Copper Ridge drills Lucky Joe

Vancouver — Copper Ridge Explorations (KRX-V) will drill-test the Papa Bear copper-gold soil anomaly and related geophysical anomalies at the Lucky Joe project, 40 km south of Dawson City, Y.T.

The 1,200-metre program is being funded by a unit of Rio Tinto (RTP-N), which can earn a 51% interest in Lucky Joe by spending at least US$2 million on exploration. This can be increased to 60% in return for an additional exploration expenditure of US$5 million by the end of 2009, and to 75% in return for a feasibility study 11 years later.

Whereas previous operators explored and drilled the property for copper mineralization in the 1970s, the target now is a large hydrothermal system that could represent a near-surface, flat-lying, porphyry copper-gold deposit or a variety of iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) deposit.

The Papa Bear copper-gold soil anomaly is 11 km long and 2-2.5 km wide. A recent induced-polarization survey outlined a trend of enhanced chargeability at least 5 km long. The geophysical anomalies, which include two large core zones, are believed to reflect disseminated sulphide mineralization. In limited sampling to date, gold mineralization shows a strong correlation with chalcopyrite.

Copper Ridge has secured 11 early-stage gold and copper properties in the Yukon, three of which are optioned to other companies.