お知らせ • Jul 07
Norden Crown Metals Corp. Commences Minimum 3,000M Drill Program At the Burfjord Copper-Gold Project, Norway
Norden Crown Metals Corp. has begun an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 metre diamond drilling program at its 100% owned Burfjord Copper Project in northern Norway, in partnership with Boliden Mineral AB in northern Norway. A variety of anomalous geological, geochemical, and geophysical targets have been identified which have potential to host economic copper-gold mineralization. The primary objective of the drill program is to evaluate the copper-gold grades and test the continuity of newly established targets within an area of extensive historical mining and trenching. Stratigraphic drill holes are also planned to supplement targeting and expand prospectivity along the axis of the Burfjord anticline. Previous drilling by Norden Crown (see News Release dated March 20, 2019) at Burfjord returned compelling results including an intercept of 32 metres averaging 0.56% copper and 0.26 g/t gold (including 3.46 metres of 4.31% copper and 2.22 g/t gold) at shallow depths below a cluster of historic mine workings1,2. Historical drilling on the Project (Cedarsgruvan) was reported to have returned 7.0 metres averaging 3.6% copper3. Norden Crown has engaged Arctic Drilling AS (Norway) to complete a minimum of 3,000 metres of diamond drilling at Burfjord that is designed to test geological, geochemical and geophysical targets identified in the 2020 and 2021 field programs. Arctic Drilling has mobilized to the first target site and drilling has now commenced. The 2022 exploration drilling program at Burfjord is focused on several copper targets that are surrounded by historical adits, pits, trenches, and workings within the extensively iron-carbonate altered Burfjord Anticline. These targets have been identified and prioritized based on lithological and structural mapping, rock and soil geochemistry, airborne magnetic geophysics and ground based electromagnetic geophysics. High priority target areas for this summer are presented below. The geology of West Limb is dominated by a 3,000 meter by 400-metre albite-iron carbonate-magnetite alteration assemblage in clastic sedimentary rocks (L-Unit) that is locally brecciated and contains disseminated copper sulphides (chalcopyrite) and chalcopyrite bearing quartz-carbonate veins. Extensive historical pits, trenches and adits are present along a strike length of at least 800m along the trend of several shale horizons adjacent to the L-unit which represent attractive traps for copper-gold mineralized fluids. Field exploration programs in 2020 and 2021 delineated an intense magnetic anomaly, several conductive ground conductors, rock samples with elevated copper, a copper soil anomaly, and several faults thought to be possible fluid conduits. The drill program will test both strike and depth continuity of mineralization along the western limb of the Burfjord anticline. The East Limb of the Burfjord anticline constitutes a ~5 kilometre-long trend of discontinuously outcropping copper occurrences and historical mine adits that contain disseminated copper sulphide mineralization (chalcopyrite and sporadic bornite) associated with hematite-jasper breccia and carbonate vein stockworks hosted in potassic altered pillow basalts and albitized black shales. The objective of the current drill program is to follow up on 2021-hole BUR-21-005 which returned 1.35m averaging 8.67% Cu and 0.69 g/t Au (see News Release dated April 11, 2022). Drilling will aim to intersect carbonate veins bearing high-grade copper within a gabbro unit which hosts a trend of historical pits, adits and trenches. The Hinge Zone is a structural target in the hinge of the Burfjord anticline and is characterized by intensely albite altered black shales, breccias and albitized dolomite. Several significant historical mines are present within the target area, which targeted massive chalcopyrite and strong chalcopyrite dissemination within albitite (Cedarsgruvan) as well as high grade chalcopyrite veins (Cedarselva). Planned drilling aims to test strike continuity of mineralization at Cedarsgruvan. The Project, located in the Kåfjord Copper Belt near Alta, Norway, is highly prospective for Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) and Sediment Hosted Copper mineral deposits which contribute significantly to copper production globally. Burfjord is comprised of six exploration licenses totalling 5,500 hectares. Within the license area, during the nineteenth century, copper mineralization was mined from over 30 historical mines and prospects developed along the flanks of a prominent 4 x 6-kilometre fold (anticline) consisting of interbedded sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Many of the rocks in the anticline are intensely hydrothermally altered and contain sulphide mineralization. The high-grade copper gold veins at Burfjord, that were historically mined at cut- off grades of 3-5% copper, are surrounded by envelopes of stockwork veins or disseminations of copper mineralization extending tens to hundreds of metres laterally into the host rocks. Norden Crown believes this mineralization has economic potential and represents an attractive bulk tonnage exploration drilling target. Copper bearing veins in the area are dominated by ferroan carbonate, sodium-rich minerals, and iron-oxide minerals (magnetite and hematite), but also contain the economically important minerals chalcopyrite, bornite and chalcocite in addition to cobalt-rich pyrite as generally coarse-grained (often 0.5 centimetre to multi-centimetre scale) disseminations in the veins. The sodium-rich styles of alteration and mineralization at Burfjord are also host to elevated levels of rare elements (e.g., Indium), which are critical "technology metals" that are important to the emerging green energy and other industries. Discrete zones of cobalt and nickel mineralization are also present at Burfjord.