Sep 18 2018
Metallic Minerals Corp. is pleased to provide an update on the 2018 field season at its 100%-owned McKay Hill silver and Keno silver projects. Work at McKay Hill was highlighted by the discovery of numerous new mineralized vein structures. Among this year’s priority target areas was the historically identified Central Zone. As a result of this year’s findings, an additional 42 claims were staked on new, highly-prospective ground expanding the property to 44 square kilometers (km2).
Following up on the success of the 2017 season (results announced October 24, 2017), the 2018 field exploration program at McKay Hill was designed to:
- advance existing high-grade Ag-Au-Pb-Zn targets on the Central Zone ridge, including the seven recognized vein structures, to a drill-ready stage; and
- investigate recently identified target areas outside the Central Zone for potential new discoveries based on anomalies from high-resolution satellite orthophotography, geophysics and geochemistry.
Exploration activities at McKay Hill began with a broad reconnaissance of the property focused on the recently identified target areas. This led to discoveries of several new vein structures that had not been previously recognized on the project. These new discoveries include the Bella, Red, Falls and Snowdrift NE Extension Zones and, along with the previously identified Central and Independence Zones, comprise six priority target areas for future work. Each of these target areas is defined by multiple vein occurrences, with the Central Zone being the most expansive zone of mineralization identified to date.
Following this broader reconnaissance of the property, exploration efforts focused on characterizing and quantifying the areas of identified mineralization through detailed geologic mapping, soil grid sampling and rock and trench sampling. Mapping was aided by collaboration with the regional mapping experts of the Yukon Geologic Survey who confirmed the regional prospectivity of the host rocks. Over 700 soil samples were collected across nine widespread grids on the McKay Hill property and 16 trenches were completed, testing both known and new mineralized structures and their potential vein-to-vein intersections. Soil, trench and rock samples have been submitted for laboratory analysis.
Further exploration activities focused on extending the known strike length of the recognized vein structures and advancing the more well-defined vein occurrences in the Central Zone target area to a drill-ready stage. This work demonstrated that the historically productive No. 6 Vein Corridor, which was the area of past production on the property, is part of a much larger vein stockwork zone than had been previously recognized and is now interpreted to be up to a kilometer long by 250-meter-wide mineralized corridor which is open to expansion at both ends. The northeast-trending No. 6 Vein Corridor consists of widespread, near-vertical high-grade silver-bearing massive sulfide veins. Where these veins intersect with numerous NNE trending gold and copper enriched veins, the combined silver and gold values can be very significant. To date, the highest assay (from surface sampling) comes from the intersection of the No. 6 Vein Corridor with the North vein, reporting up to 988 g/t Ag and 24.4 g/t Au during the 2017 field season. Final assay results from the 2018 program are pending.
About the McKay Hill Project
The 100% owned McKay Hill Project covers 44 km2 within a belt of silver-lead-zinc related deposits that stretch from the Alaska border to the southern part of the Yukon and includes the famous Keno Hill Silver District, approximately 50 kilometers to the south. McKay Hill is a historic high-grade producer that shows potential to host a significant district scale vein system similar to Keno Hill, with at least 16 identified vein structures that have seen very limited modern exploration. McKay Hill was discovered and initially explored in the 1920s with selective mining in the 1940s producing 143 tonnes of high-grade material from the No. 6 Vein Corridor area, grading 390.8 g/t Ag and 74.1% Pb.1
Historic surface sampling at McKay Hill returned high-grade silver, lead and zinc mineralization associated with vein structures. More recent field work conducted by Metallic Minerals has confirmed these historic high grades of silver, lead and zinc and also demonstrated the presence of significant associated gold and copper values. Exploration in 2017 yielded surface sampling results with up to 988 g/t silver and 24.4 g/t gold.
1 Geological and Geochemical Evaluation Report on the McKay Hill Project, Jean Pautler, P.Geo. JP Exploration Services Inc., 2009
Keno Silver Project Exploration Update
In June Metallic Minerals initiated its 2018 exploration program on Keno Silver Project, located in the prolific Keno Hill Silver District. The 2018 exploration program was designed to focus on a combination of target development, refinement and step-out drill testing along ten of the known mineralized trends traversing Metallic Minerals’ holdings in the District. The Company is focused on identifying and rapidly advancing the most prospective targets toward resource definition.
Building on the successful exploration and drill campaigns of 2017, exploration activities at the Keno Silver Project prioritized three stages of targets:
- Resource Delineation Stage Targets – Continued step-out drilling on the identified resource delineation targets at Caribou, Homestake and Formo (pending permits) to determine the potential scale of the mineralized systems. The well-mineralized structures at each of these targets have been defined by trenching, channel sampling and shallow drilling that is open at depth and along strike, allowing for further expansion and the potential to define new silver resources;
- Advanced Stage Surface Targets – Continued target refinement and first phase drill testing of up to six advanced surface targets, all of which have returned high-grade values from surface sampling: Gold Hill, Bounty, Duncan, Silver Basin, Vanguard and Silver Queen. Drilling on these targets will be designed to test vertically under the known surface mineralization to demonstrate the potential of these targets to move to a resource delineation stage; and
- Earlier Stage Targets – Concurrent follow-up exploration on 20 earlier-stage targets on the lesser explored parts of the property that show potential to host significant high-grade Keno-type silver mineralization along recognized mineral trends. Work on these targets includes soil sampling, detailed stratigraphic mapping and trenching with the objective to advance the most prospective areas to a first phase drill testing stage.
To date, the Company has completed follow-up exploration at the Keno Silver Project on its earlier stage and advanced stage surface targets, as well as diamond drilling at the Gold Hill, Caribou and Homestake targets, and is awaiting final permits for drilling on the Formo target. Drill core, rock and soil samples from this work continue to be sent to the lab for analysis. Results from the Keno Silver Project exploration program will be provided in future project updates as the assays are received, verified and incorporated into Metallic Minerals’ exploration database and geologic models.
Chairman & CEO, Greg Johnson stated, “We are excited about the advancements at McKay Hill and the Keno Silver Project during the 2018 field season. During a focused field program at McKay Hill our team completed the project objectives of further defining the extent of the previously identified mineralized zones, as well as making new discoveries of additional previously unrecognized vein exposures. We are encouraged by these results as they demonstrate that the mineralized system is more extensive than previously recognized and we are advancing priority targets to a drill testing stage. Based on the expanded scale of the identified mineralization, additional ground was staked, expanding the size of the McKay Hill property by 25%. Assay results from this year’s McKay Hill program are expected to be available in October and will be incorporated into planning for follow-up work in 2019. At the Keno Silver Project follow-up exploration continues to show the potential at both the earlier stage and advanced stage surface targets, as well as diamond drilling at the Gold Hill, Caribou and Homestake targets are confirming the significance of these structures. Additional updates on the Keno silver and McKay Hill projects will follow as results become available.”
Source: https://www.metallic-minerals.com/news/2018/metallic-minerals-makes-multiple-vein-discoveries-in-new-mineralized-zones-at-the-mckay-hill-project-yukon-territory/