The Triple Z claims were staked in 2009 and the claim block expanded in 2011 and again in 2019, and now covers an area of 14,810 acres immediately adjacent to the Alaska Hwy to the south and west, and the Taylor Hwy to the north and east.  The Alaska Resource Data Files (ARDF) indicate the Triple Z prospect received limited surface exploration in 1970 and Cities Service Minerals Corp. completed three drill holes on the prospect in 1971. No technical details from this work are available in the public domain. Inquiries with Kinross Gold, the assumed current owner of the 1970’s-vintage work, indicate that these records have not survived.

The area was identified as prospective for porphyry copper-gold-silver-molybdenum mineralization based on regional government sponsored stream sediment sampling.  Several dozer trenches were discovered on the west side of the prospect during 2009 field investigations shortly after staking the claims.  Surface rock (82 samples) and soil samples (115 samples) were collected in 2009.  Follow up auger soil sampling completed between 2009 and 2011 identified a large-scale copper-gold-silver-molybdenum anomaly centered along a low-profile ridge with little to no outcrop.  An airborne magnetic and resistivity survey conducted over the area in 2011 showed a coincident magnetic low and resistivity high (classic porphyry signatures) over the geochemically anomalous area.  A follow up Induced Polarization (IP) survey conducted in 2019 across four orthogonal lines and outlined multiple IP anomalies broadly coincident with the soil and mag/resistivity anomalies.  

To date the main targets have not yet been drilled because we are waiting for a land transfer to be completed between the Federal Government (Bureau of Land Management – BLM) and the State of Alaska.  This is part of a process that has been on-going since Statehood.  We have been working with the State and Federal agencies to prioritize this transfer because of the highly prospective drill-ready target.  Drilling was completed in 2012 (before the IP survey) with 6 core holes drilled to depths ranging from 230 meters (755 ft.) to 380 meters (1246 ft.).  Holes 1202 and 1204 encountered several zones of anomalous copper, gold and silver. 

The best results were drilled in hole 1203 which intersected 27.3 meters (90 ft.) grading 0.129% Cu, 11.5 g/t Ag and 0.129 g/t Au starting at 275.5m (902 ft.), and 9.3m (30.5 ft.) grading 0.146% Cu, 17.4 g/t Ag and 0.163 g/t Au starting at 306.3m (1005 ft.).  Holes 1204, 1205 and 1206 contained narrow intervals of anomalous precious metals with lead and zinc – typical mineralization seen in the distal portions of a porphyry system.  Once the land transfer is completed, Contango plans to drill this well-defined porphyry copper-gold-silver-molybdenum target.