American Eagle Gold planning 2025 NAK project exploration, British Columbia
American Eagle Gold Corp. [TSXV: AE; OTCQB: AMEGF] reported its 2025 exploration program for the NAK copper-gold porphyry project, central British Columbia. The company plans an extensive drill campaign of approximately 30,000 metres, targeting key mineralized zones and newly identified geophysical anomalies within and around the Babine porphyry stock. Drilling is set to begin in May.
American Eagle’s 2025 exploration program is designed to further delineate and expand mineralization, unlocking the potential of this large and complex system. The company’s geologists are refining the NAK geological model, integrating hyperspectral and mineralogical data for precise drill planning. Collaborating closely with its strategic investors, American Eagle will provide ongoing updates on modeling and targeting as the May 2025 drill season approaches.
The 2025 drill program has a budget of $12-15 million, with the possibility to adjust based on outcomes. With $37 million in cash, provincial tax credits, and strong relationships with Lake Babine Nation, South32, and Teck, American Eagle is well-funded for 2025, 2026, and beyond.
A primary objective for 2025 is to further define and expand near-surface mineralization further, enhancing the project’s economic potential. NAK offers a rare combination of geological and geographical advantages that American Eagle will leverage. Unlike many other porphyry prospects, the NAK Project benefits from road access, gentle topography, low elevation, and proximity to infrastructure. High-grade copper and gold mineralization has already been identified at surface, with significant potential for additional discoveries across the property.
Key Targets Within the Main Zones – North Zone: Historically defined by near-surface vein and disseminated chalcopyrite mineralization in sedimentary rocks.
Expanded in 2022-2023 to include deeper bornite-rich conglomerate and monzonite dykes. 2024 drilling extended the zone northeast, encountering broad intervals of seriate-textured dykes with disseminated bornite.
The Northeast Expansion Zone will be an immediate and large focus to expand the North Zone, which remains open to the north, east and at depth, with step-out drilling planned to refine its orientation and extent.
Central Zone: The Central Zone links the historical North and South zones. It returned significant intercepts at depth in all of American Eagle’s 2022-24 drilling, but little systematic drilling has been undertaken to date at shallower depths, up-dip of those intersections.
South Zone: Hosts a large-scale gold-rich quartz stockwork mineralized body at surface. Drilling will link the mineralized conglomerate intersected in NAK24-17 and -31 with the broader South Zone.
Step-Out Targets and Emerging Zones: The Southeast Expansion Zone, south of the Babine porphyry, returned long intervals of anomalous gold and copper in NAK22-09 and -36. Soil sampling and mineralized outcrops indicate further potential.
The East Expansion Zone will utilize additional geophysical surveys to refine targets within and around the Babine porphyry, with scout drilling planned to test these areas.
Exploration Beyond Drilling: The 2025 program will incorporate several non-drilling initiatives that will enhance the project.
Geophysics: Aeromagnetic surveying and Controlled-Source Audio Magnetotellurics (CSAMT) to refine targets in underexplored areas north, south, and east of the Babine Stock.
Metallurgical Studies: Testing targeted drill core to assess recovery characteristics across different mineralization styles.
Core Retrieval: Historical drill core (predating American Eagle Gold) for drill holes with significant shallow Main Zone intersections is stored on the NAK property and appears to be in good shape. The Company will relog and resample this core to incorporate it into its model.
Timber Harvesting: Collaborating with local logging groups and the Lake Babine First Nation to manage previously permitted logging blocks, improving access to remote parts of the property.
American Eagle is committed to strong relationships with local stakeholders, including the Lake Babine Nation, provincial authorities, and local contractors.
The NAK Project lies within the Babine copper-gold porphyry district of central BC and has excellent infrastructure through all-season roads. It is close to the towns of Smithers, Houston, and Burns Lake, B.C., which lie along a major rail line and Provincial Highway 16. Historical drilling and geophysical, geological, and geochemical work at NAK, which began in the 1960’s, tested only to shallow depths. Still, the work revealed a very large near-surface copper-gold system that measures over 1.5 km x 1.5 km. Drilling completed by American Eagle in 2022, 2023, and 2024 returned significant intervals of high-grade copper-gold mineralization that reached beyond and much deeper than the historical drilling, indicating that zones of near-surface and deeper mineralization, locally with considerably higher grades, exist within the broader NAK property mineralizing system.
American Eagle benefits from over $37 million in cash, bolstered by two strategic investors formed in the past two years with Teck Resources and South32. With substantial financial and technical resources, American Eagle Gold is well-positioned to drill, de-risk, and define the full potential of the NAK Copper-Gold porphyry project.