VANCOUVER – NorthWest Copper Corp. [[NWST-TSXV] reported results from the eight-hole 2022 East Niv project drilling campaign, including strong gold results of over seven g/t gold (7.88 g/t AuEq – gold equivalent) over a short interval and longer intervals at lower grades. The 100%-owned East Niv project is northwest of the company’s Kwanika/Stardust project, northern British Columbia
The stronger gold mineralization surrounds the copper dominant mineralization encountered in the 2021 campaign. These results, combined with the large surface copper anomaly reported in 20222 and the copper-gold mineralization encountered in 20213 outline a large mineralized system within a large property position (43,297 hectares).
Highlights: Drill hole ENV-22-013 returned 100.80 metres at 0.44 g/t AuEq (0.24 g/t Au, 0.10% copper and 0.40 g/t silver) from 637.00 metres. ENV-22-018 returned 124.86 metres at 0.38 g/t AuEq (0.22 g/t Au, 0.07% Cu and 0.70 g/t Ag) from 457.05 metres.
ENV-22-016 returned 0.50 metres at 7.88 g/t AuEq (7.35 g/t Au, 0.13% Cu and 21.9 g/t Ag) from 303.00 metres. ENV-22-017 returned 2.00 metres at 2.48 g/t AuEq (2.33 g/t Au, 0.07% Cu and 0.80 g/t Ag) from 416.00 metres.
“East Niv is a new project with the first holes drilled in 2021. The 2021 program identified strong copper and gold mineralization in one part of the property and the 2022 program expanded this system, with gold dominant results from this campaign. We have also identified a very large copper at surface anomalous zone as described in 2022,” said President and CEO Peter Bell. “In just 24 months we have taken East Niv from an exciting exploration concept to a project with two identified zones of mineralization, several exciting drilling intercepts and multiple exploration targets.”
The 2022 program at East Niv has expanded the size of the copper-gold system identified in 2021 as well as added new surface targets. New holes drilled in and around the porphyry copper-gold-silverplus or minusmolybdenum (Cu-Au-Agplus or minusMo) system encountered gold dominant mineralization in a zone overprinted by strong illite-pyrite and chlorite-pyrite alteration. This suggests that we are drilling the upper and/or peripheral parts of a large, preserved porphyry system. 2022 drilling increased the length of the porphyry hydrothermal system to approximately 4 kilometres, which remains open along strike, at depth and to the southwest (Figure 1). Reconnaissance drilling elsewhere on the property also encountered strongly altered volcanic and intrusive rocks that contain strongly anomalous copper, gold, zinc, and other metals typical of settings peripheral to porphyry deposits.
Surface sampling during geological mapping has identified a trend of high-grade bornite-rich copper-silver veins that is at least 13 km in length. These veins indicate the presence of additional porphyry centres or of a distinct style of high-grade exploration target.5
Drilling and mapping completed across the East Niv project in 2021 and 2022 confirms the excellent exploration potential on the property. Exploration shows that intrusions are more numerous, larger and compositionally more varied than had been recognized historically. Most importantly, strong, sulphide-rich hydrothermal alteration with strongly anomalous metal signatures is widespread on the property. Faults commonly juxtapose different types of rocks with different characteristics of hydrothermal alteration and mineralization, which means that Cu-Au-Agplus or minusMo mineralization originally formed at different paleodepths could be preserved across the property.
