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Palmer VMS Project |
PALMER VOLCANOGENIC MASSIVE SULPHIDE (VMS) PROJECT
COPPER - ZINC - GOLD - SILVER
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Inferred Resource Estimate - Using Net Smelter Return (NSR) Cut-off
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Cut-off
NSR(i) US$
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Tonnes
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Grade
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Cu (%)
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Zn (%)
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Pb (%)
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Au (g/t)
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Ag (g/t)
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50.00
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4,750,000
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1.84
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4.57
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0.15
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0.28
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29.1
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75.00
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4,120,000
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2.01
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4.79
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0.16
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0.30
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30.5
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(i) Assumed metal prices for gold (Au), silver (Ag), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) are US$700/oz, US$12/oz, US$2.25/lb, US$0.85/lb, and estimated metal recoveries are 55%, 55%, 90%, 90% respectively. NSR equals (US$36.87 x Cu% + US$9.54 x Zn% + US$11.12 x Au g/t + US$0.18 x Ag g/t). NSR formula is based on assumed values for offsite costs, metal recovery, and metal prices. Offsite costs include transportation of concentrate, smelter treatment charges, and refining charges.
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FLAGSHIP PROJECT:
HIGH GRADE - ACCESSIBLE - GROWING
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High grade copper-zinc rich deposit discovery with tremendous expansion potential - multiple separate zones that are all open.
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Excellent access - located adjacent to a paved Alaska state highway, with a short (60 kilometers) haul to year-round deep-sea port facilities in Haines, Alaska, providing ready access to Asian concentrate markets.
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Large property with numerous underexplored base metal prospects that define more than 15 kilometers of favorable mineral trends - hallmarks of a major (+30 Mt) massive sulphide system and opportunity for discovery of multiple deposits.
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Hosted by the same Late Triassic volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) belt as the high-grade producing Greens Creek mine, and the giant 298 Mt Windy Craggy copper deposit - a world class environment.
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Value per tonne ($$) of the 43-101 compliant resource compares favourably with the major producing Cu-Zn VMS mines of North America.-
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Initial work indicates positive metallurgy - coarse grained, simple mineralogy projected to yield excellent metal recoveries.
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Steep geometry of thick, continuous zones of South Wall massive sulphide coupled with the potential to access by short lateral drifts at lower elevations makes for attractive, lower cost mining should the project advance to production.
RESOURCE ESTIMATE - ALL ZONES OPEN TO EXPANSION
Exploration work by Constantine led to the discovery in 2007/08 of new massive sulphide mineralization at the South Wall and RW Zones in the Glacier Creek prospect area of the Palmer Property. Drilling to date has defined the South Wall mineralization, which includes three stratigraphically stacked massive sulphide lenses, 450 meters horizontally along strike and 525 meters vertically down dip. The RW mineralization has been defined in two separate areas, RW East and RW West, separated by 300 meters of largely untested strike potential, and has a minimum known dip length of 200 meters. South Wall and RW mineralization occupy the same general time-stratigraphic intervals on opposite limbs of a large-scale anticline. The presence of massive sulphide on both limbs of the fold indicates a sizeable massive sulphide system, and all zones intersected in drilling remain open to expansion laterally and to depth. Following completion of the 2009 drill campaign, independent consultant Gary Giroux, P.Eng of Giroux Consultants Ltd. was commissioned to prepare an initial resource estimate for the RW and South Wall Zones of the Palmer project. The current resource has not been updated to include additional high grade mineralization intersected in step-out drilling in 2010.
Metallurgically-focused high-definition mineralogical work and benchmarking was completed in 2009 on six core samples of mineralization from South Wall Zones I and II. The samples represent the main styles of mineralization recognized in drilling to date. Although preliminary in nature, the work suggests that the mineralogy is simple, with the coarse grained sulphides likely yielding good recoveries and high grade concentrates with low milling costs.
Detailed resource estimate information is available in the 43-101 Technical Report.
 
 
LOCATION AND PROPERTY INFORMATION
The Palmer Property is located adjacent to the paved all-weather Haines Highway with a short haul (60 kilometers) to the coastal town of Haines, Alaska. Haines (pop. 2400) is a year-round deep-sea port at the northern end of the Alaska Marine Highway System. The Property consists of a contiguous block of land consisting of 340 federal unpatented lode mining claims, which cover an area of approximately 6765 acres (~2738 hectares or 27 km2) and 63 state mineral claims that cover an area of approximately 9200 acres (~3680 hectares or 37 km2).
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Excellent infrastructure including expanding hydro power capacity, road access, and port providing access to hungry Asian smelting markets
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Politically stable jurisdiction with established permitting process - active hard rock mines in the region include Greens Creek and Kensington
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Located in an area of active resource development; logging and placer mining within two kilometers of the Property
GEOLOGY AND EXPANSION POTENTIAL
The Palmer Project is a volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) type deposit that is located within the same belt of rocks that is host to the Greens Creek and Windy Craggy VMS deposits - both widely recognized to be world class systems. For both grade and size, there is no better VMS belt to explore. As a deposit class, VMS are attractive for being polymetallic (multi-metal) and having high dollar value per tonne.
The Palmer project is located in the Alexander Terrane, with mineralization hosted within marine sedimentary and volcanic rocks of Triassic age. These rocks correlate with host rocks of the giant Windy Craggy deposit (297 million tonnes at 1.4% Cu, 0.07% Co, 0.2 g/t Au, and 3.8 g/t Ag), and the high-grade Greens Creek deposit with probable reserves of 8.24 million tons grading 12.1 opt Ag, 0.092 opt Au, 9.3% Zn and 3.5% Pb (Dec 2010) and an estimated global resource of 24.2 million tons grading 19.2 opt Ag, 0.15 opt Au, 13.9% Zn, and 5.1% Pb.
The numerous showings and prospects on the Palmer property occur along two mineralized trends over a combined strike length of at least 9 miles. Repetition of the principal mineralized horizons by folding is interpreted to account for the distribution of at least 25 separate base metal and/or barite occurrences) across the property. Recent work has established the existence of more than one stratigraphically stacked mineralized horizon.
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Notable prospect areas include Glacier Creek (South Wall and RW zones), Mount Henry Clay, Cap, Nunatak, Hanging Glacier, the Gullies, Boundary and Red Creek. The showings/occurrences are associated with interpreted exhalative horizons in a thick sequence of basalt flows with interbeds of sediments, andesite flows and tuffs and fragmental and massive rhyolites. Extensive pyrite-sericite schists and siliceous rocks provide a common link to the showings suggesting the presence of a very large extensive mineralized system.
The Glacier Creek prospect has received the most attention. Mineralization at Glacier Creek occurs on both limbs of a large-scale south-overturned anticline that is cored by a south-directed reverse fault with modest offset. Two major stratiform horizons, the RW and Main horizons, have been identified on the shallowly to moderately dipping upright limb of the anticline. Highlight drill intersections of the RW horizon include 3.79% copper and 7.24% zinc over 14.0 meters in hole CMR07-07, and 10.86% zinc, 0.13% lead, 0.23% copper, 0.13 g/t gold and 44.4 g/t silver over 5.12 meters in hole CMR06-01. Three separate, stratigraphically stacked zones (South Wall zones I, II, and III) have been identified on the steeply dipping to overturned limb of the anticline. Highlight intersections include drill hole CMR08-14 that contains an interval of 15.2 meters of 5.1% copper, 1.79% zinc, 0.29 g/t gold and 20.5 g/t silver within a larger interval of 46.4 meters of 2.92% copper and 2.98% zinc. Both the RW and South Wall zones are open down dip and along strike.
At the Mount Henry Clay (MHC) prospect, abundant high-grade baritic massive and semi-massive sulfide boulders occur near the limits of a perched or stranded glacier. The average grade of a large number of the boulders is: 19.3% zinc, 1% copper, 0.4% lead, 38.2 g/t silver, 0.22 g/t gold, and 20.6% barium. Although the source of the boulders has not been determined, the area remains attractive for discovery.
Silver-and barite-rich stratiform mineralization at the Cap prospect (134 g/t Ag over 23 m) remains virtually untested at depth and laterally, and other occurrences on the property have also yielded excellent precious-metal values (e.g., 11.84 oz/ton Ag and 0.092 oz/ton Au in a bulk sample of baritic semi-massive sulfide from Nunatak, and up to 198.9 g/t silver, 1.58 g/t gold, 14.1% zinc, 2.3% lead, and 0.36% copper from massive sulfide at the HG prospect).
Detailed geology and mineralization information for each of the prospects is available in the 43-101 Technical Report.
 
ADDITIONAL MAPS AND FIGURES
ARTICLES & VIDEOS
The Palmer VMS Story
March 2010
Click image to start video
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Palmer Resource 3D Model
March 2010
Click image to start video
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PROPERTY HISTORY
Base-metal sulfides and barite were first discovered in the vicinity of the RW and South Wall Zones (Glacier Creek prospect area) in 1969 by local prospector Merrill Palmer.
Palmer staked the discoveries and continued to prospect the area in subsequent years. In the early years following discovery, exploration focused on the economic potential of barite. Tests showed the baritic material to be suitable for production of drilling mud concentrates, although none of the prospects were developed. Many of the baritic units exposed in the area are highly oxidized and leached of sulphides, a feature of major exploration significance that was not fully appreciated until recently. It was drilling down dip of these surface showings beyond the influence of oxidation that led to Constantine’s RW and South Wall discovery intersections - 38 years after the original surface discovery.
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In 1979, Anaconda Copper Company drilled the first three diamond drillholes on the Property, totaling 801 m, in the Glacier Creek Prospect area. All holes failed to intersect the main mineralized barite-base metal horizons, although one hole (GC-2) did intersect the narrow, distal expression of South Wall Zone III.
It was not until the exploration successes at Windy Craggy and Greens Creek were realized in the early 1980s that the base metal potential at Palmer was fully understood. In 1983, high-grade massive sulphide boulders up to 1.8 m (6 ft) in diameter and grading up to 33% Zn and 2.5% Cu were discovered at the toe of a small ice sheet near Mount Henry Clay. Twenty-six samples of various boulders collected by the U.S. Bureau of Mines returned an average grade of 19.3% Zn, 1.0% Cu, 0.4% Pb, 38.2 g/t Ag, 0.22 g/t Au, and 20.6% Ba, and their discovery led to four successive drill programs (Bear Creek Mining (Kennecott) 1984 and 1985; Granges Exploration Inc 1989; and Rubicon Minerals Corporation 1999, with a total of thirteen holes and 2958 m of core being drilled. None of the programs were successful in locating the source of the boulders, and the prospect remains an attractive exploration target.
In the mid to late 1980’s Newmont Exploration Ltd. pursued the precious metal potential at the Palmer Property, with particular attention being given to the Cap and Nunatak prospects. At the Cap prospect, massive pyritic barite and baritic breccia was drilled in 1988 and 1998, with the best intercept of four holes being 134 g/t Ag over 23.2 m. At the Nunatak prospect, a 91 kg (200 lb) bulk sample divided into thirteen separate samples returned an arithmetic average grade of 11.84 oz/ton Ag and 0.092 oz/ton Au.
In the early 1990s, retreating ice exposed an outcrop of massive sulphide in the Glacier Creek prospect area that became known as the Little Jarvis occurrence. Chip samples by Kennecott from the Little Jarvis occurrence yield up to 13.0% Zn, 7.0% Cu, 0.02 oz/ton Au, and 7.0 oz/ton Ag over 4.6 m (15 ft), although chip sampling at the same locality by Rubicon Minerals Corp. in 1998 yielded somewhat lower grades: 10.8 % Zn, 0. 27% Cu, 0.17 ppm (0.005 oz/ton) Au, and 44.2 ppm (1.29 oz/ton) Ag over 3.05 m (10 ft). The interpretation that the Little Jarvis occurrence was correlative with the Upper Main occurrence on the other side of the mountain to the southeast, led to Rubicon Minerals’ drill hole discovery of the RW zone in 1999. Rubicon intersected semi-massive to massive sulphide in four holes ranging from 2.5 m to 6.3 m in width and established down dip continuity of more than 200 m; however, due to deteriorating market conditions at the time Rubicon did not follow up on their initial discovery.
Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. was formed in 2006 with the purpose of exploring the Palmer property. The first of three holes drilled by Constantine in 2006 intersected 5.12 m grading 10.86% zinc and 44.4 g/t silver, and demonstrated the presence of massive sulphide 300 m east of Rubicon’s initial RW zone discovery holes.
In late 2007, Constantine intersected high-grade copper and zinc mineralization over a width of 14 meters at the RW zone (CMR07-07). The drill was then moved over 400 meters to the east, where discovery hole CMR07-09 intersected 24.2 meters of massive sulphide at what is now referred to as the South Wall zone. In 2008, Constantine followed up on the initial South Wall discovery with hole CMR08-11, which intersected 46.85 meters of massive sulphide, followed by a second 23.2 meter massive sulphide zone, followed by a third 12.59 meter massive sulphide zone. The cumulative width of the three stratigraphically ‘stacked’ zones in this drill hole is 82.64 meters.
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