American Pacific Mining Corp. (“American Pacific”) is pleased to provide a project update, including 2024 exploration plans, for its 100%-owned high-grade Madison Copper-Gold (“Cu-Au”) Project located in Madison County, Montana.
2024 Madison Drilling. Plan map showing drill site locations. Image Credit: American Pacific Mining Corp
The 2024 exploration program will include a near-mine, 1,350 meter (“m”), five-hole Phase I diamond drilling program, a planned Phase II regional drill program, detailed scientific groundwork, incorporation of the newly acquired data and year-end mineral inventory modeling. The Company’s Phase I program has been designed to include drillholes within the skarn that will aim to confirm and extend mineralization encountered in historical drilling (C05-06: 14.69 m of 12.10 g/t Au and further downhole 61.63 m of 6.97% Cu. Full disclosure can be found in our NI 43-101 43-101 Technical Report for the Madison Project (americanpacificmining.com).
2024 Program Summary and Objectives:
- Exploration of highly prospective untested target areas identified through the compilation of substantial historical and recent data.
- Phase I drill program will commence this spring, consisting of five diamond drill holes for total of 1,350 m, concentrating on the near-deposit area, allowing the Company to gain valuable data regarding rock densities and mineralization-type tonnages, and the extent of the high-grade Cu-Au mineralization adjacent to previous mine workings (see Figures 1 and 2).
- Detailed mapping, building on previously completed work, to refine deeper regional Phase II drill targets, including the western portion of the property which contains historical, undrilled gold values of up to 48.5 grams per tonne (“g/t”) Au, which the Company believes represents leakage from a buried intrusive heat source (see Figure 3).
- Phase II drill program will include new regional discovery drilling as well as follow up on successes from the near-deposit drilling in Phase I.
Warwick Smith, American Pacific’s Chief Executive Officer stated: “We will evaluate new partnership opportunities at Madison later this year, but for now we are excited to provide our shareholders with 100% of the upside on the next phase of drilling. We look forward to getting this program underway as soon as weather permits, with multiple phases of exploration and drilling planned during 2024. Projects that carry the type of copper and gold grades that Madison does are rare, and our exploration efforts at the 100% owned Madison Project in 2024 will take aim at better defining the high-grade mineralization near the previous mine workings to support future mineral resource estimations, as well as testing select regional discovery targets that have been recently defined with limited to no previous drilling.”
2024 Madison Drilling. Section 1, Mineral inventory expansion and definition. Image Credit: American Pacific Mining Corp
Madison Property magnetic data with rock chip gold values and exploration focus areas. Image Credit: American Pacific Mining Corp
Managing Director of Exploration, Eric Saderholm, is at site this week to meet with Nevada-based Alford Drilling Company, which the American Pacific has engaged to complete the Phase I drilling. Excavation work has been commissioned through a southwest Montana-based contractor exemplifying American Pacific’s commitment to enhance local employment, social license, and community involvement. This will also reduce project costs and decrease the response time for necessary work.
About the Madison Project
The Madison Mine historically exploited high-grade copper and gold skarn mineralization that American Pacific believes is related to a nearby copper-rich porphyritic intrusion complex and is likely to be the source of the district’s mineralization. The Company’s model indicates that near-surface mineralization has its origins to the west of any historical drilling, which differs from previous interpretations. Detailed property-wide assessment of vein composition, attitude and character using “fugitive calcite” as a tool for vectoring to the heat and mineralization source is an essential component of the program.
The Madison Project was host to small-scale production, which concluded in 2012 with 2.7 million pounds of copper (“Cu”) produced at grades ranging from 20-35% copper. Subsequent drilling at Madison in 2017 included 30.18 m of 24.50 grams per tonne (“g/t”) gold (“Au”) and 0.39% Cu and 10.97 m of 41.65 g/t Au and 0.38% Cu (UG17-05 and UG17-06, respectively). Full disclosure can be found in the Company’s NI 43-101 43-101 Technical Report for the Madison Project (americanpacificmining.com).
Qualified Person Statement
Technical aspects of this press release have been reviewed and approved by the designated Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, Eric Saderholm, P.Geo.