns are located within a 12km long mineralised corridor that holds the Mars porphyry copper-gold prospect in the west and the Saturn copper-gold prospect at the eastern end.
A skarn is a type of cooked-up rock that was originally a sedimentary limestone where molten rocks have invaded the space initially taken up by the limestones. During the geochemical processes, silicon, aluminium, iron, magnesium, copper and gold have all been introduced .
Geological processes over time have caused the rocks to move, erode and sometimes re-heat over several million and even billions of years in a skarn.
PolarX has developed a geological, structural and mineralisation model that will assist in drill hole and exploration targeting in this complex, but often predictable environment.
The company’s Mars prospect features a linear geomagnetic high that is associated with a copper-gold-molybdenum-arsenic anomaly that extends over an area that is around 1,500m by 800m.
Mars’ maiden 417m drill hole returned 102m at 0.24% copper, 0.05g/t gold and 11ppm molybdenum from 175.96m.
Importantly, the porphyry-style mineralised veins seen in the Mars drilling occur from 6m of the surface and extend to the bottom of the hole, providing PolarX with a strong incentive to drill deeper to find the potentially higher-grade core of the porphyry system.
Lower-grade porphyry copper deposits are the globes main source of copper and are the dominant form of mineralisation underpinning some of the largest copper mines in the world such as in Chile, Peru and the US.
With an abundance of fascinating looking magnetic features, tier 1 type geology and a very long strike zone, the PolarX story looks to be a rapidly developing one that should throw up a plethora of news flow over the year ahead.
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