TSX-V-listed Constantine Metal Resources has selected engineering, project and construction management firm JDS Energy and Mining to prepare a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of the potential viability of the mineral resources at the Palmer copper/zinc/gold/silver project, in south-east Alaska.
The company has also appointed engineering, geoscience and environmental consulting firm Klohn Crippen Berger for the water and waste management design components.
Palmer is a high-grade volcanogenic massive sulphide-sulphate (VMS) project, with an inferred mineral resource of 8.1-million tonnes grading 1.41% copper, 5.25% zinc, 0.32 g/t gold and 31.7 g/t silver.
The resource was last estimated in May 2015 and a new resource estimate is currently under way, which will form the basis of the PEA.
Mineralisation at Palmer occurs within the same belt of rocks that is host to the Greens Creek mine, one of the world’s richest VMS deposits.
The project is being advanced as a joint venture between Constantine (51%) and Dowa Metals & Mining (49%), with Constantine as operator.