Core Assets finishes drilling at Laverdiere Skarn-Porphyry Project; moves on to Silver Lime

2022.07.11

Core Assets (CSE:CC) (FSE:5RJ) (OTC.QB:CCOOF) has just completed Phase 1 drilling at its Laverdiere Skarn-Porphyry Project, and successfully extended copper-skarn and copper-molybdenum mineralization to 850 meters along strike.

Laverdiere is on the eastern part of Core’s Blue property in the Atlin mining district of northwestern British Columbia.

Out of 1,806 meters of diamond drilling over six holes, hole LAV22-06 at the North Adit, drilled to the southwest, intersected near-surface chalcopyrite and molybdenite porphyry-style mineralization to 80 meters depth, as shown in Figure 1 below.

Moreover, an increase in vein density and patchy chalcopyrite (a copper sulfide mineral) mineralization was observed with increasing depth to the end of the hole (Figure 2).

Drilling also confirmed massive to semi-massive iron-copper skarn in all drill holes, and extended high-grade Fe-Cu-Au skarn, Cu-Mo endoskarn, and associated Cu-Mo porphyry style mineralization for 850 meters along the western flank of Hoboe Creek, and up to 400 meters depth, between the historical North and South adits.

“The porphyry-style mineralization and alteration we’ve seen near surface and at depth is a game changer for Laverdiere, and we look forward to planning a more aggressive Phase II deep drilling program for 2023 after receiving this year’s assay results,” Core Assets’ President & CEO Nick Rodway said in the July 7 news release.

Core advises that any inference of potential copper, gold, silver and molybdenum grades from the geological descriptions provided are speculative and based on preliminary visual observations only. Drill core assays for holes LAV22-001 and 002 are expected this month.

The stock gained 12.73% on Thursday’s news, to finish Friday’s trading session at $0.62. Year to date, CC has more than doubled from the 29 cents a share it started 2022 at.

In my view, the results are significant because they appear to confirm Core Assets’ belief that these mineralized occurrences exhibit grade consistency and continuity over shallow depths as well as along surface.

Rodway said in the June 26 news release confirming a 300-meter-long open strike length that “Copper mineralization transitions from at or near surface skarn-type to porphyry-style with increasing depth. The alteration assemblages and mineralization intensity are indicative of a large, fertile porphyry copper system.”

Crews were mobilized at the start of June for Core’s inaugural 5,000-meter drill program, targeting high-grade mineralization at Laverdiere, and the Silver Lime Carbonate Replacement-Porphyry Project (Silver Lime). Both are located on Core Assets’ Blue property.

Notably, this is the first-ever diamond drilling in the area.

Blue property

Core Assets’ Blue property commands 1,116 km² in British Columbia’s prolific Atlin mining district. It is located 48 km southwest of Atlin, on the eastern shore of Atlin Lake, providing cost-effective exploration mobilization and potential low-cost ore transportation.

The project geologically is in the Stikine Terrane, host to some of the province’s most significant projects such as Teck Resources’ Schaft Creek and Galore Creek, and Newmont’s Tatogga (see map below).

Carbonate replacement deposits (CRD) feature prominently in this region, including Core Assets’ Blue property.

These deposits are polymetallic, meaning they have various metals in them such as copper, gold, silver, lead, manganese and zinc. The mineralogy depends on the distance from the intrusive rock.

CRDs are also epigenetic, meaning they are produced on or near surface, usually through a “replacement process”, hence the name. They are characterized by high grades (up to 1,500 g/t Ag, 25% Pb and Zn, and 5% Cu), bulk tonnage (up to 150 million tonnes), low mining costs and minimal environmental footprint.

The Blue project is considered to be the most northerly, district-scale CRD-porphyry asset in the province. In fact the only two CRD deposits in BC more established than Blue, are Coeur Mining’s Silvertip, one of the highest-grade silver-lead-zinc operations in the world; and NorthWest Copper’s Stardust project, which has a National Instrument 43-101 mineral resource.

It is characterized by a major structural feature known as the Llewellyn Fault Zone (LFZ), which is approximately 140 km long and runs from the Tally-Ho shear zone in the Yukon, south through the property to the Alaskan Panhandle Juneau Ice Sheet in the United States.

Often with CRDs, the surface expressions are few and far between, and maybe a cm or two thick. This one appears to be different. Blue has one manto, the Grizzly, that is 500 meters of massive sulfide outcropping in an area extending 6.6 km from the potential porphyry hub (the spokes are seen below as dotted black lines to the red dots). This area is almost two kilometers (1.8 km) wide. Extraordinary.

The main point of this whole project and the reason for the dotted lines and the massive sulfide occurrences, is that unlike vein-hosted deposits, CRDs typically manifest as continuous sulfide bodies over multi-kilometer scales that broaden with depth and demonstrate continuity back to the source. All dots should be connected in the sub-surface and that is what Core Assets is testing this summer.

According to the company, the newly defined, high-grade district-scale (6.6 km x 1.8 km) CRD Ag-Pb-Zn-Au alternation assemblages, indicate the potential for a nearby Cu-Mo porphyry discovery using a proven exploration deposit model.

Within this area, the first surface channel assays from a maiden sampling campaign at the Silver Lime Carbonate Replacement-Porphyry Project, have confirmed high-grade carbonate replacement mineralization (CRM).

Rock sampling results (February 2022) from several carbonate replacement and skarn, massive to semi-massive sulfide occurrences at the Sulphide City and Grizzly targets contained values up to 406 g/t Ag, 11.8% Cu, >20% Pb and 15.45% Zn.

Core Assets confirmed the existence of outcropping copper-iron mineralization between historical adits (entrances to old mines) during a visit to the Laverdiere project in late March.

Multiple unsampled exposures of magnetic, copper-stained lithologies were identified along a 3.9-kilometer mineralized corridor coinciding with the Llewellyn Fault. 

Core has also received results from a geophysical survey carried out last year on the property, which identified numerous large-scale anomalies that may well point the company towards a major discovery as soon as this year.

Now that drilling at Laverdiere is complete, drill crews have mobilized to Silver Lime, where a 3,500-meter drill campaign is planned, starting with the Jackie Ag-Pb-Zn-Cu carbonate replacement target.

Conclusion

With nearly $4 million in the treasury, Core Assets is fully cashed up for the 2022 exploration season. Preliminary visual observations have been extremely positive. I’m eager to see the assays from Laverdiere and what Core delivers next at Silver Lime, home to the 2021 Discovery Zone (Grizzly Manto, Jackie, and Sulphide City targets). 

Core Assets Corp.
(CSE:CC) (FSE:5RJ) (OTC.QB:CCOOF)
Cdn.$0.62, 2022.07.08
Shares Outstanding 73.86m
Market cap Cdn$45.9m
CC website

Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com
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