Happy Creek drills 0.43% tungsten over 6.7 metres at Fox project, British Columbia
Happy Creek Minerals Ltd. [HPY-TSXV; HPCF-OTRC] reported assays from the 2021 drill and rock sampling program on the 100%-owned road-accessible Fox tungsten project near the community of 100 Mile House, southern British Columbia.
A total of 2052.7 metres were drilled in 12 diamond drill holes. The 2021 drill pattern was designed to in-fill and step-out from previous promising results in three portions of the 3-km-long Nightcrawler Creek zone, and to attain a pierce-point spacing of approximately 75 metres or less to allow for future resource estimation.
The 2021 drilling was successful in demonstrating the continuity of moderate- to high-grade tungsten skarn mineralization in the northern Nightcrawler, southern Nightcrawler South and eastern Creek zones, and in showing that these zones remain open for expansion in several directions. In addition, the drilling confirmed two to six stacked, mineralized horizons are present in Nightcrawler area.
Five kilometres north, prospecting and chip sampling along strike from the RC Zone deposit returned high-grade assays, showing good potential for expansion of the high-grade tungsten deposit into undrilled areas beyond the limits of the current resource.
In the northern Nightcrawler zone, seven holes were drilled to infill and expand the area of near-surface tungsten mineralization. The best 2021 results are hole F21-09 which intersected 6.7 metres grading 0.43% WO3, including 1.2 metres grading 1.83% WO3 and hole F21-11, which intersected 1.2 metres grading 0.67% WO3.
Previous drilling in the southern Nightcrawler zone includes a line of four holes drilled between 2007 and 2015, all of which intersected multiple zones of gently south-dipping tungsten mineralization at shallow depths. 2021 hole F21-05 was approximately 50 metres west of 07F-05 and intersected six stacked mineralized skarn horizons between 15.54 and 178.14 metres down the hole, the best the best of which is 1.5 metres grading 0.43 WO3.
Four holes were drilled in the eastern Creek zone, F21-01 to -04, as step-outs around 2020 hole F20-06 which intersected 3.38 metres grading 1.08% WO3 within a thick section of skarn alteration. The 2021 holes successfully demonstrated that the skarn-hosted tungsten mineralization extends in the up-dip direction in hole F21-02 (1.0 metre of 0.74% WO3), in the down-dip direction in hole F21-03 (2.2 metres grading 0.37% WO3) and to the northwest in hole F21-04 (1.0 metre of 0.49% WO3). This near-surface mineralized zone remains open in several directions.
During the summer and fall 2021, the company conducted prospecting, geological studies and chip sampling in the area of the RC zone deposit, in the Eastern Creek zone target of the Nightcrawler Creek Zone, and on the west side of the Fox property.
To the south of the RC deposit and towards the BN deposit, chip samples of new surface exposures 175 and 350 metres south of the nearest drill hole returned 0.73% WO3 over 0.90 metres, 2.32% WO3 over 1.50 metres, 1.69% WO3 over 0.3 metres, and 0.62% WO3 over 0.3 metres. To the north of the RC deposit, chip samples returned 2.59% WO3 over 1.4 metres, 1.16% WO3 over 0.60 metres in areas with wide-spaced drill holes. These new outcrop discoveries will help guide future trenching and drilling to expand current resources.
New trench samples along the east side of the RC deposit will complement the current resource model by allowing the connection of mineralized zones in drill holes to mineralized zones at surface in several areas. Chip samples in this area returned 0.73% WO3 over 0.8 metres, 0.39% WO3 over 1.5 metres, and 0.90% WO3 over 3.0 metres, with mineralized intervals open in width.
Peter Hughes, President and CEO, commented: “Management is very pleased with the results from the 2021 exploration program at Fox Tungsten. Drilling hit tungsten mineralization in 11 of 12 holes that are further defining a continuous mineralized zone at Nightcrawler and prospecting and geology continues to identify new areas of mineralization that could potentially expand the size of the existing resource. The company has plenty of well-defined drill targets, exciting new prospects and look forward to executing additional large-scale drill and exploration programs in the future.”