The decision by Bastion Minerals (ASX: BMO) to re-sample historic cores from its ICE copper project in the Yukon province in western Canada seems to be paying off, with exceptional results to date.

The re-sampling program commenced in mid-September after Bastion confirmed that 10,500 metres of original drill core remained in good condition at the ICE site.

ICE was among three Canadian projects Bastion acquired in July this year, with the company targeting the historic copper-gold asset for early testing.

‘Staggering interval’

“It’s fantastic to receive these initial results, confirming the tenor of the historical mineralisation with a staggering interval of 10.98m at 7.15% copper from just 90m,” executive chair Ross Landles said.

“Re-assaying 10% of the mineralised intervals in the deposit will provide us with a high level of confidence regarding the original sampling, assaying and non-JORC foreign resource estimate [and] provide us with additional information on the gold mineralisation

“With just 15% of the project area explored in any detail, we are confident the historically untested geophysics and soil geochemistry will provide high-priority targets for drilling when conditions allow in 2025.”

“We are very excited about the potential to discover additional mineralised deposits and increase the project size, as deposits of the VHMS type occur in clusters and may be vertically stacked around the feeder zones which localise mineralisation,” he added

Geological model

Bastion has built a geological model from the data and evaluated the original resource tonnage and grade, confirming the original resource estimate.

The company is now targeting the definition of a JORC-compliant resource.

This is expected in early Q1 2025, with an exploration target also being assessed based on available geophysics and geochemistry.

Modern techniques

Bastion is also aiming to bring modern ideas and technology to an area which hasn’t been explored since 1998.

In particular, the company is looking to use modern, high-powered electromagnetic equipment to define geophysical targets.

It will also investigate upgrading the design of a preliminary open pit for the deposit, created at the time of the 1998 estimate and based solely on the copper value of the project.