NR via local paper Constantine Metals has ceased its summer drilling operations and is preparing to apply for a permit this fall that would allow the construction of a tunnel into the Palmer Project where they can drill year-round.
Liz Cornejo, Constantine’s vice president of community and external affairs, said the company this summer performed metallurgical analysis that increased its copper and zinc recovery rates, and found that the resource could produce marketable barite at levels that meet EPA and American Petroleum Institute specifications for use as an oil and gas drill mud.
The company also identified a portion of its resources as “indicated,” a higher level of resource confidence based on data from increased drill intersections, Cornejo said.
In 2015, Constantine estimated its inferred resources at 8.1 million tons. The indicated resource is now estimated at 4.67 million tons and the inferred at 5.33 million tons. Those numbers are reported differently for investors according to Security and Exchange Commission requirements. Cornejo said adding the two numbers to estimate a total resource isn’t comparing like-numbers, but it’s fair to say their estimate is growing.
“If you were to ballpark, it it’s basically gone from 8.1 million to about 10 million [tons],” Cornejo said. “Our first resource in 2010 was about 4 million tons. We’re steadily increasing the tonnage and these numbers are just from 2017. None of the drilling from this year is included in this. We definitely had some good drilling this year.”
The company hired a contractor to perform a preliminary economic assessment, a measure of potential economic viability, which will be complete by winter. The analysis, a tool for investors, will provide a conceptual framework for questions such as how much a potential mine would cost and how long it would take to construct, how mining operations would extract the resources and at what cost, and how many years it could operate.
The economic assessment will also include drill results this year from another area where Constantine found “significant” levels of silver and zinc, Cornejo said.
Permitting agencies associated with the tunnel include the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.