TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX-V-listed miner Brazil Resources this week filed a new resource estimate for its Raintree West deposit, one of several porphyry centres identified on the 100%-owned Whistler project, in Alaska.
Vancouver-based Brazil Resources billed the Whistler project as having district scale, comprising more than 170 km2 and located 150 km north-west of Anchorage, Alaska.
The land package hosted the Whistler, Raintree West and Island Mountain porphyry deposits, as well as several porphyry targets.
A new resource estimate on the Raintree West deposit provided for a total inferred resource of 1.99-million ounces gold equivalent comprising 1.43-million ounces gold equivalent (51.76-million tonnes grading 0.68 g/t gold, 3.74 g/t silver, 0.1% copper or 0.86 g/t gold equivalent at a 0.6 g/t gold equivalent cutoff) below the 100 m elevation (Zone A) and 0.56-million ounces gold equivalent (31.68-million tonnes grading 0.4 g/t gold, 5.39 g/t silver, 0.06% copper or 0.55 g/t gold equivalent at a 0.3 g/t gold equivalent cutoff) above the 250 m elevation (Zone B).
Brazil Resources advised that the Raintree West resource estimate was in addition to the previously reported resource estimates for the Whistler and Island Mountain deposits. The combined resource for the three deposits now comprised 2.8-million ounces of gold equivalent in the indicated category (110.28-million tonnes grading 0.5 g/t gold, 1.72 g/t silver, 0.14% copper or 0.79 g/t gold equivalent) and 6.73-million ounces of gold equivalent (311.26-million tonnes grading 0.47 g/t gold, 2.26 g/t silver, 0.11% copper or 0.68 g/t gold equivalent) in the inferred category.
The company had spent more than C$50-million on previous exploration work on the Whistler project, which included about 70 000 m of diamond drilling with 7 078 m (14 holes) of this total completed at the Raintree West deposit.
According to Brazil Resources, the deposits remained open in several directions and future drill programmes would focus on delineating higher-grade, near-surface zones, adding to these existing resources and testing adjacent porphyry targets.