If you want to go elephant hunting you need to go to elephant country and that is exactly what ASX-listed PolarX appears to be doing.
The $11m market capped company is back in the field in Alaska with its elephant gun now firmly trained on the giant sized mineral occurrences that are scattered around the Alaskan region headlined by the city of Anchorage.
After an agonizing wait, punctuated by the Coronavirus, PolarX said this week it is now getting set to follow up its extraordinary drill numbers from last year at the Zackly East copper gold skarn.
Those numbers include a whopping 55m intersection going 2.8 grams per tonne gold with 0.6% copper thrown in for good measure – and it starts right from surface.
A second drill hole hit it again with an equally impressive 47m intersection, with the grade increasing to 3.1 grams per tonne gold in this hole with the 0.6% copper still present. Another historical hole from many years ago showed 24m at 2.4 g/t gold and 0.4% copper in the same area.
Ordinarily, numbers like that would have most WA explorers waxing lyrical for hours at the bar at Black Toms in West Perth and speculation would be running wild about what it may or may not ultimately become.
Indeed, DeGrey Mining recently adopted the mantle of market darling in WA after news of a 36m intersection going 4g/t gold and another 49m hit grading 3.7g/t gold at its Hemi project in the north west of Western Australia – and those intersections started from 39m and 65m respectively.
The news lit of fire under DeGrey’s share price which saw it hit 20c from 5c in a week. At 20c per share, De Grey’s market cap ballooned to in excess of $230m and it touched around $470m this week on the back of additional, even longer intersections.
Sure, DeGrey’s find is in the heart of Western Australia and PolarX’ is in Alaska, a mineral frontier that is not fully understood by many but nevertheless, one that has still produced ridiculous riches for some.
PolarX’ Alaska Range project that takes in the exciting Zackly East Skarn is encircled by projects that boast numbers that make mining in Western Australia look like a hobby rather than a profession.
For example, the Pogo gold mine is about 150km to the north east of PolarX where Northern Star have 5m ounces going a ridiculous 12.5 grams per tonne gold.
To the west is the Donlin Gold mine that is harbouring an off-the-scale 79m ounces of gold at 2.2 grams per tonne gold.
To the north is Kinross Gold’s aptly named Fort Knox project that has a tidy 4m ounces of gold locked away and to the north west is Teck Resources’ Red Dog project that would surely be amongst the highest grade zinc mines in the world today with a 53m tonne resource going 17% zinc, 4.5% lead and 81 grams per tonne silver.
Clearly this is elephant country and despite the fact that it is cold and often snowing and even a little icy on occasion, there seems little doubt that the region centred around Anchorage in Alaska is a tier one mining jurisdiction where some of the world’s best miners produce some of the best numbers from some of the best mineral resources around the globe.
But what of PolarX ?
A 55m or even a 47m mineralised drill hit at respectable grades in a region like this is a pulse quickening moment for any junior explorer and particularly one with an $11m market cap as is the case with PolarX.
The Perth-based company said this week that it will commence drilling the easterly extension of its Zackly East copper-gold skarn in July.
The Zackly East skarn is about 800m to the east of the Zackly Main skarn where PolarX has already booked a 41,000 tonne copper and 213,000 ounce gold resource with the copper going 1.2% and the gold averaging out at 2 grams per tonne.
The company said its trenching and mapping has indicated that the high-grade mineralisation that was previously intersected at Zackly East has the potential to extend along a 600m strike.
Plans are now well advanced to commence approximately 3,000m of drilling in early July this year with 15-20 drill holes of roughly 150m in depth each to test the easterly extension.
PolarX also operates the Caribou Dome and Stellar prospects under the banner of its Alaska Range Project which covers a contiguous lease package of some 262 square kilometres. Caribou Dome is to the south west and Zackly and Stellar are to the north east within a 35km strike area that contains extensive copper-in-soil and gold-in-soil anomalies along its length
The Frazer Tabeart led company has previously tabled a mineral resource for Caribou of 2.8Mt going 3.1 per cent copper for a total resource of 85,800 tonnes of contained copper. The total measured, indicated and inferred mineral resource for the entire Alaska Range project currently stands at 127,000t of contained copper, 213,000oz of contained gold and 1.5Moz of contained silver.
PolarX said it has two strong porphyry copper-gold targets within its Stellar prospect, the Mars and Saturn targets, that sit at either end of a 12km strike zone with Zackly sitting pretty much dead centre between them. Whilst Saturn is an enticing geophysical anomaly, Mars already has strong soil sample geochemistry and a successful drill hole that showed lower grade mineralisation over a 400m intersection to support its porphyry potential.
Whilst PolarX intends to retain 100 per cent of Zackly, it said it would be open to bringing in a partner to progress further exploration work at both the Mars and Saturn porphyry targets.
According to the company, several potential partners are currently undertaking due diligence on Mars and Saturn, a process that should gather pace once COVID-19 restrictions are eased to allow access to the drill core stored in Anchorage.
PolarX Managing Director, Frazer Tabeart said: “Zackly Main already hosts a significant shallow, high-grade Resource and the initial results from Zackly East highlight the strong potential to grow this inventory.”
“We aim to grow Zackly to a size where it could underpin a stand-alone project or tie into any exploration success at the nearby Mars and Saturn porphyry targets."
“This strategy gives us options which we can pursue in our own right or with a joint venture at Mars and Saturn.”
Whilst PolarX’ entire 35km strike looks to be littered with geological opportunities, the immediate blue sky should come from Zackly East where a 50 odd metre wide lode going about 3 grams per tonne gold has been begging for further attention.
If PolarX can continue to hit this lode with the drill bit down plunge and it can maintain those sorts of true widths and grades, this Perth-based company may well take on an entirely different complexion after it racks the blunderbuss in this elephant sized mineral province.
Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting ? Contact : matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
