Strategic Metals (SMD-V) owns large stakes in two of Yukon’s most promising exploration companies (ATAC and Rockhaven), as well as a host of other shareholdings. The company is the largest claims holder in the Yukon and uses its extensive geological dataset to home in on the most promising targets.
But the project generator’s most valuable asset may well be CEO Doug Eaton’s brain. It’s a possibility hinted at by Strategic’s latest drill results, from the Salloon gold-silver-copper prospect 70 kilometres northeast of Whitehorse, the Yukon’s capital.
A single diamond drill hole from the summer program intercepted 30.23 metres grading 128.46 g/t silver and .40% copper, including 10.53 metres of 1.01% copper and 81.87 g/t silver. The hole was mineralized throughout and terminated at 113 metres, due to difficult ground conditions.
The Salloon claim was staked decades ago by Eaton, a geologist, and most recently held by a larger company for several years. It remained on Eaton’s radar, however, and when it became available last year Strategic snapped it up. Only two holes have ever been drilled on the property, despite the presence of two adits that miners dug to chase high-grade copper-gold veins in the early 1900s.
Strategic’s drill hole was punched into the Main Showing, a large clearing that’s part of a 500 by 200-metre copper-in-soil anomaly that also has some high gold-in-soil values. Antimony, arsenic and lead values are low. Neither of the adits targeted the zone that Strategic drilled, and further work is planned.
“There’s a lot more going on here than the silver-copper mineralization we hit,” said Richard Drechsler, Strategic’s VP Communications. “When we go back in we’ll need a bigger drill.”
Salloon hosts some of the Yukon’s earliest mineral discoveries. The property was first staked in 1901, just after the original Klondike Gold Rush. By 1912, two adits about 23 metres and 115 metres had been dug so miners could chase high-grade copper-gold veins. The adits are about 200 metres north of Strategic’s hole. Samples from a dump below one of the old adits on a 0.5-metre vein assayed up to 44.6 g/t Au, 144 g/t Ag and 10.37% copper.
Gold values elsewhere on the property hint at its prospectivity. Chip samples taken across the Main Showing earlier this year returned higher gold values and lower silver/copper grades than the drill hole. Chip sample results averaged 0.565 g/t gold, 0.11% copper and 3.89 g/t silver over 20 metres and 0.590 g/t gold, 0.08% copper and 2.71 g/t silver over 6 metres.
The Salloon hole was part of a program that tested precious metals targets at four of Strategic’s top prospects in southern Yukon, in proximity to Whitehorse. Drill hole assays are pending from Strategic’s Hartless Joe, Hopper and Mars projects.
Strategic Metals (SMD-V)
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Shares outstanding: 89 million
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