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Associated Press
02-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Tectonic Metals Launches Largest Drill Program to Date with Three Drill Rigs at Flat Gold Project, Alaska
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / June 2, 2025 / Tectonic Metals Inc. ('Tectonic' or the 'Company') (TSX-V:TECT)(OTCQB:TETOF) today announced the official launch of the 2025 Phase One multi-rig drill program - the largest drill program in history at the Company's flagship Flat Gold Project ('Flat') in southwestern Alaska. Located on 99,840 acres of predominantly Native-owned land belonging to Doyon, Ltd. ('Doyon'), one of Alaska's largest Native Regional Corporations and Tectonic's second-largest shareholder. The Flat Gold Project is emerging as a tier-one, free-milling and heap leachable gold mining opportunity near one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in the world, the Donlin Gold Project. The Company also announces the grant of stock options to key Tectonic team members. Tony Reda, Co-Founder, President & CEO of Tectonic Metals, commented: 'We are entering the most transformative phase yet at Flat. With two rigs on site and a third en route, our 2025 Phase One drill campaign is laser-focused on delivering maximum value per metre drilled - through discovery, strategic de-risking and setting the stage for an economic mining opportunity at Flat. Our primary focus is Alpha Bowl - a high-grade, near-surface oxide discovery that is not only open in all directions but directly linked to over 650,000 ounces of historic placer gold production. 1 This is our strongest indication yet that we are drilling into the heart of a fertile gold system. From there, we advance to Golden Apex, our highest-priority untested intrusion target. If we unlock additional metres, we have our sights set on other district-scale intrusion targets that may see their first-ever drill holes. What sets Flat apart isn't just its scale or geology, but its early, credible demonstration of multiple mineral processing pathways - including heap leaching and the rare, highly coveted potential for run-of-mine processing. With that endgame in mind, we are reverse engineering what a future mine at Flat could look like, which is why we are collecting two-inch crush material for additional heap leach column testing while at the same time targeting higher-grade corridors that could underpin high-margin starter pits. I would like to emphasize that Phase One is just the beginning. As Flat continues to reveal its tier-one scale potential, we anticipate ongoing drilling in the months and years ahead. The project is rich with untapped targets, and we have a clear roadmap for continuous growth.' Peter Kleespies, Vice President of Exploration, commented: 'Last season's Alpha Bowl discovery not only confirmed near-surface, high-grade oxide gold mineralization but also validated our RIRGS exploration model - specifically the association between low magnetic susceptibility zones, productive intrusion phases and hornfelsing, and proximity to gold-rich placer drainages as key indicators of blind, intrusion-related gold systems. The 2025 Phase One program is designed to build on that success. At Alpha Bowl, our drilling will focus on expanding mineralization along strike and at depth, targeting structurally controlled feeder zones and refining our geological model using oriented core and alteration mapping. Concurrently, we will apply the same integrated approach - relational geochemistry, 3D magnetic inversion, and structural reinterpretation - to test Golden Apex, our highest-priority undrilled intrusion target. Our 2025 program will directly test for this intrusion with the objective of advancing Golden Apex from a compelling target to a new discovery.' 2025 Phase One Primary Drill Target: Alpha Bowl - Discovery of the Bedrock Source Beneath One of Alaska's Richest Placer Creeks Alpha Bowl has rapidly evolved from a conceptual target into a confirmed high-grade, near-surface oxide gold discovery. Interpreted to represent the higher-grade core of the Chicken Mountain intrusive system and the bedrock source of over 650,000 ounces of historic placer gold from Flat Creek. The 2024 drill campaign marked the first-ever drilling at Alpha Bowl, a 1.5 km x 1.0 km shallow basin located at the northern margin or 'nose' of the Chicken Mountain intrusion. Despite a geologically blind setting - overprinted by decades of regolith and placer mining and offering minimal surficial geological context - Tectonic's methodical approach led to a breakthrough discovery, drill hole CMR24-026 returned ( PR March 3, 2025 ): A reverse circulation ('RC') split sample from the same hole, subjected to Photon Assay to better account for coarse gold, returned even stronger grades: This discovery confirms a high-tenor gold system with early signs of bonanza-grade potential and extends the drilled mineralized strike of the Chicken Mountain intrusion to over 3 km, with mineralization open in all directions and at depth. 2025 Alpha Bowl Drill Program Objectives The 2025 campaign will focus on building upon the Alpha Bowl discovery with a series of diamond drill holes up to 300 metres in length supplemented with Reverse Circulation ('RC') drilling to cover the expansive area with key objectives of: Figure 1.0: First diamond drill hole of the Phase One drill program at Alpha Bowl. Additional Value Drivers of the Phase One Drill Program Chicken Mountain - Advancing a Large-Scale, Open-Pit Heap Leachable Reduced Intrusion Related Gold System ('RIRGS') Chicken Mountain is a 6.5 km x 6.0 km monzonite intrusion with over 3 km of drilled strike and mineralization confirmed to 325 metres vertical depth - representing a very small fraction of the entire intrusion. Notably, every creek draining from Chicken Mountain, including Alpha Bowl's Flat Creek, has yielded historical placer gold - evidence of a large, gold-fertile system. Metallurgy De-Risks Development: 96% Gold Recovery Confirms Heap Leach Viability Tectonic's metallurgical program - beginning with its inaugural testing results ( PR February 16, 2023 ) and followed by heap leach column tests ( PR May 16, 2024 ) - has confirmed that gold mineralization at Chicken Mountain is both free-milling and amenable to heap leaching. Initial heap leach column tests using coarse ¾-inch material from both oxidized and non-oxidized mineralized rock delivered exceptional results, yielding 96% and 91% gold recoveries after roughly 70 days, with over 80% recovery achieved within 29 - 36 days. 2025 Phase One Drill Program Objectives at Chicken Mountain The 2025 drill campaign is strategically designed to generate critical technical data ahead of a maiden mineral resource estimate and future Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). Key initiatives include: Golden Apex - Flat's Most Compelling Underexplored Intrusive Gold Target with Strong Geological and Placer Gold Linkages Golden Apex is emerging as one of Flat's most prospective and underexplored Reduced Intrusion-Related Gold System (RIRGS) targets. Encompassing a 2.5 km x 2.0 km footprint, it exhibits all the hallmarks of a fertile intrusion-related gold system, including hornfelsing, a >1 km gold-in-soil anomaly and proximity to key structural corridors such as the Golden Apex and Black Creek faults. Positioned immediately upstream of placer drainages with over 682,000 ounces (see slides 4, 6, 8 and 9 of Tectonic Corporate Presentation ) of recorded placer gold production. Golden Apex offers a direct vector to a likely bedrock source. 1 Limited historical drilling in 2003 (hole GA03-02) was poorly oriented and collared into a fault zone, and yet still intercepted multiple gold-bearing intervals ( PR September 5, 2024 ): In 2024, Tectonic re-logged the historical core, resampled key intervals, and conducted 3D magnetic inversion modeling, which revealed the potential for a previously unrecognized, shallow blind intrusion hosted within a low magnetic susceptibility domain - a geophysical signature that directly led to the Alpha Bowl 2024 drill discovery and proven to be a powerful vectoring tool for blind, high-potential RIRGS targets. In 2025, Tectonic will initiate targeted step-out diamond drilling from GA03-02 to follow up on these historical results and directly test for the newly interpreted causative intrusion at this highly prospective target. Armed with historic and new drill assay data, new geophysical modelling and a proven exploration vector, Golden Apex now ranks as the highest-priority untested intrusion center at the Flat Gold Project and a compelling target for discovery in 2025. Stock Option Grant The Company also announces that it has granted a total of 3,860,000 incentive stock options to directors, officers, advisors, consultants, and employees of the Company to purchase up to 3,860,000 common shares ('Option Shares') in the capital of Tectonic. The stock options have an exercise price of C$0.75 per Option Share, vest over an eighteen-month period in three equal installments every six months from the grant date and expire five years from the grant date. To Be A Part Of 'The Shift,' Follow Us On Social Media: X LinkedIn Instagram Facebook YouTube Footnotes and References: Qualified Person Tectonic Metals' disclosure of technical or scientific information in this press release has been reviewed, verified and approved by Peter Kleespies, Vice President of Exploration, who is a Qualified Person in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101. On behalf of Tectonic Metals Inc., Tony Reda President and Chief Executive Officer For further information about Tectonic Metals Inc. or this news release, please visit our website at or contact Jesse Manna, Investor Relations, toll-free at 1.888.685.8558 or by email at [email protected] Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking information and statements under applicable securities law. Any statements that are contained in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as 'may', 'should', 'anticipate', 'expect', 'intend' and similar expressions and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Offering, including the expected closing date and participation by certain strategic funds for the amounts described herein; the intended use of the net proceeds of the Offering, including the Company securing sufficient funds for the 2025 drill program at Alpha Bowl by the expected launch date; the potential for mineralization and planned exploration and drilling activities at Tectonic's projects, any future exploration activities and the size; the terms and closing date of the Share Consolidation, including the expected benefits for shareholders; the receipt of any regulatory approvals, including the final approval of the TSXV for the Offering and the Share Consolidation. Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and is based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management at the date the statements are made including, among others, assumptions about the Company securing sufficient financing for its planned exploration and drilling initiatives on acceptable terms or at all, current estimates and assumptions regarding the benefits of the Share Consolidation, future prices of gold and other metal prices, currency exchange rates and interest rates, favourable operating conditions, political stability, obtaining governmental and other approvals and financing on time, obtaining required licenses and permits, labour stability, stability in market conditions, availability of equipment, accuracy of any mineral resources, successful resolution of disputes and anticipated costs and expenditures. Many assumptions are based on factors and events that are not within the control of Tectonic, and there is no assurance they will prove to be correct. Although Tectonic considers these beliefs and assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking statements in this release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks, including, without limitation: the Company's ability to consummate the Offering and the Share Consolidation on the terms described herein or at all; the Company's ability to implement its business strategies; risks associated with mineral exploration and production; risks associated with general economic conditions; adverse industry events; marketing and transportation costs; loss of markets; volatility of commodity prices; inability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favourable terms; industry and government regulation; changes in legislation, income tax and regulatory matters; competition; currency and interest rate fluctuations; and other risks. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions, or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Although Tectonic has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Tectonic does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Tectonic Metals Inc. press release
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Above the Yukon River, on Native land, Hilcorp is set to drill for oil this summer
Rain falls along the Yukon River in the Yukon Flats region, where oil company Hilcorp is planning to drill exploration wells this summer. (Photo courtesy of Bathsheba Demuth) Later this spring, barges of heavy equipment will pull away from a launch on Alaska's road system and begin a journey up the Yukon River. More than 100 miles upstream, a tributary, Birch Creek, branches off. The equipment's destination is along that creek, on remote property owned by Alaska Native corporations in a huge basin called the Yukon Flats. There, an oil company will set up a specially designed rig to drill the basin's first-ever deep wells, which the landowners hope could lead to the discovery of the state's next big oil field. If found, petroleum could create well-paying jobs for Yukon watershed residents and generate big dividend payments for the 20,500 shareholders of Doyon, the for-profit Native corporation for Alaska's Interior region. Doyon's leaders describe the drilling effort as a rare opportunity — one that could deliver a lucrative resource sought from its lands for decades, though never produced. But the campaign has engendered a broad backlash from tribal governments in the region. Much of the opposition stems from the track record of the business that will be doing the drilling: Hilcorp, the large, privately held oil company founded by a Texas billionaire, Jeff Hildebrand. Hilcorp has substantially increased its holdings in Alaska in recent years and now operates the massive Prudhoe Bay field on the state's North Slope, where it partners with major firms like ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. But it also has a history of leaks and accidents, prompting fears from Yukon watershed residents about the risks of its new drilling program. 'We've seen it so many times, that these big corporations come in and they take and take. They say they're going to reinvest and it never happens,' said Rhonda Pitka, chief of the tribal government in Beaver, a Yukon River village some 20 miles downstream of the Birch Creek confluence. 'What will we end up with at the end of all this?' Whether the Yukon Flats will support commercial fossil fuel production remains highly uncertain, and likely won't be known for years. More exploratory drilling will almost certainly be needed to better define a deposit even if Hilcorp finds evidence of petroleum this summer, and the infrastructure to extract and move it to market would require an array of environmental permits. Even at this early stage, opponents are aggressively fighting the drilling plans. At a meeting last month, Interior Alaska's consortium of 42 tribal governments, Tanana Chiefs Conference, approved a resolution against oil development by Hilcorp in the Yukon Flats, saying it's too risky for the 'ecologically and culturally significant region.' But leaders of Birch Creek, the tiny Indigenous community closest to the drilling sites, have endorsed the effort, saying it could produce desperately needed jobs. Birch Creek's Native village corporation also owns some of the land where the drilling will take place, and like Doyon, it stands to benefit from a discovery. 'Without the economic activity this exploration project could create, Birch Creek and the other Yukon Flats villages may simply cease to exist, and our way of life will be lost forever,' the community's tribal government said in a 2020 resolution endorsing the program. Birch Creek's population is now just 30 people, and its school closed more than two decades ago because it had too few students, according to the state of Alaska. The support from Birch Creek has given Doyon and Hilcorp the 'social license to operate in that area,' Doyon's chief executive, Aaron Schutt, said in an interview. If oil is found, Doyon's agreements with Hilcorp would require the company to hire shareholders and local residents, he added. Schutt said that Doyon's early leaders, a half-century ago, chose to claim land in the Yukon Flats specifically because of its potential to yield oil and gas. 'We can't re-select. We can't undo those deals that were done by our leaders 50 years ago,' he said. 'We're stuck with the hand we were dealt from 1972 to 1975. And we have to balance all of these various constituencies and opportunities and concerns, and do the best job that we can.' Birch Creek leaders, through a Doyon official, declined to comment. Hilcorp released its own prepared statement saying it's 'excited to work with Doyon and community stakeholders to advance this meaningful exploration project in the Yukon Flats.' 'Together, we are developing a tailored program to responsibly evaluate the region's energy and resource potential,' said spokesman Matt Shuckerow. The Yukon Flats basin covers more than 10,000 square miles, bounded by the Brooks Range mountains to the north and the White Mountains to the south. The Yukon River sweeps across from east to west, and the trans-Alaska pipeline snakes over the land from north to south. The basin began forming at least 60 million years ago, according to Marwan Wartes, a veteran geologist with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. It's still sinking today, making it difficult to study. Often, petroleum-rich regions of the state have experienced uplift, producing rocky outcroppings that give glimpses of their geologic histories — but those clues aren't present in the flats, Wartes said. Experts suspect that the area contains sedimentary deposits that could produce natural gas, or even oil. But no one has drilled deep wells to confirm those theories, so the flats' subsurface remains something of a geologic enigma. 'When I look at the whole map of Alaska, it always catches my eye, and I always am frustrated that we know so little about it — because it's mostly burying itself,' Wartes said. 'It is a mystery, and I think most geologists would agree to that.' Today, the region, home to the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, is important habitat for as many as 2 million migratory ducks, as well as several species of fish. Its salmon and moose have long sustained the region's Native people, who now live primarily in seven Indigenous villages within or near the refuge. For nearly two centuries, the Yukon Flats have also been the source of global commodities — starting in the mid-1800s with furs, and continuing with the 1893 discovery of gold in Birch Creek. The region has never produced oil; nearly all of Alaska's petroleum comes from the other side of the Brooks Range, on the North Slope. But Doyon and oil companies have long eyed the flats for its potential, dating back to the years after the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. That federal legislation terminated Indigenous land claims in the state by transferring some 10% of Alaska's land to newly formed, Native-owned corporations — which, with certain limitations, could choose the land that they wanted. Doyon, owned by Alaska Natives with ties to the Interior region, became the state's largest private landowner. Working at the time with smaller Indigenous-owned corporations connected to the region's villages, Schutt said, Doyon selected additional land in the Yukon Flats, hoping that it would yield petroleum. The idea was to capture areas with oil potential while also leaving room for the region's residents to continue their subsistence-based lifestyles. Doyon formalized that strategy, Schutt said, in agreements with five village corporations. A 1974 agreement with Beaver's Indigenous-owned corporation refers to the 'potential for oil and gas' in the area around the village, 'the development of which would benefit all of the shareholders of Doyon.' Pitka, Beaver's current tribal chief, said that oil was not the driving force behind the village's participation in the Doyon agreement. 'The village corporations picked land for subsistence,' Pitka said. 'People were living on the land.' In the years after the land deals, major oil companies prospected for oil in the Yukon Flats; Exxon even signed an exploration agreement with Doyon. But Exxon pulled out of the region after its major 1989 oil spill near Valdez. Studies continued, however. Doyon contractors have collected hundreds of sediment and soil samples throughout the basin. The corporation has also conducted seismic testing, and it collaborated with federal and state agencies that drilled a research well to a moderate depth in 2004. The United States Geological Survey has estimated that the Yukon Flats contain 173 million barrels of oil, with a smaller chance of as much as 600 million barrels. 'This has been a basin that's been on everyone's radar as having potential for a long, long time,' said Wartes. Hilcorp's involvement began in 2019, when it signed an exploration agreement with Doyon covering some 2,500 square miles of the Native corporation's land. Since then, Hilcorp has flown airborne surveys to gather geologic data, and it's also drilled more than a dozen shallow test wells. Last year, it narrowed its focus, signing oil and gas leases with Doyon that cover 94 square miles near Birch Creek. This kind of remote oil and gas exploration work, known as wildcatting, is not Hilcorp's specialty; the company is better known for buying aging oil fields and making them more productive. 'They must see something that really captivates them, because there's no shortage of oil on the North Slope,' said Phil Wight, an energy and environmental historian at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Even Schutt, the Doyon chief executive, said he's not sure exactly what's driving Hilcorp's interest. 'I actually don't know the answer to that,' he said. 'It's still kind of a mystery.' This summer, Hilcorp plans to drill two exploration wells on separate sites. The company has not publicly announced its plans, but some details have trickled into public view through documents submitted to the state. Hilcorp's drilling effort requires an array of permits, among them a contingency plan that includes how the company would respond to a blowout. The locations of the company's two planned wells are 10 and 15 miles, respectively, from the Yukon River and the village of Birch Creek, according to the permitting documents. The sites will be supported by a worker camp staffed 24 hours a day. The area is along a lower branch of Birch Creek and is accessible only by barge, helicopter or skiff, depending on water levels. Schutt said the work will leave a light footprint. 'If there's no further development, those lands will be indistinguishable from the lands next door in 10 years,' he said. Opponents of the plan have focused their efforts on a pending Hilcorp request to state land managers to pump water from Birch Creek and a nearby lake for its drilling operation. The company says it will take a maximum of half of one cubic foot per second from the creek, which it describes as 0.05% of its flow. Ten different tribal groups have objected, according to their comment letters released by regulators in response to a Northern Journal public records request. Allowing Hilcorp's proposed withdrawal 'would degrade water quality and jeopardize the ecological integrity of Birch Creek,' said one comment letter, from the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council. 'We, the Indigenous Tribes and First Nations from the headwaters to the mouth of the Yukon River, urge the department to join us and put all of our future generations first,' the letter said. If Hilcorp finds oil, the discovery would likely be just the start of more intense environmental battles to come. Given the large cost of building a new oil field, construction would only make financial sense if it contained at least 200 million barrels of oil, according to Doyon's estimates. Tying a development into the trans-Alaska pipeline would entail crossing federal land and require environmental permits that would face stiff opposition. But for Doyon, the effort is worthwhile because of its big upside, according to Schutt. The company is already invested in the oil and gas industry; it owns a drilling subsidiary that maintains some of the largest rigs on the North Slope. A new field in the Yukon Flats could produce a 'massive royalty check' each year, much of which would be shared with Alaska's other Native corporations under federal law, according Schutt. Doyon's subsidiaries would be in line for contracts to work on the development, he added, and Yukon Flats villages likely could save money by tapping into newly available natural gas for heating. 'It would economically support the whole subregion and Doyon for generations,' he said. 'Those are the types of opportunities that don't come along very often for us.' Nathaniel Herz welcomes tips at natherz@ or (907) 793-0312. This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Herz. Subscribe at this link. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
