Update on IKE, JOY and DUKE 2017 Exploration Programs Amarc Provides Update on IKE, JOY and DUKE 2017 Exploration Programs
VANCOUVER, Nov. 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Amarc Resources Ltd. ("Amarc" or the "Company") (TSX-V: AHR; OTCBB: AXREF) is pleased to provide an update on its ongoing 2017 exploration work. Amarc has completed the field components of the $3.3 million 2017 program at IKE and the $1.9 million 2017 program at JOY, while the 2017 drill program at DUKE is underway. Fieldwork has included airborne magnetic and ground-based induced polarization ("IP") geophysical, geological, and geochemical surveys and drilling. Assay work on core samples from drilling at IKE and JOY is still in progress with the first core samples from DUKE currently being transported to the laboratory. Amarc will provide the results from drilling for each project once the Company has the QA/QC'd assay data.
Amarc is focused on developing a new generation of British Columbia ("BC") porphyry copper mines and is advancing its 100%-owned IKE, DUKE and JOY porphyry copper districts, located in southern, central and northern BC, respectively. These projects represent significant potential for the discovery of multiple and important-scale, porphyry copper-gold and copper-molybdenum deposits and are being substantially advanced with their respective 2017 work programs. Presentations and news will be updated and posted as compilation of incoming data is completed.
At IKE, Amarc has made a major porphyry copper-molybdenum-silver discovery, completing over 12,000 m of drilling in 21 wide-spaced core holes in the IKE deposit from 2014-2016. The IKE deposit has the potential for extensive resource volumes and remains open to expansion in all directions. Extensive regional surveys also identified numerous porphyry copper deposit targets, all within 10 km of the IKE deposit. As announced earlier this year, Amarc has partnered with Hudbay Minerals Inc. ("Hudbay") (TSX-HBM; NYSE:HBM) to fund advancement of the IKE Project (see Amarc News Release dated July 6, 2017), and in 2017 the partners took the opportunity to explore a number of the regional targets and also the main IKE deposit area. Amarc is operator of the field programs. The 2017 IKE site programs included 20 km2 of detailed geological mapping, collection of 616 talus fines geochemical samples, completion of 82-line km of ground IP surveys over selected targets and drilling of nine core holes totalling 2,702 m. This year's IP geophysical work showed that the IKE deposit mineralized system is much larger than originally considered and now measures at least 3.6 km by 2 km.
Amarc's JOY Project is located adjacent to the north of AuRico Metals Inc.'s porphyry copper-gold Kemess East project and Kemess Underground development project, which is in the final permitting stage. Past operators conducted prospecting-style work on the JOY claims – collecting some 3,000 soil samples, 800 rock samples and 30 silt samples – but undertook no drilling. These historical surveys along with Amarc's soil sampling and IP geophysical surveys have revealed a number of substantial porphyry copper-gold deposit targets across the JOY property. Amarc has also partnered with Hudbay to fund the advancement of the JOY Project (see Amarc News Release dated August 22, 2017) with Amarc as operator.
The 2017 programs at JOY included 50 km2 of geological mapping, collection of 638 talus fines samples, completion of 49 line-km of ground IP and 470 line-km of airborne geophysical surveys along with drilling of 1,527 m in three core holes. The drilling tested a coincident IP geophysical and geochemical target, which extends onto the recently acquired PINE Property (see Amarc News Release August 29, 2017). Amarc considers the combined areas of the JOY and PINE mineral claims to be significantly underexplored, and to represent the northern extension of the Kemess porphyry copper-gold district. With the recent inclusion of the Pine property to Amarc's claim holdings, there are now a minimum of 10 porphyry gold-copper deposit targets ready for surveying and drill testing.
Amarc's DUKE deposit, central to the 190 km2 porphyry copper district in the heart of the Babine porphyry copper region, is located 30 km north of former copper-gold mines (Bell and Granisle) operated by Noranda Mines. Historically, DUKE has been explored with surface geochemical and geophysical surveys, as well as 30 shallow (only 90 metres deep on average) diamond drill holes. Many of the historical holes drilled intersected significant lengths of porphyry copper-molybdenum-silver-gold mineralization, which remains open both laterally and to depth. The surrounding district, which is covered by Amarc's mineral claims, hosts multiple second-order porphyry copper deposit targets. An approximate $0.6 million initial drilling program, comprised of two (± 500 m) core holes targeting the DUKE deposit is currently underway.