Geddes looking at options available at Windy Craggy

“We are trying to identify the preferred options so that we don’t go into the feasibility stage looking at all the available options,” said President Gerald Harper, who is already planning for a 20,000-ton- per-day open pit operation.

Regarded as one of the biggest undeveloped copper deposits in North America (reserves include 93.5 million tons of grade 1.93% copper, 0.08% cobalt, 0.19 g gold and 3.26 g silver), the deposit is near the top of a mountain near the Alaska border.

The 31%-owned Northgate Exploration (TSE) affiliate is currently driving a cross cut into the North zone at an elevation of about 1,400 m. The North zone is one of two zones, about 300 m apart, which contain all of the Windy Craggy reserves. Future plans include drilling between the zones to see if they are joined together in a giant U-shaped fold. According to Harper, a 200-ton underground bulk sample and a second surface sample are being extracted to test the deposit’s metallurgical characteristics.

Extra drilling, completed since the previous reserve calculation was announced in June 1989, has provided a lot more confidence in the grade and distribution of the reserves, he said.

As part of an attempt to table a pre-feasibility study by freezeup, Geddes recently drilled nine holes, for which results have been made available.

According to Harper, two holes drilled downwards at the northern limit of the North zone confirm the downward continuity of the deposit. Hole 107 intersected 48 m of grade 1.49% copper, 0.07% cobalt, 0.08 g gold and 0.4 g silver while hole 108 cut 14 m of grade 1.38% copper, 0.10% cobalt, 0.05 g gold and 0.6 gold.

The first surface hole drilled this year intersected 3.2% copper over a core length of 114 m (including 6.5 m of high gold and zinc values).

“Bench scale metallurgical testwork of the sample material mined from the crosscut tunnel through the South zone recently confirmed that a good quality copper concentrate can be produced,” Harper said.

Diamond drilling has also shown the near-surface mineralization includes the secondary copper minerals chalcocite and chalcanthite as well as the primary chalcopyrite. “If recoverable, they could enhance the grade of copper concentrate produced in an open pit mining operation,” said Harper.

]]>