Freeport expands BC’s AuRORA with near-surface grades

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) has extended the AuRORA copper-gold-silver discovery made by partner Amarc Resources (TSXV: AHR; OTCQB: AXREF) in British Columbia.

A batch of long, near-surface intercepts released on Monday move the deposit’s northern boundary 200 metres out while keeping the grade profile intact and the exploration open on three sides.

New holes on sections 8,000N and 8,100N peppered the system with broad mineralized runs at the site about 300 km north of Smithers, a village 350 km inland by road from Prince Rupert. Highlights include hole JP24083 that cut 204 metres at 0.74 gram gold per tonne and 0.28% copper from 74 metres downhole, with a sub-interval of 51 metres at 1.51 grams gold and 0.53% copper from 157 metres depth.

“The AuRORA discovery is a game changer for Amarc, the Toodoggone and British Columbia,” Amarc President and CEO Diane Nicolson said Monday in a news release. The near-surface high-grade results are “some of the highest porphyry grades ever intercepted in the province” and occur in younger volcanic rocks than Centerra Gold’s (TSX: CG; NYSE: CGAU) Kemess project to the south – opening new search space across the Joy district, Nicolson said.

AuRORA continues to pair thickness and continuity with grades that are uncommon for B.C. porphyries and the footprint keeps growing, the company said. Freeport, the world’s largest publicly traded copper producer, plans to spend $75 million (C$105 million) over five years to increase its control of the project to 70% from 60% as Amarc remains as primary contractor.

Amarc shares trading in Toronto gained 1.3% to C$1.13 apiece by Monday afternoon, valuing the company at $255 million. The stock began this year at C22¢. Freeport shares fell 1.1% to $41.23 in New York.

A location of of the AuRORA project, BC. Credit: Amarc Resources

More drilling

Amarc plans more drilling on AuRORA in the new year. Freeport is funding $16 million for drilling in the Joy district. Swedish miner Boliden has a non-dilutive C$90-million staged earn-in with Amarc for 70% on the neighbouring Duke district. So far, Boliden has invested C$30 million.

Other highlights from Monday’s release include hole JP25091 returning 231 metres of 0.83 gram gold and 0.22% copper from 132 metres, including 141 metres at 1.11 grams gold and 0.31% copper from 150 metres depth.

Hole JP25100 cut 200.4 metres at 0.7 gram gold and 0.24% copper from 101 metres and hole JP25094 returned 154 metres of 0.79 gram gold and 0.27% copper, including 60 metres at 1.58 grams gold and 0.45% copper from 264 metres depth.

Earlier partial assays stretched the deposit about 300 metres to the southeast. Assays from additional step-outs farther north are in the lab, with results slated to roll out in batches. The latest drilling caps a busy season. AuRORA saw 24 holes for 9,687 metres drilled this year – 23 of them step-outs across a roughly 1-by-1-km area – while the district program totaled 35 holes for 15,349 metres with up to four rigs turning.

District plan

Hunter Dickinson (HDI) – Amarc’s Vancouver-based parent exploration and mine-development group – specializes in securing district-scale ground in infrastructure corridors, partners with majors to fund discovery drilling and builds a pipeline of deposits, Nicolson and executive chair Robert Dickinson told The Northern Miner in a September interview.

Over HDI’s 35-year history it has discovered and developed 12 projects globally that have been or are currently being mined and two others that are fully permitted for construction.

“The same team that found Centerra’s Mount Milligan and Kemess is driving Amarc forward,” Dickinson said in the interview.

AuRORA is B.C.’s “highest-grade” porphyry copper-gold discovery relative to measured and indicated resources at established B.C. porphyries, Dickinson said. It’s a claim the latest drill results appear to support.

The project sits in younger volcanics than the Kemess deposits 20 km south, a point Nicolson says “rewrites the exploration playbook” for the Toodoggone region by making those rocks more prospective than previously assumed. “Every year we’ve drilled with Freeport, we’ve delivered a new discovery,” Nicolson said. “Joy is a 600-sq.-km district and AuRORA is the key to unlocking it.”