British Columbia’s Atlin region is well known for historic placer gold mining. But Core Assets Corp. (CSE:CC, OTCQB:CCOOF) has its sights set on a different type of target: base metals and precious metals, with a focus on silver, in what are known as carbonate replacement style deposits.
It’s a unique strategy that has led the new company to an area that has never been explored for base metals and silver.
In the wake of a glacial recession, Core’s team, led by Chief Executive Officer Nick Rodway, believes it might have found one of the largest untouched carbonate replacement style systems in the world.
“It's a remarkable achievement, and we're thrilled to be the first ones to drill in this area,” Rodway says during a recent interview with Proactive.
Carbonate replacement deposits (CRDs) are a type of deposit formed through the replacement of carbonate rocks, such as limestone or dolomite, by ore-bearing fluids. These deposits are known for their association with base metals, such as lead, zinc and copper, as well as precious metals like silver. The formation of CRDs typically occurs when hydrothermal fluids, enriched in metals and sulfur, come into contact with carbonate-rich rocks.
These types of deposits are important targets for exploration and mining activities because of their potential to yield valuable metals. However, the exploration and exploitation of carbonate replacement deposits can be challenging due to their complex geological nature and the need for careful evaluation to ensure economic viability.
Core has something to prove and is well on its way to showcasing Atlin as an exciting new mining district.
Proactive: Core’s flagship property, Blue, contains two main projects: the Laverdiere porphyry-skarn and the Silver Lime CRD-porphyry project. How do each shape your activity at the site?
Rodway: We have two projects in our large contiguous land package, which we call the Blue property. Within Blue, there are several projects: Laverdiere is a porphyry-skarn area that we drilled last year with some success. This year, we’re focusing on where our best results came from — the Silver Lime CRD.
The company holds a 100% ownership position in Blue. How do you manage and prioritize exploration efforts across such a large land position?
Having a large land package is really beneficial because once you make one discovery, history shows that there's a good chance of finding multiple discoveries along the same trend. When we first explored the area and saw promising signs on the ground, I knew it was time to expand our scope and include all the limestone and calcium-rich rocks in the region.
Right now, our main focus is on a manageable 6 kilometre by 1.8 kilometre area, and that's where our funds are directed. But the exciting part is the potential upside in the rest of the land package. If our drilling continues to be successful, it opens up opportunities for more exploration along the entire stretch.
What is the significance of the property hosting a carbonate replacement deposit, and how does it compare to other CRDs outside of North America?
Deposits like Mag Silver’s Cinco de Mayo project, Ivanhoe Electric’s Tintic project and South 32’s Hermosa project’s Taylor deposit are significant examples of carbonate replacement type deposits, all of which are fed by a porphyry intrusion. When massive sulfide containing zinc, lead, silver and acid-rich brine comes in contact with a calcium-rich rock, it leads to a neutralization reaction causing the rock to be replaced with high-grade metal.
In our case, we are dealing with a CRD that's been fed by a porphyry intrusion, with the unique aspect of having limestone or calcium-rich units adjacent to the heat source. These deposits can vary in size, ranging from 10 million tonnes to even larger ones like South 32’s Hermosa mining project located in Arizona. The intrusion-related nature of these deposits presents opportunities for large tonnages of lead, zinc, silver, molybdenum and copper in different regions.
What’s interesting about this project is that we are in a unique situation in the Atlin area since it has never been explored before. We've already made several discoveries through drilling, and I believe there's potential for more since these deposits are known to be district-scale in size. It's not unusual to find multiple CRDs within a 200 kilometre distance, as seen in north-central Mexico and the southern US. We are essentially pioneers in this unexplored and underexplored region, having successfully consolidated over 1,100 square kilometres of contiguous land.
Give us more detail about the polymetallic mineralization you've intersected. How successful have you been in proving the extent of the mineralization with each drill hole?
Our drilling efforts are already showing promising results. We've intersected polymetallic mineralization that includes silver, zinc, lead, copper and sometimes even gold. Based on our previous drilling, we have every reason to be excited. Silver, zinc, lead and copper — it's all there in abundance. In some cases, we've even seen over 1,000 grams per tonne of silver in drill core, which is fantastic.
A lot of the original work was completed by just a couple of people, including myself, prospecting the area. When you find something at surface that’s substantial and runs high-grade zinc-lead-silver-copper, that’s a discovery. To prove it further, you need to delineate in the subsurface and prove that it has extent. When you’re exploring a brand new area, you need to get as much information as you can with each work program. We have been very successful: most of our drill holes have hit CRD mineralization. This year the goal is to follow up on the mineralized carbonate rock units to see if we can trace these mantos or chimneys back to the source. We’ve outlined over 250 related zinc, lead and silver mineral occurrences within that 6 by 1.8 kilometre area. This is when we knew that there was a lot of juice in the system.
Recent drill results indicate impressive zones of massive sulfide carbonate replacement mineralization. Could you shed some light on Core’s exploration plans for further delineating and expanding these mineralized footprints?
This year, we began by targeting what we could see at surface and lining up with the limestone and marble beds. We made a discovery at surface on what’s known as the Pete’s area, and we’ve confirmed that it’s larger at depth. We are trying to drill in areas that are semi-far apart in order to demonstrate scale. Next year, we’ll do some more infill drilling to further delineate these mantos and chimneys.
It's also important to note the accessibility of the project. We’re able to stay in a nearby hotel while we’re drilling and the project is very close to Atlin Lake, which is essentially a free highway to transport goods all year round. To find something at surface that is this accessible in this day and age is very uncommon. If we are able to put a dollar sign behind some pounds in the ground, it’s going to be a lot cheaper to access it versus other projects in BC where you’d need to build a 100 kilometre–plus road.
Let’s finish up by talking about what drives you as the CEO of a junior resource company.
For me, there are two things that drive my passion in this industry. Firstly, the excitement of the public markets and how they respond to our discoveries. Seeing our valuation increase and knowing that shareholders believe in our cause motivates me immensely. Secondly, being on-site during drilling and witnessing the first extraction of massive sulfide metal is an indescribable feeling. Seeing the drill spinning and pulling out visible metal, especially in this high-grade, low-tonnage scenario, is truly spectacular. It's a unique experience that not many people get to encounter, and it's what gets me out of bed in the morning and fuels my enthusiasm for what we do.