Sanatana Resources completes 2024 drilling at Oweegee Dome Project, British Columbia
Sanatana Resources Inc. [TSXV-STA] has completed its 2024 drill program of 2,359 metres in four holes at the Oweegee copper-gold porphyry project in the Golden Triangle region of Northern British Columbia. Assays are pending and will be reported when received and reviewed.
Sanatana’s previous work on the Oweegee property successfully demonstrated that the company has identified a porphyry copper-gold system. The purpose of the 2024 drill program was to enhance understanding of where the potassic core of the system might lie. The program tested the Junction IP anomaly with two holes (OW24-01 and OW24-02) that did not clearly explain the IP anomaly. Two additional step-out holes were drilled to the northwest of holes drilled in 2022 targeting extensions of known mineralization. The step-out holes (OW24-03 and OW24-04) successfully encountered altered intrusives and indicate stronger alteration to the northwest.
Sanatana has completed the 6,000-metre drilling and $6,600,000 exploration expenditures requirements under its option agreement with ArcWest. In order for Sanatana to earn a 60% interest in the property the Company must pay $300,000 in cash and issue 700,000 common shares to ArcWest before December 31, 2024.
Peter Miles, CEO, commented, “We are encouraged by our 2024 drill program as it has given us valuable vectoring information that will guide future drill programs. We expect that the assay results will provide further guidance. The 2024 program marks our fourth consecutive year at Oweegee Dome and we have achieved the exploration expenditure and drilling commitments that are critical to earning a majority interest in the property. We look forward to forming a joint venture with ArcWest and planning the next phase of exploration.”
Two recent drill holes have tested a geological concept in the Delta Zone, revealing mineralized altered intrusions and intrusion breccia. This work has expanded the known mineralized area and enhanced our understanding of the geological system. Assay results will provide crucial information to guide future drilling toward the high-grade centre of the porphyry.
Drill holes OW24-03 and OW24-04 collared 200 metres north-west of OW22-08 (the most mineralized hole drilled in 2022) and designed to test if this system extended in that direction.
Drill hole OW24-03 drilled to the southeast towards OW 22-08 at -500 dip, intersected mineralized intrusive from surface and exited into to Stuhini mudstones and volcanics at 384.5m, encountering different intrusive phases mostly breccias interspersed with rafts of mudstones. The intrusives were variably altered and mineralized, with porphyry-style veining.
Drill hole OW24-04 drilled from the same collar, also to the SE but at a steeper -750 dip, also encountered up to four separate intrusive phases, the majority brecciated, also with strong pervasive, texture destroying alteration and porphyry-style veins. The hole exited the intrusive into mudstone at 308 metres.
In both holes, the intensity of alteration varied among invasive units. However, where alteration was strong, it exceeded levels observed in 2022, with increased potassium feldspar flooding and new biotite alteration evident in both floods and veins. These findings suggest the program is approaching the centre of the porphyry system which lies north and west.
Assays are awaited and these will be used to confirm the observations made above from logging the drill core.
The 2022 drilling demonstrated that the exploration program had located a porphyry copper system and in 2023 the company expanded the IP (induced polarization) survey to locate the centre of this system. The survey identified a number of chargeability anomalies, the strongest and largest of these was named the Junction anomaly located to the south of drill hole OW22-08. Drill testing this target was one of the primary objectives of the 2024 drill program.
Drill hole OW24-01 drilled 1.2km south of OW22-08 was designed to test the southern portion of the Junction IP anomaly and collared into Stuhini mudstone. The hole remained in this unit intercalated with sediments, ash and lesser volcanoclastics to the end of the hole.
Drill hole OW24-02 drilled 625m south of OW22-08 was designed to test the northern part of the Junction IP anomaly and also collared into Stuhini mudstones. This hole exited the mudstones into a more volcanic dominated unit from 298m to 822m that showed propylitic alteration before exiting back into mudstone dominated units.
The Oweegee Dome copper-gold porphyry property is 40 km east of the KSM-Brucejack-Treaty Creek cluster of base and precious metal deposits and is underlain by similar geologic conditions, Stuhini Group (Tiassic age) host rocks, intrusions of the right age, alteration and porphyry style copper-gold-silver-molybdenite mineralization.