Universal Copper drills 0.5% CuEq over 214.4 metres at Poplar, British Columbia
Universal Copper Ltd. [UNV-TSXV; ECMXF-OTC; 3TA-FSE] reported drill results from the remaining spring 2022 diamond drilling program holes at the 100%-optioned flagship Poplar copper deposit, located southwest of Houston, west-central British Columbia. All drill targets in the Poplar copper-gold exploration district are shallow and road accessible, within 88 km of rail infrastructure.
Highlights include Hole 22-PC-138 that returned 0.500% copper equivalent (CuEq), or 0.401% copper, 0.15 g/t gold and 1.27 g/t silver over 214.4 metres. Hole 22-PC-139 returned 0.564% CuEq, or 0.412% copper, 0.02% molybdenum, 0.10 g/t gold and 1.14 g/t silver over 162.8 metres within a larger interval of 222.8 metres at 0.0461% CuEq, or 0.338% copper, 0.017% molybdenum, 0.08 g/t gold and 0.96 g/t silver.
Clive Massey, CEO, stated: “Our ongoing ability to recover long intervals of porphyry copper mineralization at Poplar is the result of several months of focused technical work including drill core re-logging and detailed geological modeling. The three-dimensional targeting framework is coming into focus for the first time in the project history and Universal Copper intends to leverage newly defined geological controls on mineralization to continue to produce robust porphyry copper intercepts. Our objective is to increase the grade and tonnage of the Poplar Resource and establish it as a top – tier road accessible deposit in the Central British Columbia Porphyry – Epithermal Belt.”
Because of the disseminated nature of the mineralization at the Poplar Deposit, it is not possible to make a statement as to the true width for holes 22-PC-138 and 22-PC-139.
The 2022 Poplar drill holes were designed to follow-up on the 0.546% copper over 129 metres discovered in the bottom of 21-PC-135, expand the higher-grade portion of the known mineralization to the northwest and test the first of the Vector Geological Solutions targets identified from their early 2022 targeted drill core logging initiative announced on January 13th, 2022.
Hole 22-PC-138 was designed to test the southwest edge of the apparent low-grade core of the high-grade ring associated with the Main Zone. The hole intersected 214.4 metres averaging 0.401% copper, before trending into the lower grade material. A 5-metre shear zone with fault gouge at 204 metres roughly corresponds to the marked decrease in grade, suggesting high grade domain is fault bound as has been suggested by the recent geological modeling by Vector Geological Solutions.
Drill hole 22-PC-139 was designed to test one of the target areas identified by the Vector Geological Solutions geological modeling. The hole significantly expanded the mineralization footprint to the northwest, intersecting 162.8 metres of 0.412% copper within a longer 222.8 metre interval of 0.338% copper.
The 61,566-hectare Poplar project hosts a current undiluted indicated mineral resource of 152.3 million tonnes grading 0.32% copper, 0.009% molybdenum, 0.09 g/t gold and 2.58 g/t silver and an undiluted inferred mineral resource of 139.3 million tonnes grading 0.29% copper, 0.005% molybdenum, 0.07 g/t gold and 4.95 g/t silver. The mineral resource estimate has a cut-off grade of 0.20% copper.
Poplar lies in a historic mining region, located 35 km from the Huckleberry Mine and 42 km from Equity Silver Mine, where low snowfalls will allow year-round work. The road accessible property is bisected by a 138 Kva hydroelectric line and lies 88 km from the rail head at Houston and 400 km from the deep-water port at Prince Rupert by rail.