Western Alaska Minerals’ drill program aims to unlock district-scale opportunities at the Illinois Creek project.
By Jason Smith
- Carbonate Replacement Deposits (CRDs) are known for hosting large, high-grade deposits of precious and critical metals with minimal environmental impact, making them a significant focus in the mining industry
- World-renowned Carbonate Replacement Deposit expert, Peter Megaw, is helping Western Alaska Minerals uncover a potentially vast CRD at its Illinois Creek project in Alaska
- Western Alaska Minerals, led by a team of serially successful mine finders, has already outlined a 75-million-ounce silver equivalent resource on the property and is actively drilling to find more high-grade mineralization
Peter Megaw is a notable expert in Carbonate Replacement Deposits (“CRDs”). CRDs have proven to host some of the planet’s largest deposits of precious and critical metals.
For those unfamiliar with CRDs, Megaw, who is a technical advisor to exploration company Western Alaska Minerals Corp. (TSXV: WAM), sums up what you need to know in three sentences: “They can be big. They can be high grade. And they tend to have a minimal environmental footprint.”
Megaw knows of what he speaks — he is personally responsible for the discovery of over US$1 billion of silver, including the world-class Juanicipio deposit in Mexico, recently put into production by MAG Silver.
Over the past four years, he has devoted his time to helping Western Alaska Minerals’ CEO, Kit Marrs, and his team outline a potentially vast CRD deposit at its Illinois Creek project in west-central Alaska.
That effort has already proved remarkably successful.
I think we have proven that we can find things, that’s what we do best and that’s what we’re working on today.” — Kit Marrs, CEO, Western Alaska Minerals |
Illinois Creek: Building on Two Large Metal Deposits
Marrs has a long history with Illinois Creek, having been the first project geologist on site in the early 1980s when Anaconda Minerals made its initial discovery at Illinois Creek.
He went on to help other companies make discoveries when Anaconda sold the project in the mid 1980s. The Illinois Creek Project had a period in the late 1990s when it hosted Alaska’s first open-pit, heap leach gold mine.
Unfortunately for the owner at the time, gold was then at all-time lows of $270/oz and silver was trading at $3/oz, and the mine was shut down after 18 months. But not before it produced around 150,000 ounces of gold and between 600,000 and 700,000 oz of silver. “Timing is everything and that timing was very poor,” notes Marrs.
Still, he had the memory of a large, target-rich area at Illinois Creek and in 2008, he and his wife, Joan, acquired the northern half of the district and explored its Round Top copper target for six years as a private entity.
In 2018, they consolidated the district with Western Alaska Minerals’ current Chief Exploration Office, Joe Piekenbrock, and took the company public as Western Alaska Minerals in 2021.
At about that time, the Western Alaska Minerals team re-discovered the Waterpump Creek deposit at Illinois Creek with world-class drill hole WPC21-09 (10.5 m of 522 g/t silver, 22.5% zinc and 14.4% lead).
Over the next three drill seasons, the company outlined a 75-million-ounce silver equivalent resource at Waterpump Creek grading 980 g/t silver equivalent. That is a substantial high-grade resource and the anchor of Western Alaska Minerals’ valuation, along with the historic 525,000-ounce gold-equivalent resource at the old Illinois Creek Mine.
Looking to Connect the Dots with This Year’s Drilling
The CRD model Marrs, Megaw, and Piekenbrock have put together at Illinois Creek envisions a porphyry intrusive center near the Illinois Creek Mine. This CRD system extends 8 km to the northeast and to the distal silver-lead-zinc deposit at Waterpump Creek.
Currently, Western Alaska is drilling two target areas, the Warm Springs target about 1 km east of the Illinois Creek Mine, and the LH target, which lies in between Warm Springs and Waterpump Creek.
More importantly, Marrs wants to connect the dots between the proximal copper-gold-silver mineralization at the Illinois Creek Mine and the distal WPC deposit “to prove to ourselves and investors that we do have the scale of a major CRD system.”
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The Advantages of Being on State of Alaska Land
In executing on this plan, Western Alaska Minerals is helped greatly by its location on State of Alaska land.
In an industry where permits are often given grudgingly, Western Alaska Minerals has a five-year exploration permit from the state. That means the company has flexibility to plan and adjust the drill targeting based on real time results. The company then provides a detailed summary of its exploration activities to the state each December.
In addition, Western Alaska Minerals has already begun working closely in partnership with state regulators via a working group known as the Large Mine Permit Team. This structure provides ongoing communication and updated information to state agencies as the exploration work advances.
Key to the State of Alaska advantage is the fact that the state owns both the surface and sub-surface rights on the Illinois Creek claims. Marrs states: “It’s not separated like it is in many jurisdictions — and as of July 1st, we have signed a mining lease with the state to cover our core holdings achieving our goal to consolidate 80 or so claims into one lease.”
It is also important that the Illinois Creek Mine operated as a permitted mine in the late 1990s. That means the state has already approved and permitted a fully operational mine on this site. Marrs notes: “That’s quite an important factor for investors to look at when de-risking an exploration project.”
Aerial image of Western Alaska Minerals’ 2024 exploration camp.
Guided by a Team of Mine Finders
An important factor in a junior explorer’s ability to make discoveries is whether it’s led by a team that has made discoveries before.
As already mentioned, Western Alaska Minerals’ technical advisor Peter Megaw has discovered over $1 billion worth of silver in his career and his role at the company is very hands on. Marrs says, “Peter brings a lot of value. He is highly involved in developing our exploration strategy, planning, and then later analysis of results.”
Megaw is joined by Piekenbrock, who is known both for helping delineate the Donlin gold deposit in western Alaska (42 million ounces of gold) and discovering more than 12 billion pounds of copper principally on the Bornite deposit in Alaska (a South32 JV) and the Galore Creek deposit in British Columbia, now owned by Teck and Newmont.
Director, Nate Brewer, spent a decade as VP for Greenfields Exploration at Gold Fields of South Africa and is credited with two discoveries in South America. While working for Anaconda in the 1980’s, Brewer was also instrumental in the initial Waterpump Creek discovery drilling.
Lastly, there is Marrs himself, who has over 30 years experience in Alaska and elsewhere. About Western Alaska’s team, Marrs comments: “I think we have proven that we can find things, that’s what we do best and that’s what we’re working on today.”
CEO, Kit Marrs (left), speaking to VP Exploration, Andy West (centre), and Geologist, Emma Kroeger (right) in a trench.
Strong Precious Metals Markets Make for an Exciting Time at Western Alaska Minerals
Looking ahead, Western Alaska sees several potential catalysts for its share price.
The first, and most obvious, would be if the current 4,000-meter drill program turns up more high-grade on the Warm Springs and LH targets. If so, it would help validate that the Illinois Creek District does sit on top of a large, metals-rich CRD system.
The second is the metals markets themselves. Gold and silver have paused their run in the past couple of weeks, but any look at the 1-year and 5-year charts for the metals shows they are in a bull market.
The combination of rising prices and success with the drill bit could have a positive impact on Western Alaska Minerals.
Longer-term, the company will also be working on improving metallurgical recoveries for the metals at both Waterpump Creek and the old Illinois Creek mine.
Western Alaska Mineral’s management team and insiders own 30% of the company’s shares, so they are very aligned with their shareholders.
In summing up the opportunity at Illinois Creek, Marrs says: “We are not looking for a small, pod-like deposit. We are looking for a world-class CRD.”
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