Amarc Provides Details of Exceptional Cu-Au Deposit Targets at Empress and Greater Empress, British Columbia
Amarc Provides Details of Exceptional Cu-Au Deposit
Targets at Empress and Greater Empress, British Columbia
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / January 19, 2021 / Amarc Resources Ltd. ("Amarc" or
the "Company") (TSXV:AHR)(OTCQB:AXREF) is pleased to provide details on the expansion
potential of the high grade Empress Cu-Au-Ag deposit, and surrounding Greater Empress area.
The Greater Empress area is a sizable subarea of Amarc's extensive 100% owned IKE Cu and Au
district, and is located 6 km north of the Company's substantive IKE porphyry Cu-Mo-Ag
discovery. A comprehensive review by Amarc's technical team of historical data throughout the
Greater Empress area (Figure 1) has unlocked a high potential for the discovery of substantial
intrusion-related replacement and porphyry Cu-Au±Mo-Ag deposits centered on the Empress
deposit.
The 2020 IKE Project Technical Report (the "Report") provides additional details on the
Empress Deposit and the entire Greater Empress area. The Report is available on Amarc's
website at www.amarcresources.com/ahr/Home.asp and under the Company's profile at
www.sedar.com.
The Empress Cu-Au-Ag replacement deposit is a significant body of mineralization,
characterized from historical drilling by its common high grade intersections and relatively good
vertical and lateral grade continuity. These features support the strong potential for discovery of
new high grade extensions to the deposit. Important potential exits for a well-planned core
drilling program to expand the mineralization which remains open. Table 1 provides selected
historical drill intercepts for the Empress deposit and Figures 3 and 4 show cross sections
through the mineralization.
In addition to the Empress deposit, the 35 km2 Greater Empress area includes seven identified
compelling porphyry and replacement-style Cu-Au±Mo±Ag deposit and exploration targets. The
deposit targets include, Empress East, Empress Gap, Granite and Buzzer, and the earlier-stage
exploration targets include Empress West. Each are discussed below with selected historical drill
results provided in Tables 2 and 3. These targets are either not fully drill delineated or have been
tested only by shallow, widely-spaced historical reconnaissance percussion drilling: and can with
focused exploration be brought to a drill ready status. Amarc has a permit for up to 300 drill
holes for the IKE Project.
Management is considering its options to advance this exciting high grade Cu-Au segment of its
extensive overall IKE district mineral tenures.
Table 1: EMPRESS DEPOSIT
Selected Drill Intervals from Historical Drilling
Notes to Table 1
1. Widths reported are drill widths, such that the thicknesses are unknown.
2. All assay intervals represent length-weighted averages.
3. Some figures may not sum exactly due to rounding.
(-) means not assayed for.
4. Copper equivalent (CuEQ) calculations use metal prices of: Cu US$3.00/lb, Mo
US$12.00/lb, Ag US$18.00/oz and Au US$1,400.00/oz and conceptual recoveries of: Cu
90%, Au 72%, 67% Ag and 82% Mo. Conversion of metals to an equivalent Cu grade
based on these metal prices is relative to the Cu price per unit mass factored by predicted
recoveries for those metals normalized to the copper recovery. The metal equivalencies
for each metal are added to the Cu grade. The general formula for this is: CuEQ % =
Cu% + (Au g/t * (Au recovery / Cu recovery) * (Au $ per oz/ 31.1034768) / (Cu $ per lb*
22.04623)) + (Ag g/t * (Ag recovery / Cu recovery) * (Ag $ per oz/ 31.1034768) / (Cu $
per lb* 22.04623)) + (Mo % * (Mo recovery / Cu recovery) * (Mo $ per lb / Cu $ per
lb)).
5. The estimated metallurgical recoveries are conceptual in nature. There is no guarantee
that the metallurgical testing required to determine metal recoveries will be done or, if
done, the metallurgical recoveries could be at the level of the conceptual recoveries used
to determine the CuEQ.
6. Details of analysis, QA/QC (where available) and data verification for the Empress and
Greater Empress historical drilling is provided in the 2020 Report which is posted on the
Amarc website and the Company's profile on SEDAR.
Amarc's IKE Cu and Au district is located in a fertile region of south-central British Columbia
("BC") that hosts other large Cu±Au±Mo deposits with similar geological settings. Like many
major porphyry districts, the IKE district formed in a very active environment characterised by
long-lived, multi-phase magmatic-hydrothermal-structural activity, resulting in multiple centers
of mineralization. The Au-bearing Empress deposit and other deposit targets within the Greater
Empress area were formed at about 85-80 Ma and, as such are distinct from the hydrothermal
activity that formed the approximately 46 Ma IKE porphyry Cu-Mo-Ag deposit that is hosted
within the Coastal Plutonic Complex ("CPC") (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Location of the IKE and Empress deposits, the Greater Empress Cu-Au Project area
("Greater Empress" or "GECAP"), and other IKE district deposit targets and mineral
occurrences.
The Greater Empress area straddles the CPC contact with volcanic rocks to the north, over a
strike length of 15 km (Figure 1). Strong and widespread alteration with abundant sulphides is
associated with a variety of deposit types including porphyry Cu±Au±Mo±Ag and high
temperature Cu-Au-Ag replacement, as well as Au-Ag high sulphidation and possibly low
sulphidation epithermal systems. The range of paleodepth indicated by these deposit types
increases the possibility for the preservation of deposits in the IKE district, so increasing the
discovery potential.
Amarc's technical team diligently compiled, verified and integrated Greater Empress area
historical information. This compilation of data from geochemical and geophysical surveys and
drilling (including 138 core holes totaling 19,298 m averaging approximately 140 m depth, and
96 short percussion holes totaling 4,382 m averaging approximately 46 m in depth for which
only Cu and Mo assay data is available), combined with the geological and geophysical survey
data from the Company's programs, has permitted a rapid advancement in the understanding of
the high value development potential in the Greater Empress area.
Empress Cu-Au-Ag Replacement Deposit: Historical drilling at Empress has indicated a
significant body of good grade Cu-Au mineralization, which remains open to expansion with a
modern core drilling program (Table 1). Mineralization at the Empress deposit is considered to
have formed by the replacement of previously altered volcanics by a quartz-magnetite-sulphide
assemblage, with higher Cu-Au-Ag grades commonly occurring within 100 m in vertical
distance above the CPC's contact, within the overlying volcanics (Figures 2 and 3). An initial
examination of historical drill core by the Amarc team recognized the nearby Granite porphyry
Cu-Au-Ag-Mo deposit target, which is shallowly concealed by overburden (see below). The
Granite porphyry deposit target is considered a possible source of Empress replacement fluids.
The Granite deposit target requires drill delineation.
Figure 2: Greater Empress historical shallow percussion and core drill holes in spatial reference
to the northern boundary of the CPC at surface, and both Cu-Au replacement and porphyry
targets. The figure shows concentrations of Cu in the first 3 samples of bedrock below base of
overburden.
Figure 3: South to north cross section S-N (see Figure 2 for section location) through the
Empress deposit drilling looking West, showing drill hole sample bar graphs for Cu-Au grades.
The location of the CPC-volcanic contact is shown by the blue line.
Empress East Cu-Au-Ag Replacement Deposit Target: Located 1 km east of the Empress
deposit, limited historical core holes drilled at the Empress East deposit target intercepted
mineralization similar to that at the Empress deposit in both style and grade Table 2 and Figures
3 and 4). This drilling together with moderate to locally strong IP chargeability responses (Figure
5), magnetic geophysical features, and results from historical Cu and Au soil geochemistry (>250
ppm Cu and ≥50 ppb Au which closely reflect the first three historical drill samples results at the
base of overburden, see Report), indicate there is significant potential with further core drilling to
enlarge this body of mineralization. Notably there is a complete absence of drill holes in the
southern part of this target, which is at a position that is analogous to shallower, high grade Cu-
Au-Ag replacement-style mineralization at the Empress deposit to the west.
Table 2: EMPRESS EAST DEPOSIT TARGET
Selected Drill Intervals from Historical Drilling
For all notes to this table refer to Table 1.
Figure 4: West to east Long Section W-E (see Figure 2 for section location) through the
Empress, Empress Gap and Empress East drilling, looking north, showing Cu-Au grades. Note
the CPC-volcanic contact as shown by the blue line.
Figure 5: Greater Empress area shallow penetrating historical IP chargeability combined with
Amarc Buzzer North IP chargeability survey data, showing shallow historical percussion and
core drill holes. Integrated data shows strong IP chargeability anomalies extending over many
square km and generally corresponding with known soil geochemical anomalies. The presence of
mineralization is confirmed by the widely-spaced historical drill holes across the Greater
Empress.
Empress Gap Cu-Au-Ag Replacement Deposit Target: Results from limited historical
drilling, comprising eleven shallow percussion drill holes and three deeper core holes, in the >1
km long Empress Gap zone located between the Empress and Empress East suggest a clear
opportunity to discover additional Cu-Au-Ag mineralization in proximity to the volcanic-CPC
contact (Figure 2). Many of the short percussion holes returned anomalous Cu‐Mo (Au and Ag
were not analyzed for), potentially indicative of higher grade underlying mineralization as at the
Empress deposit (Figure 4). Of the deeper core holes, Cu‐Au mineralization associated with
alteration similar to that at Empress is also reported, however only two of these holes reached the
volcanic-CPC contact.
Empress Gap is a significantly underexplored target and drill testing of areas close to the CPC-
volcanic contact is required.