Carube Copper (TSXV: CUC) has expanded the gold-in-soil anomaly at its Main Ridge gold project in Jamaica east to a 5.5 km total strike length.
Though Carube has several copper and gold projects in Jamaica, the company says Main Ridge is one it can fast track through exploration. Carube is now carrying out detailed mapping and sampling at Main Ridge, including rock-chip samples, grab samples and channel samples across all mineralized structures it considers significant. This could continue until year-end.
“We are aggressively working on our Main Ridge gold project in Jamaica, where we’ve found pretty good indications of mineralization at surface,” company president and CEO Stephen Hughes says in a telephone interview with The Northern Miner.
The company first defined a gold-in-soil anomaly at Main Ridge in August 2018 to a minimum 2 km strike length, with gold values ranging from 0.05 to 6.13 grams gold per tonne. At the time, Carube found two mineralized structures. It collected grab samples grading 6.1 grams gold and 13.9 grams gold from what became its Donkey Hill and Mango Valley prospects.
Carube Copper vice president of business development Jeff Ackert (left) at the Bellas Gate copper project in Jamaica. Credit: Carube Copper.
The prospects sit along trend northwest of the Pennants gold deposit, which AusJam Mining developed into a small, open-pit gold mine after BHP Billiton (LON: BHP; NYSE: BHP) found it in the early 1990s. Drilling by AusJam at Pennants reported grades as high as 429.78 grams gold over 1.7 metres, and 56.41 grams gold over 3.8 metres. AusJ reportedly mined as much as 15,000 oz. gold at Pennants.
The Pennants deposit has a 75,500-tonne historical resource grading 20.4 grams gold. AusJam reported 17 grams gold over 3.1 metres and 2.7 grams gold over 1.4 metres in historical drilling at Main Ridge.
In October 2018, Carube announced more high-grade, rock-chip samples from Main Ridge, along with a third gold prospect called Silver Fish. Recent grab samples have graded as high as 19.3 grams gold at Mango Valley, 12 grams gold at Donkey Hill and 1.7 grams gold at Silver Fish. All prospects are hosted in quartz vein structures.
Most recently, Carube found two more gold-in-soil anomalies on the other side of Pennants, east of the deposit, called Guava Ridge and John Austin. The company took 326 samples at eastern Main Ridge at 100-metre spacings over a 1,500- by 1,900-metre area.
The samples graded up to 1.14 grams gold in soils at Guava Ridge and 2.11 grams gold in soils at John Austin. Grab samples graded as high as 0.21 gram gold at Guava Ridge and 1.19 grams gold at John Austin.
Main Ridge also hosts two copper-in-soil anomalies called Orange Hill and Trout Hall. Rock-chip channel sampling at Trout Hall returned grades as high as 0.84% copper over 0.8 metre and 0.79% copper over 1.5 metres.
“Outside of that we’re actively speaking to at least 10 companies at a time about copper projects across the globe, with a preference to the Americas,” Hughes says.
Hughes took over as CEO earlier this year, replacing Jeff Ackert, who stepped aside and became the company’s vice-president of business development. The company then reorganized its board.
The contact between Main Ridge’s hematite and oxidized breccia stockwork zone. Credit: Carube Copper.
“What we’ve done is created a group of extremely experienced and talented individuals to look at things a bit differently than what was done in the past at Carube,” Hughes says. “It was a Jamaica-focused company, and I see that changing now.”
Hughes says Jamaica has good copper projects, but not “of the scale that is of serious interest.” Still, the company is reviewing its copper anomalies across Jamaica to determine which ones could host a deposit.
The company intends to pick up at least two more exploration or development projects. While its focus is copper, Hughes says he is considering gold assets, as well. He says his intent is to lower the company’s risk profile by diversifying its portfolio.
“First and foremost, I don’t like being isolated in one country,” Hughes says. “It just increases your risk.”
He adds that “everyone on the board, we all believe that next year there’s going to be a significant increase in copper price, as companies either don’t meet production levels, or those that are have lower grades than planned.”
Before joining Carube, Hughes served for 23 years as a director and as vice-president of exploration for Asiamet Resources (LON: ARS; US-OTC: KMGLF), which is preparing a bankable feasibility study for its Beruang Kanan Main copper project in Indonesia. The project has 49.2 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 0.7% copper for 711.3 million lb. copper at a 0.2% copper cut-off grade.
Shares of Carube Copper are trading at 4¢ in a 52-week range of 4¢ to 10¢. The company has a $7-million market capitalization.
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