Nunavut is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It is also one of the nation’s most remote and least populated regions.
However, a recent surge in exploration success is attracting international attention to the Canadian arctic archipelago area.
Aston Bay and American West Storming Ahead
Leading the way are Canada’s Aston Bay Holdings (TSXV: BAY) and its Australian joint venture partner American West Metals (ASX: AW1).
The pair continue to obtain outstanding assay results confirming thick intervals of copper mineralization from its ongoing delineation drilling programme at the Storm Copper project on Somerset Island, Nunavut.
The companies unveiled promising assay results in early June for an additional five drill holes from the current programme at the 4100N Zone. All five holes intersected thick intervals of near-surface copper sulphides with grades up to seven per cent copper (Cu.)
Aston Bay says the assays continue to match or exceed visual estimations as previously reported.
The company is now confident that the near-surface setting, thick intersections, and high grades of copper mineralization support the potential for a low-cost open pit mining operation.
It continues to assess this outstanding opportunity with resource modelling, beneficiation test work, and environmental studies in progress.
“Once again, the impressive results continue from the ongoing exploration conducted by our partner American West Metals at Storm,” Aston Bay CEO, Thomas Ullrich, said.
“We believe these high-grade copper intercepts will support the development of a significant resource. We look forward to further results from our spring programme and anticipate an exciting second programme coming up this summer at Storm.”
The drilling results received to date at the project demonstrate consistent copper grades and excellent lateral continuity of high-grade mineralization.
Additionally, drilling results show significant thicknesses of coherent copper mineralization (<1% Cu) are present outside of the stronger zones of mineralization.
Planned Programme
Drilling at the 4100N Zone will continue in the summer programme, with a focus on expansion of the mineralized footprint. This will be followed by resource definition drilling at the 2200N and 2750N Zone, where drilling in 2022 intersected high-grade copper sulphides close to surface, including 41m (core length) @ 4.18% Cu from 38m (ST22-05) downhole.
Processing and interpretation of the MLEM (moving loop electromagnetic) and gravity survey data is almost complete. Diamond drilling will be used to test new high-priority exploration targets identified from these surveys.
Ore sorting and beneficiation test work for a potential direct shipping product operation is continuing with results to follow shortly, and an environmental baseline survey will begin in the Storm area during Q3 2023.
Viridis Hits High-Grade Gold at Esker Lake
Meanwhile, Viridis Mining and Minerals Ltd. (ASX: VMM) has obtained high-grade gold intercepts from a maiden Esker Lake diamond drilling campaign, located within the south Kitikmeot Gold project in the Back River area of western Nunavut.
The company has now completed an initial seven-hole drill programme at the Esker Lake property, with composited samples assayed by ALS laboratory in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (NWT).
The results provided from the diamond drilling programme returned high-grade intervals of gold mineralization, which are characteristic of previously explored areas in the Esker Lake property.
Executive chairman, Agha Shahzad Pervez, said the results are encouraging and have provided the exploration team with a further understanding of the controls for gold mineralization at the project.
Hole EL-23-005 showed the most significant intercept of gold, with two separate areas of high-grade mineralization of 9.00m @ 2.24g/t Au from 69m, and at 79m for 13.02m @ 3.14g/t Au.
Within this hole, the gold mineralization occurred within a sulphide-bearing banded amphibolite, with fine-grained stringer pyrrhotite, pyrite (20-40% locally), and quartz veining.
Similarly, in hole EL-23-001, high-grade gold mineralization occurred at depths of 74m, hosted within heavily sulphidized garnet amphibolite, with quartz veining and stringer to semi-massive pyrrhotite and pyrite (up to 40% locally).
Geologists observed precise structural control on mineralization in these holes, with the highest grades coinciding with both sulphide amphibolite and quartz veining. This drilling programme has also provided further confirmation and understanding of the geology of historic intercepts drilled at Esker Lake.
“We are delighted to report high-grade gold assays from the maiden diamond drill programme at the South Kitikmeot gold project,” Mr Shahzad Pervez said.
The project consists of seven properties: Hiqiniq, Ujaraq, Gold Bugs, Esker, Bling, Uist, and Qannituq, covering 11,448ha within the Back River of western Nunavut.
Agnico Eagle’s Nunavut Growth Plans
Leading Canadian gold miner Agnico Eagle is undertaking significant growth activities at its Meliadine mine.
It is located near the western shore of Hudson Bay in the Kivalliq district of Nunavut, about 25km north of Rankin Inlet, and 290km southeast of its Meadowbank mine.
Meliadine includes seven gold deposits, six of which are part of the current mine plan. The 98,222ha property covers an 80km long greenstone belt.
Facilities at the Meliadine mine include a main camp and an exploration camp. The main camp is located approximately 1.8km north of the Tiriganiaq deposit and consists of 14 wings of modular trailers that can accommodate approximately 700 personnel.
Commercial production began at Meliadine in May 2019. The company anticipates that mining at Meliadine will be carried out through several underground mining operations and open pits over a mine life extending to 2032. There are numerous opportunities to create additional value at Meliadine, both at the mine and on the large regional land package.
Exploration
The company expects to spend approximately C$12.3M at the Meliadine mine in 2023 for 53,100m of capitalized drilling, with a focus on conversion drilling at the Tiriganiaq, Pump, Wesmeg North, Wesmeg, and F-Zone deposits, and C$2.4M for further development of the exploration drift.
An additional C$1.9M is budgeted for 10,100m of exploration drilling of the Tiriganiaq, Wesmeg North, Wesmeg, and F-Zone deposits, which are all open at depth.
The company expects to spend an additional C$6.7M for 8,000m of drilling to investigate for new, near-surface satellite deposits close to the road and infrastructure around the Meliadine and Meadowbank/Amaruq operations.
Any new discoveries at open-pit depths have the potential to extend the life of each mine in conjunction with the extensions of higher-grade underground mineralization at each site.
A Phase 2 mill expansion at the Meliadine mine is expected to be completed in mid-2024 and the processing rate ramp-up is expected to increase throughput to achieve 6,000tpd by year-end 2024.
