Copper Road Project
The Copper Road project sits on the northeastern flank of the Mid-Continental Rift within the Proterozoic Keweenawan Group. The Mid-Continental Rift is the same structure that formed Lake Superior and the world-class Keweenawan peninsula copper-mining region in the US, which housed the initial copper rush in the mid-1800s and was mined for more than 150 years.
The Batchewana Bay area has a long history of prospecting, exploration and mining activity dating to the mid-1800’s with copper production from 1965-1972 at the former Coppercorp and Tribag Mines. Both mines were closed to low copper prices in the early 1970s and closed to staking by the Ministry (Coppercorp 1972-2002/Tribag 1974-2008).
The area has seen limited exploration since 1998 due to fragmented land ownership and staking closures. The Company has consolidated the majority of known regional targets into a 24,000 ha contiguous project which contains multiple zones of near surface Cu/Au/Mo/Ag showings validated by historical production and historical drilling/trenching/sampling.
The Company is focused on two zones of known near-surface mineralization which are approximately 8 km apart. There has been 4,200 metres of diamond drilling completed to date: the Tribag and JR Zones have been established as large-scale at-surface Cu-Mo-Au-Ag targets.
1. JR Zone
JR Zone is in the centre of 30 kilometres of mineralization with two past producing high-grade copper mines, the Coppercorp to the southwest and the Tribag to the northeast.
Historical exploration at the Richards Breccia and Jogran Porphyry by Jogran Mines (1964), Phelps-Dodge (1966), Duration Mines (1988), Noranda (1992) and Aurogin Resources (1997) encountered broad near-surface intersections of copper mineralization that is untested below 200m.
JDH-13: 5 to 152m: 147m @ 0.53% Cu Eq, 0.27% Cu, 0.068% MoS2
JDH-16: 5 to 170m: 165m @ 0.43% Cu Eq, 0.23% Cu, 0.054% MoS2
The 2023 drill program by Copper Road, consisting of 7 drill holes totaling 1,250 metres tested the Jogran Porphyry and Richards Breccia targets which are approximately 1 km apart. The drill program tested the extent and continuity of the mineralization encountered in previous historical exploration by Jogran Mines and Aurogin Resources, finding broad zones of mineralization and higher-grade zones of copper enrichment containing 1.00% Cu Eq over 50 metres and 0.51% Cu Eq over 95 metres. Drilling successfully confirmed the continuity of the copper and molybdenum mineralization in the porphyry over long intervals, beyond what was previously known laterally and at depth, and that the mineralization also extends to the southwest into the mafic volcanics.
2. Tribag Zone
The former Tribag Mine consists of multiple mineralized breccias, some of which were mined by Tribag Mining Company/Teck Resources.
Historical production at the former Tribag Mine operated by Teck Resources 1966-1972: 1.1 million tons processed @ 1.5% Cu from the Breton, East and West Breccias.
Breton Breccia:
- 2022 drilling confirmed and extended historical zones of near-surface copper mineralization.
- TR-22-06: 100.39m @ 0.32% Cu, 3.99 g/t Ag, 0.35% Cu Eq
- Historical estimate by Teck Resources Breton Breccia: 40 million tons at 0.4% Cu
East Breccia:
- 2022 drilling extended near-surface Cu, Mo, Ag, Re mineralization.
- TR22-08: 9m @ 0.6% Cu, 6.83 g/t Ag, 0.15% Mo, 0.56 g/t Re (1.47% Cu Eq) Potential high-grade feeder structure at 330 m.
- Historical estimate by Teck Resources East Breccia 125 million tons at 0.13% Cu and 0.05% Mo
