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Aben Resources Ltd (TSX-V:ABN, OTCQB:ABNAF, FSE:E2L2) has
completed the first phase of its 2019 exploration program and started the
second, as the cashed-up gold junior tries to stack up more evidence to prove
geological theories at its two flagship properties, Justin in the Yukon and
Forrest Kerr in British Columbia.
Western Canada-focused Aben has $5 million in its treasury -
ample working capital for a company its size - and budgeted $1 million to its
Justin project, which butts onto Golden Predator’s (TSX-V:GPY) 3 Aces
property.
At Forrest Kerr, located in BC’s famed Golden
Triangle, Aben is planning an initial 5,000m of drilling to follow
up on last year’s expansion of the North Boundary Zone. The company has
the opportunity to execute on a number of targets thanks to the
authorization of 45 new drill pad locations versus just nine in 2018, which
limited the amount, and angle, of drilling. The drilling budget may double to
10,000m, depending on what is found at the
mountainous, structurally-controlled project, lying equidistant
between the past-producing Snip and Eskay Creek mines.
Justin
The 7,411-hectare land package is contiguous to Golden Predator’s
(TSX-V:GPY) 3 Aces project, which includes six mineralized areas that extend
over a 35-kilometer gold trend.
According to Aben, Justin has the potential for both high-grade and
bulk tonnage mineralization - epithermal, skarn and sediment-hosted -
throughout a 3.5 kilometer by half a kilometer trend encompassing the
Confluence, Main, Kangas and POW zones. The latter was drilled in 2011-12.
In 2017 ABN discovered the Lost Ace Zone which is just west of the POW
Zone. The gold-bearing vein system occurs in a geological setting that is
very similar to mineralization present on Golden Predator’s 3 Aces project,
located immediately northwest of the Justin claim group.
A 3.8-kg bulk soil sample collected for gold grain count analysis and
classification from a location 115 meters upslope from Lost Ace returned
1,135 visible gold grains. Of the 1,135 gold grains recovered, 1,049 were
classified as pristine - meaning the gold mineralization was likely carried
to surface by the magma intrusion.
Last summer Aben completed a trenching program at Lost Ace whose
results were posted in January 2019. The series of trenches along a 250m-wide
strike length delivered samples of mineralization that are
remarkably similar to 3 Aces.
Highlights included 88.2 g/t gold over a meter, within 20.8 g/t over 4.4
m.
Aben is following the theory that a younger intrusion broke through
the older country rock, resulting in high-grade skarn gold mineralization at
surface, and the yet-to-be proven intrusion event underneath.
Understanding this requires some geology.
Intrusion-related gold systems are a type of gold deposit that often
occurs in continental settings. They are significant sources of gold but can
also contain other metals like copper, tin and lead. Intrusives are
different from orogenic gold deposits which form when the earth’s plates
collide or pull apart. Intrusives form when parts of the earth’s
mantle are heated as it cools, resulted in the deposition of minerals.
Intrusive mineralization can include skarns, replacements, disseminations and
veins.
An intrusion isn’t necessarily high-grade but it is often high
tonnage, and bulk-mineable. At Justin’s POW Zone, drilled in 2011-12, the
mineralization has all the hallmarks of an intrusion event, with lower grades
typical of that environment, for example 60 meters at 2 grams per
tonne.
“It’s a classic intrusion-related gold system. You’ve got this younger
intrusion coming up into the area, and it’s a massive area. Generally, you
would get bulk tonnage from those,” Pettit said in a 2018
AOTH interview, comparing it to Kinross’ 4.3 million-ounce Fort Knox
operation in Alaska, Golden Predator’s Brewery Creek mine, and the Coffee
gold deposit in the Yukon. The latter owned by Kaminak Gold was
acquired by Goldcorp in 2016 for CAD$520 million.
As evidence, consider that two different styles of mineralization have
been found at the Justin Project, described by Aben in a January,
2019 news
release:
“Mineralization at Lost Ace is interpreted to be orogenic-style
quartz-gold veins that bear a strong resemblance to and share similar
geologic setting with Golden Predator’s adjacent 3 Aces Property. Previous
exploration at Justin has successfully discovered Intrusion related sheeted
veins & vein breccias along with gold bearing skarn mineralization. The
new discovery at Lost Ace highlights the existence of a multi-phase
hydrothermal system with the potential for overprinting mineralizing systems.”
Overprinting occurs when rock of different ages is jumbled together,
meaning younger rock can end up on top of older rock. That would explain the
two distinctly different types of mineralization found at Justin.
Aben’s CEO Jim Pettit explains:
“I think these two systems could be associated,
where what we’re seeing at surface, is more like an orogenic high-grade vein
system, brought up possibly from the uplifting of the older quartz veins by
the younger magma intrusion. It could be some sort of an enriching event.”
To test that theory, Aben brought in a rotary air blast (RAB)
drill, a small, mobile drill that explored the Lost Ace Zone - punching in 17
holes, on average 35m deep, along with four holes at POW.
A diamond drill will follow up on the best targets, after RAB drilling
results are returned, likely within the next few weeks.
It will be interesting to see whether the results from the RAB drilling
show deeper mineralization associated with earlier trenching. Pettit is
especially interested in RAB holes drilled close to the POW Zone, which is
the zone most likely to build a resource from, combined with the orogenic
gold found at Lost Ace.
“It’s leading in that direction, we’ll know when we get results back how
close we are to hitting that theory,” he told AOTH in a phone interview,
Friday. “When that intrusion happened it brought older lithologies
up closer to surface, it could’ve been a remobilization of fluids. That could
affect the POW Zone positively as far as grade. It remains to be seen.”
As part of the Justin exploration program, Aben drilled 963
meters into the POW Zone where gold-bearing vein, breccia and skarn
replacement mineralization has been proven by surface sampling and recent
drill programs (60m grading 1.19 g/t Au in drill hole JN11009). The 2019 POW
drilling sought to evaluate the potential to host bulk-tonnage gold
mineralization and to test for the continuity of higher-grade skarn
mineralization along strike. All four diamond drill holes encountered sulfide
mineralization and have been sent off for analysis.
Forrest Kerr
Aben was interested in the 23,000-hectare Forrest Kerr land package
because of the Kerr fault - a large structural feature that the company
theorizes may be a significant control feature and gold source for Golden
Triangle plays.
Just inland from the Alaska panhandle, the area has been the site of three
gold rushes and some of Canada’s greatest mines, including Premier, Snip
and Eskay Creek. Other significant and well-known deposits located
within the Triangle include Brucejack, Galore Creek, Copper
Canyon, Schaft Creek, KSM, Granduc, and Red Chris.
The Snip Gold Mine produced a million ounces in the 1990s at an
eye-popping average grade of 27.5 grams per tonne. Eskay Creek was
Canada’s highest--grade gold mine and the world’s fifth largest silver
producer, with production well over 3 million ounces of gold and 160 million
ounces of silver.
But after this amazing rush of discoveries the Golden Triangle, at least
news and investor interest-wise, seemed to go dormant; isolated from major
infrastructure, the area was expensive to conduct sampling, surveys and drill
programs, and due to its harsh winter climate, only accessible for half a year.
The resurgence of interest in the Golden Triangle is being driven mostly by
new road and power infrastructure built by the BC government, and the opening
of Pretium’s Brucejack mine in the summer of 2017.
Aben’s 50-kilometer-long Forrest Kerr project runs beside and
transects the Kerr fault, which acts as a major geological “engine” for the
whole region, giving Aben tremendous discovery upside due to the
amount of geological activity in the area.
The fact that the Kerr fault - a 40-region trend - transects Forrest Kerr
is important, because it divides the Mesozoic stratigraphy (rock layers) to
the east from the older Paleozoic stratigraphy to the west. The fault acts as
a conduit for the hydrothermal fluids that rushed towards the surface due to
volcanic activity.
Two years ago, continuous mineralization at Aben’s Forrest Kerr
project was identified in the first three holes of the then-new North
Boundary Zone. Highlights included 21.5 g/ t gold, 28.5 g/t silver and 3.1%
copper over 6m; 2.91 g/t gold, 5.2 g/t silver and 0.6% copper over 14m.
Last summer Aben hit
a discovery hole early in the drilling season, by positioning the drill
35m northwest of the three 2017 holes (the North Boundary Zone) to
investigate the possibility of mineralization at depth.
Featuring four high-grade zones all within 190 meters downhole, the
jewelry-box-style mineralization assayed at an impressive 331 g/t over 1.0m,
within a broader zone of 38.7 g/t over 10m. Other results from the discovery
hole included 22.0 g/t gold and 22.4 g/t silver over 4.0m, 4.0 g/t silver
over 13.0m, and 8.2 g/t gold with 1.4 g/t silver over 6.0m.
This year, Aben has four objectives for the 23,000-hectare
Forrest Kerr property.
The first goal is to see whether the North Boundary Zone can be extended
in a northerly direction. Next, drill crews will follow up a high-grade hole
300m south of the North Boundary Zone. Encountered by Noranda way back in
1991, the highlight was an impressive 326.0 g/t Au.
Aben also wants to know more about the newly discovered South
Boundary Zone, where broad intercepts of gold-copper-silver-zinc
mineralization were found in quartz veins last summer. This is the third
objective.
Finally, the company plans to drill-test a previously identified target in
the Forrest Zone, located 13 km south of Boundary. According to Aben, “The
area of interest at Forrest is defined by highly anomalous gold-in-soil and
gold-in-rock values coincident with a strong geophysical conductive anomaly
originally reported in 2013.”
To date, drilling at Aben has targeted near-surface, high-grade
gold and copper mineralization. That has yielded some
nice intersections, and backed by the market with two separate
stock runs for ABN in 2017 and 2018.
An airborne magnetic survey was run across the entire Boundary Zone, prior
to drilling. The survey was aimed at gleaning more information about Forrest
Kerr’s large, complicated structures.
Pettit told us on the phone Friday that the current +5,000m drill program
at Forrest Kerr has the over-riding objective of identifying these deeper
structures. One possibility is a copper-gold porphyry, a type of
mineralization northern BC is famous for. But not necessarily.
“The gold has to come from somewhere,” he said. “When you’re
drilling you want that confidence you can see the structure and follow it. It
may hydrothermal or may not be a porphyry. It depends on
the alteration but the drilling is going to give us a better definition
of finding something that holds together.” CEO Pettit added: “What we’re
seeing in North Boundary is awesome.”
Conclusion
I couldn’t agree more.
Aben has two excellent properties in areas that have seen a lot of
historic exploration. Justin is a sleeper play that holds great potential, in
our view. Will the drills put truth to the existence of an intrusion-related
gold system yielding high grades and tonnage? Results from
the recently-completed RAB and diamond drilling will surely provide
some clues.
At Forrest Kerr, the mineralogy is complicated, but Aben is
gradually filling in the blanks. How big is the North Boundary Zone? Is it
connected to South Boundary? What do the mineralized structures look like at
depth? These are puzzles that Aben hopes to solve. The answers are
sure to provide plenty of news flow for ABN investors to potentially realize
some nice share price gains, over the next couple of months.
Aben Resource Ltd
TSX-V:ABN, OTCQB:ABNAF, FSE:E2L2
Cdn$0.245 July 12th
Shares Outstanding 116.6m
Market cap Cdn$28.5m
Aben website
*****
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