ArcWest Exploration (TSXV: AWX) announced that it is expanding its Oxide Peak copper-gold porphyry project, located in the Toodoggone gold-copper district in northern British Columbia.
In a press release, ArcWest said that recently completed staking has resulted in a significant expansion of the project area from 3,359 to 8,211 hectares.Â
Historical production in the Toodoggone district exceeds 3.2 million ounces of gold and 360,000 tonnes of copper.
The new claims extend the property from north of the Toodoggone River to Talisker Resources’ Baker-Shasta gold mine property to the south, a distance of 11.6 kilometres.
According to the Vancouver-based miner, silicification and gossanous alteration along Saunders Creek south of the Toodoggone River is associated with significant gold anomalies with up to >10 grams per tonne of gold in stream sediments and 2.8 g/t Au in soils.
ArcWest also reported that widespread copper mineralization has been delineated over a 2.1-kilometre-long zone crossing three ridges, with grab sample assays up to 9.5%, 2.12% and 1.23% Cu.
“The Toodoggone district is host to multiple porphyry copper-gold and high-grade gold-silver deposits, including several past producers,” the company’s exploration president, Tyler Ruks, said in the media brief. “The recent delineation of Centerra Gold’s Kemess East deposit has demonstrated the potential for discovery of blind porphyry deposits under the Toodoggone volcanics; a concept that has attracted some of the world’s largest copper miners to the district. Our newly expanded Oxide Peak Project adjoins ground currently being explored by Freeport McMoRan, and presents a great opportunity for a porphyry copper-gold discovery in an underexplored part of one of British Columbia’s premier copper-gold districts.”