Western Alaska Minerals Corp. [WAM-TSX] has announced an initial resource estimate for the Waterpump Creek Zone (WPC) at its 100% owned Illinois Creek Mining District project in Western Alaska, which hosts five deposits containing gold, silver, copper lead and zinc.
The shares advanced on the news, rising 17.6% or $0.09 to 60 cents. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $3.10 and 51 cents.
Covering 55,360 acres, the Illinois Creek District was originally discovered by Anaconda Minerals in the 1980s. The property is located in the southern Kaiyuh Mountains just east of the Yukon River in western Alaska, approximately 490 kilometres west of Fairbanks, 52 kilometres south of the village of Kaltag and 85 kilometres southwest of the community of Galena. The property is geographically isolated with no current road access or nearby power infrastructure.
Multiple deposits have been consolidated by Western Alaska’s management team over the past 10 years.
In a May 25, 2022 press release, Western Alaska said it had commenced drilling at the Waterpump Creek high-grade silver-lead-zinc carbonate replacement deposit (CRD).
On Thursday, Western Alaska said highlights of the initial resource estimate at the WPC zone include 2.39 million tonnes at 9.77 g/t silver equivalent (AgEq) or 75 million ounces of AgEq. The zinc equivalent is 26.32%. The company said the zinc component adds important critical minerals potential.
The WPC represents the high-grade distal zone of the more than 7.5-kilometre Illinois Creek CRD system and this mineral resource estimate was primarily undertaken to quantify the magnitude of the mineral endowment of what has been found to date and to justify further exploration in the area, the company said in a press release Thursday.
“We believe we have the tiger by the tail at Illinois Creek and decided to proceed with an inferred resource estimate to demonstrate to the market the robust high grade (and high margin potential) of the WPC deposit as we have carried it from discovery to a significant volume of high-grade mineralization,’’ said Western Alaska CEO Kit Marrs. “This resource says we’re moving in the right direction and we’re looking forward to following the mineralization 7.5 kilometres to the southwest back towards the past-producing Illinois Creek mine,’’ he said.
The former Illinois Creek oxide gold-silver mine has an indicated estimate of 253,000 ounces of gold and 9.5 million ounces of silver, plus an inferred estimate of 104,000 ounces of gold and 3.8 million ounces of silver.
The company said the project is “under drilled,” with 23,450 metres completed, including 15,550 by Western Alaska and 7,900 completed by Anaconda and a previous operator It goes on to say that a 2023 3D IP survey results demonstrate significant exploration potential both immediately north of WPC and south along the 7.5-kilometre LH trend. In addition, the geophysics support a major new target, the Warm Springs target, which further connects the WPC/LH trend with the historic Illinois Creek mine gossan oxide gold/silver deposit.
