Empire Mine

Snapshot

Location: British Columbia, Canada
Ownership: Option to acquire 100% interest (see Definitive Agreement terms below)
Deposit Type: Skarn
Primary Minerals: Copper, gold, silver, magnetite and iron
Stage: Brown fields exploration

Overview

The Empire Mine Property is an exploration stage property comprised of 33 mineral claims and 57 fee simple crown grants covering approximately 15,746 hectares ("ha") that is easily accessed through a large network of forest service roads with elevations ranging from 100 metres ("m") to 1370 m thus providing for near year-round exploration. The property covers 23 mineral occurrences, including 3 past producing open pit and two underground past producing mines for magnetite, copper, gold, and silver.

Previous drill intercepts including 2006 drillhole4 MW06-17 which returned 6.51 g/t gold and 1.41% copper over 50.32 m, 1. 6 km prospective strike length outlined by historical 2005-2008 geophysical work and drilling. The property has excellent infrastructure and access due to logging, limestone quarrying and power generation operations in the area as well as easy access to ports at both Port McNeil and Port Alice.

Geology

The Merry Widow skarn deposit is hosted within an apparent fold within the Parson Bay Formation and upper Quatsino Formation. Down dip has not been tested by drilling and poses potential for discovery of more mineralized skarn horizons and pods.

 

Work Completed by Coast Copper

Upon optioning the property, Coast Copper increased the land package for the total property to cover an area approximately 8km wide by 20km long, continued community engagement with the Quatsino First Nations, secured a 65-line km IP permit and a 100-drill pad permit. As well as compiled and completed a comprehensive database from previous field work include the collection of 192 rock, 703 soil and 100 channel samples. Compilation and sampling programs have highlighted that significant potential in areas outside the main historical work area exists. Highlights of these include:

- Channel samples returned 10.5 m of 9.77 g/t gold, 2.35% copper and 28.41 g/t silver over the Copper Knob Showing,

- Expansion of known soil anomalies including soil samples taken north of the Merry Widow Pit which outline 400 m long NNE trending > 100 ppb gold in soil anomaly with a high to 3260 ppb gold,

- Three new copper-gold discoveries at West Marten, North Notch and AT Showing with highs of 38.4 g/t gold and 22.90% copper,

- Expansion of IP anomalies and encounter of two brand new area of IP anomalies located south of Benson Lake Mine and northwest of the Merry Widow Pit,

- Significant massive sphalerite findings at Battle Mountain (13.3% zinc), magnetite and copper (0.89% copper) was noted in boulders.

 

Coast Copper has completed two small drill programs totaling 3,829.7 m in 29 diamond drillholes on the Empire Mine Property. Highlights include:

- Broader intercepts included: MW21-004: 1.67 g/t gold and 0.22% copper over 34.92 m; MW21-007: 1.84 g/t gold and 0.20% copper over 39.54 m; MW21-008: 1.63 g/t gold and 0.46% copper over 42.77 m and MW21-013: 1.22 g/t gold and 0.39% copper over 51.06 m.

- High-grade intercepts included: MW21-004: 8.15 g/t gold and 0.57% copper over 4.86 m; MW21-007: 18.00 g/t gold and 1.55% copper over 3.23 m; and MW21-008: 4.69 g/t gold and 0.34% copper over 10.80 m.

- New discovery at Raven Bluff included MW21-016 of 7.18 g/t gold and 3.17% copper over 16.28 m.

- Rediscovered the Raven Pit, assays included 6.2 g/t gold over 1.67 m followed by 2.03 m grading 0.36 g/t gold and 0.28% copper.

Mineral Resource

On May 23, 2023, the Company announced it had completed a NI43-101 Resource on the Merry Widow open pit on the Empire Mine Property. 

On July 7, 2023, the Company filed the NI 43-101 Resource Estimate update for the Merry Widow Deposit, Empire Mine Property. To view the document click here or visit SEDAR.

Results of this resouce are included on Table 1. Please see the Company's news release for all information regarding the key assumptions and methods used for the mineral resource estimate. 

Historical Resource

Historical records and maps from Cominco Ltd. In 1972, indicate the Benson Lake Mine hosts 454,500 tonnes at 0.59 g/t gold and 1.3% copper classified as “measured and indicated” and a further 2,700,000 tonnes at 1.7% copper ³ (no gold grade estimated) to the 2100 level as of December 31, 1972 classified as “inferred”. (While Coast Copper notes that Cominco’s historical results are not NI 43-101 compliant and have not been verified by the Company’s QP, these combined historical resources total nearly 3.154 million tonnes and will help guide Coast Copper’s exploration programs). 

 


Definitive Agreement

Under the terms of the Empire Option Agreement, Coast Copper can acquire a 100% interest in the Empire Mine Property from Mirva Properties Ltd. ("Mirva") by making aggregate cash payments of $1,250,000, issuing 3,000,000 common shares of the Company and undertaking work commitments totaling $2,000,000 over a five (5) year period, including making an initial cash payment of $50,000 and issuing 200,000 common shares of the Company upon receiving final TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V") approval. Mirva will retain a 2% NSR on the Property of which 1% may be purchased for $1,000,000 at any time up to 120 days after commencement of commercial production. The agreement was structured such that this NSR plus all other NSRs which may currently exist and be payable on the Empire Mine Property do not exceed in aggregate 2.5% before buydowns.

In order to earn a 100% interest in the Quatsino Crown Grants, the Corporation must pay Mirva the equivalent of $500,000 with either a cash payment or equivalent value in common shares of the Corporation, at the Corporation’s election, on or before September 22, 2025. The Corporation has the option to extend the Quatsino Crown Grants payment date to September 22, 2026 for an additional payment of $35,000, to September 22, 2027 for a further additional payment of $55,000 and to September 22, 2028 for a further additional payment of $75,000.

 


Qualified Persons

The scientific and technical information contained on this page has been prepared, reviewed and approved by Wade Barnes, P.Geo. (British Columbia) of Tripoint Geological Services, Coast Copper's Geological Consultant and a Qualified Person (“QP”) within the context of Canadian Securities Administrators' National Instrument ("NI") 43-101; Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

QAQC Procedures

QAQC procedures on geochemical results completed by previous operators can be found under their respective Assessment Report (provided in the Footnotes). The Companies QP as defined under NI 43-101 has not prepared nor verified the historical information.

Geochemical sampling completed on the project in 2021 was supervised by on–site Coast Copper personnel and sub-contractors who collected and tracked samples and implemented a full QA/QC program using blanks, standards and duplicates to monitor analytical accuracy and precision. The samples were sealed on site and shipped to MSALabs in Langley BC for analysis. MSALabs quality control system complies with global certifications for Quality ISO9001:2008. Soil samples were dried and screened to 80 mesh and then analyzed in 20g samples with multi-element ICP-MS Aqua Regia digestion (IMS-128). Rock samples were dried and crushed to 70% passing 2mm mesh and split to 250g samples which were pulverized to 85% passing 75μm. The samples were then analyzed by a 4 acid digestion multi-element ICP-MS (IMS-230). Gold assaying was completed with FAS-111, a 30–gram fusion fire assay with AAS finish.


Footnotes

Historical information provided on this website regarding the Company's project cannot be relied upon as the Company's QP as defined under NI 43-101 has not prepared nor verified the historical information. A Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as a current mineral resource and Coast Copper Corp. is not treating this historical estimate as current mineral resources.

1. The 2023 Mineral Resource Estimate was prepared by Sue Bird, P.Eng., an independent Qualified Person. The effective date of the mineral resource estimate is April 26, 2023. Mineral Resources are reported using the 2014 CIM Definition Standards and were estimated in accordance with the CIM 2019 Best Practices Guidelines, as required by NI43-101. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that any Mineral Resources will be converted into Mineral Reserves. These Mineral Resource estimates include Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves. It is reasonably expected that the majority of Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Measured or Indicated Mineral Resource with continued exploration. The Mineral Resource Estimate has been confined by a “reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction” pit using the following assumptions, which were estimated from comparable projects:

a. Au price of USD$1,800/oz and Cu price of US$ 3.50/lb at an exchange rate of 0.75 US$ per CAD$;

b. 77% Cu metallurgical recovery, 29% Cu concentrate grade, 100$USD/tonne concentrate transport, 100 $USD/tonne concentrate treatment, 1% unit concentrate grade deduction, and 0.1 $USD/lb Cu refining cost

c. 60% Au metallurgical recovery, 99% payable Au, and 8 USD$/oz Au refining cost.

d. Mining costs of CAD$15/tonne;

e. Processing + G/A costs of CAD$25/tonne;

f. Pit slopes of 50 degrees;

The resulting NSR equation is: NSR (CDN$) = (Cu%/100) x 3.96 x 2204.6 x 0.77 + Au x 76.05 x 0.6. The bulk density of the deposit is interpolated from sample data. The average value specific gravity used for the Mineral Resource Estimate is 3.45 at the base case cutoff.

Copper and Gold Equivalents were calculated using CuEq=NSR/67.22 and AuEq=NSR/45.63, respectively.

2 NI 43-1010 Technical Report: Giroux, G.H., & Raven, W. (November 30, 2008). Technical Report on the Copper Gold Resources for the Merry Widow Property. Filed on SEDAR January 22, 2009. The 2008 Grand Portage resource estimate was completed by Gary H. Giroux, P.Eng, MASc, of Giroux Consulting Ltd. in Vancouver, B.C. The estimate was based on a 3D geological model integrating 4,448 metres of diamond drilling of 43 drill holes, 2,290 assays, with 104 down-hole surveys collected between June and December 2006. The resource was reported utilizing gold cut-off grades ranging from 0.10 g/t to 3.00 g/t gold, as more particularly set out in the report. A complete copy of the report is available on Grand Portage's public filings on SEDAR (www.sedar.com). A gold cut-off grade of 0.50 g/t gold was selected as representing one possible mining scenario. For the purposes of the calculations, lognormal cumulative frequency plots were used to assess grade distribution to see if capping of high values was required and if so at what levels. For all elements, capping levels were established based on the individual grade distributions as follows: Gold -- a total of 18 gold assays were capped at 32.0 g/t gold, Silver --a total of 9 silver assays were capped at 165 g/t silver, Copper -- a total of 7 assays were capped at 11.7% copper, Cobalt -- a total of 5 assays were capped at 0.48% cobalt, Iron -- all iron assays were capped at 50% iron (the analytical detection limit).

3 Cominco Resources, Drill Section Maps “Plan of Cominco’s Benson Lake Operations on Empire Claims Showing Ore Reserves & Proposed Exploration Program”, 1970, Private Files

4 Assessment Report on the Diamond Drilling on the Merry Widow Property, G. Nicholson, dated December 15, 2006, written for Grande Portage Resources Inc. 


Cautionary Notes

Qualified Persons: The Qualified Person responsible for the technical information on this webpage is Wade Barnes, P. Geo., Company Geological Consultant, who has approved the technical information included herein. Any reference to adjacent properties, historical estimates and resources should not be relied upon.

Historical Information: Historical information provided on this webpage regarding the Company’s projects or adjacent properties cannot be relied upon as the Company’s QP as defined under NI-43-101 has not prepared nor verified the historical information. A Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify any historical mineral resource estimate(s) referenced herein as a current estimate and Coast Copper is not treating such as current mineral resource(s).

Adjacent Properties: This webpage may contain information about adjacent properites on which Coast Copper Corp has no right to explore or mine. Investors are cautioned that mineral deposits on adjacent properties are no indicative of mineral deposits on the Company’s properties. 

Investors are cautioned that the exploration targets at Empire Mine are an early-stage exploration prospect, conceptual in nature.