Potential for nearby porphyrysystem
Canada’s Nicola Mining (WKN A3D3LF / TSXV NIM) completed a drill program at its New Craigmont copper project in British Columbia in June 2023. New Craigmont is adjacent to the historic Craigmont copper mine and the Company drilled to test the potential for a southeast extension of the historic Craigmont skarn orebody and the possibility of a copper porphyry being present. According to CEO Peter Espig, the analysis of the drilling data has now yielded encouraging results.
The drilling program on the property, which is also located only 33 kilometers south of Canada’s largest copper mine, Teck Resources’ Highland Valley mine, comprised six drill holes with a total length of 2,684 meters.
Potential for nearby porphyry system
Drill holes NC23-001, NC23-002, NC23-003 and NC23-004a were drilled southeast of the historic Craigmont Copper Mine to test the potential for ongoing skarn mineralization. NC23-001 intersected two intervals of (weakly mineralized) exoskarn occurring in Nicola Group calcareous sedimentary rocks from 67.25m to 99.8m and from 172.43m to 185.50m. The skarn intercepts consist of banded actinolite, magnetite, epidote, brown garnet and chalcopyrite veins (Figure 3). In drill holes NC23-002, NC23-003 and NC23-004a, extensive alteration (epidote, chlorite and biotite) was found in sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Nicola Group, while no exact skarn intersection was found in the drill core. This alteration is characteristic of porphyries and supports the possibility of a nearby porphyry system.
Holes NC23-005 and NC23-006 were drilled to the northeast and north of the historic pit and targeted the Guichon Quartz Diorite. Extensive potassic alteration (K-feldspar), propylite alteration (epidote and chlorite) and veinlets of chalcopyrite +/- molybdenite were observed in the core, suggesting the presence of a porphyry copper system at New Craigmont. The occurrence of these features along with discrete zones of significant copper (>0.1% Cu; see table), all located near the historic high-grade skarn, support the hypothesis that there is a porphyry center (or several) on the property and that a copper porphyry system is the source of mineralization for the historic Craigmont skarn.
Nicola is now working on summarizing this new data as well as all historical and current core logs and laboratory results. Once this has been done, a 3D model will be created for geological interpretation. Data from mapping and geophysical investigations will also be used for this purpose. The aim is to support target generation and enable Nicola to refine working hypotheses and integrate further data.
Plans for 2024
In the spring of next year, the company plans to carry out geophysical IP (induced polarization) surveys on two particularly promising areas of New Craigmont. At the same time, existing gaps in the IP data will be closed. Nicola will use this data along with magnetics and resistivity data to expand interpretations of structure, lithology, alteration and mineralization. Historically, IP assay results have been highly consistent with high-grade copper intercepts.
Based on this and the existing data, Nicola will plan drilling to take place later in the summer of 2024 on both areas tested with IP exploration. In all of this work, the company will continue to collaborate closely with the University of British Columbia’s Mineral Deposits Research Unit. They are already conducting a study to investigate porphyry-style alteration and mineralization at New Craigmont.
Peter Espig, CEO of Nicola Mining Inc. commented on the results: “Overall, the 2023 program delivered encouraging results. While we would have liked to see more mineralization directly southeast of the historic pit, drilling to the northeast exposed extensive alteration and indicates the potential for other bodies of mineralization. We are particularly pleased to see that the outcrops we have mapped in detail this time correspond perfectly with the cross-section diagrams, which show electromagnetic anomalies. These results reinforce our commitment to explore and develop the New Craigmont project.”
The 2023 drill campaign focused on expanding the recently reported resource at the Blackjack deposit. All 12 holes completed at the Blackjack Zone intersected further significant gold mineralization, with the exception of the northeastern-most hole on the project, which deviated from the drill target and only encountered anomalous gold values. The highlight of the drilling was the highest-grade intercept to date on the project in the current southern extent of the Blackjack Zone, which returned 219.0 meters of 1.34 g/t gold, including 124.8 meters of 2.01 g/t gold and 55.0 meters of 3.11 g/t gold in hole DDRCCC-23-047.
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