Brazil Resources completes maiden resource on Island Mountain

Brazil Resources (TSXV: BRI; US-OTC: BRIZF) hasn’t wasted any time since acquiring the Whistler project last year from prospect generator Kiska Metals Corp. (TSXV: KSK) in an all-share deal worth about $1.6 million.

Within two months of the purchase in July 2015, Brazil Resources had updated the historic resource on the project’s Whistler deposit to a National Instrument 43-101 compliant standard, outlining 2.25 million oz. gold equivalent in the indicated category and 3.35 million oz. gold equivalent in the inferred.

But the deposit, 150 km northwest of Anchorage, is just one of several deposits and prospective areas on the Whistler project’s 170 sq. km land package, an area in the Yentna mining district that the company believes is underexplored and offers potential for expansion. The Whistler project hosts several nearby gold-copper porphyry targets similar to the Whistler deposit that could increase the resource base.

This week the company released a maiden resource on the Island Mountain gold-copper porphyry, 23 km south of the Whistler deposit.

Island Mountain hosts multiple porphyry centers including the Breccia, Cirque, Howell and Super Conductor zones that occur within a nine sq. km area. The deposit outcrops on the southwestern slope of Island Mountain and has been drilled over a 300-metre strike length and to a depth of 450 metres. The deposit is 400 metres in width and is open to depth and to the north, where surface mapping, geochemistry and geophysics have identified coincident hydrothermal breccia, multi-element geochemical and magnetic anomalies for an additional 400 metres to the north.

At a 0.30 gram gold equivalent cut-off grade, indicated resources measure 25.75 million tonnes grading 0.53 gram gold per tonne, 1.16 grams silver per tonne, and 0.06% copper, or 0.54 gram gold equivalent for 0.44 million gold-equivalent oz. Inferred resources add 69.23 million tonnes averaging 0.51 gram gold, 1.07 grams silver, and 0.06% copper, or 0.51 gram gold equivalent oz. for 1.13 million gold-equivalent oz.

Brazil Resources notes that when combined with the resource at the Whistler deposit (79.2 million tonnes grading 0.51 gram gold, 1.97 grams silver, 0.17% copper of indicated and 145.8 million tonnes of inferred grading 0.40 gram gold, 1.75 grams silver, 0.15% copper), the two deposits add up to a grand total of 2.694 million gold-equivalent oz. in the indicated category and 4.48 million gold-equivalent oz. in the inferred.

Of the 70,000 metres drilled by previous owners, 19,870 metres or 48 holes were completed at the Whistler deposit.

The company notes that other porphyry centers at the project have mineralized intersections similar to these deposits such as Raintree West, Raintree North, Raintree South, Rainmaker and Cirque. The Raintree and Rainmaker mineralization is less than 3 km from the Whistler deposit.

Other targets at the project are Whistler Orbit, a 25 sq. km area of quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration that is peripheral to several mineralized porphyry deposits and targets directly east of the Whistler deposit, and Muddy Creek, an intrusion-related gold target consisting of quartz-sulphide veins that are hosted within intrusive phases of the Estelle Composite Intrusive Suite. Historic reconnaissance rock-soil geochemistry and geophysics has outlined multiple gold anomalies (Discovery Creek, Phoenix Creek, Arseno Knob and Bonanza) over an area of 5.5 sq. km about 18 km southwest of the Whistler deposit.

The company says future drill programs will focus on delineating higher grade, near-surface zones at the Whistler and Island Gold deposits, expanding the existing resource and developing a better understanding of the size potential of nearby targets.

The Whistler project has an all-season camp about 2.7 km east of the Whistler deposit with a gravel airstrip, 38 kilowatt diesel generator, water well, septic system and fuel storage facility. A 6-km access road connects the camp with the Whistler deposit and Whistler Orbit.

Brazil Resources says it continues to “evaluate resource-stage projects in the Americas for potential acquisition.”

The company also owns the Rea uranium project in the western Athabasca Basin of northeastern Alberta, and two gold projects in Brazil’s Para state: Cachoeira and Sao Jorge.