The future of a mineral mining prospect on the Alaska Peninsula is uncertain after this summer’s drilling produced weak results.
Millrock Resources announced the outcome of their copper and gold exploration at the Dry Creek site north of Chignik Bay last week.
Millrock President and CEO Greg Beischer said the deposit contained a concentration of copper of about .2 percent.
“To be honest, these results were a little disappointing to us, we were hoping for a higher concentration of copper, something around .5 or .7 percent copper would’ve been encouraging,” he said. “So at this point we’re not really sure what this is going to mean for our project. We’ll have to discuss it with our funding partners and determine the path forward for the coming year.”
Beischer said the values for gold and molybdenum were also weak.
The near-surface deposit is on lands owned by Far West Inc, and Chignik Lagoon Native Corporation. Bristol Bay Native Corporation holds the subsurface rights, and signed an agreement with Millrock in early 2014.
The exploration was funded by British Columbia-based First Quantum Minerals.
BBNC has staunchly opposed the development of a copper-gold mine at the Pebble site near Iliamna, saying it would endanger the ecosystem of Bristol Bay watershed. BBNC executives have said that the Chignik exploration does not conflict with the corporation’s stance on Pebble.
Millrock’s other Alaska prospects include two other sets of claims in Southwest Alaska, both northeast of Dillingham - the Humble site and the AUDN project. No exploration work was done at either this summer. The company also has prospects in other parts of the state, including two gold sites in Southeast Alaska, a prospective zinc-lead-silver deposit in Northwest Alaska, and some in the interior.
