VANCOUVER, BC, February 9th, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Alpha Copper Corp. (CSE: ALCU) (OTC: ALCUF) (FWB: PP0) (“Alpha,” “Alpha Copper,” or the “Company”) a resource sector enterprise founded to create value through mineral exploration, technical development, and asset acquisition, is pleased to introduce the road-accessible Hopper copper-porphyry project to its shareholders. The Company is also pleased to report that it has been issued a Class 3 exploration permit for 10 years, which allows for drilling with up to three drills, road and trail building. The permit expires in January 2033.
“The Hopper Project is a great project with a lot of exploration upside,” stated Darryl Jones, CEO of Alpha. “The Project has proven skarn horizons that are ready to build towards a maiden resource and the potential for a large porphyry zone that was proven up in the last two years and is close to discovery. We believe there is something big here and are looking forward to unlocking the project’s potential.”
The Hopper is a porphyry copper project with adjacent skarn mineralization in southwest Yukon. Most of the drilling to date has focused on the skarn horizons, which are near-surface and host abundant copper, silver, gold and molybdenum mineralization. There are over eight defined skarn horizons from surface to over 400m depth. Drilling of the skarns in 2021 and 2022 has indicated high-grade mineralization is open along strike (Table 1).
The porphyry target area has seen limited testing, despite many indications of a large porphyry-style hydrothermal system at surface. In 2021 drilling intersected strong propylitic, and intervals of potassic, alteration and copper mineralization from surface down to 116m depth. In 2022, drilling intersected over 300m at 0.11% Cu with intercepts of more typical porphyry-grade, including 0.348% Cu over 31.82 m (Table 2) within that interval.
Hopper Copper Castle skarn zone
The Copper Castle skarn zone is an area of over 1 km in strike length with over 8 skarn horizons that contain variable amounts of copper, gold, silver and molybdenum. The skarn horizons are up to 25m thick and, where prograde, contain mostly copper, whereas retrograde skarns yield higher gold grade. The skarns have been intermittently explored since the 1970s, when they were discovered from outcrop in Franklin Creek. Most of the drilling has focused on skarn mineralization near the discovery exposure. In 2021 a geophysical anomaly was tested and yielded some of the longest high-grade intercepts on the skarn zone. This geophysical anomaly was further tested in 2022 and again yielded excellent results. The shallowest and highest-grade skarn horizon, to date, that was the target of 2021 and 2022 drilling is ready for denser drill spacing to prepare for a maiden resource.
Figure 1: Modeled skarn horizons (red) and faults (dark grey) as well as drill collars over both the Hopper skarns and the porphyry zone. Note that the strike length of individual skarn horizons is over 1,000 m.
Figure 2: Hole HOP22-DDH-03 intercepted 15.27m at 1.869% Cu, 1.037 g/t Au and 13.8 g/t Ag from 62.23m. Mineralization is dominantly copper-sulfides (chalcopyrite) in this interval.
Table 1. Highlight drill results of the Copper Castle Skarn zone.
| Drill Hole | From (m) | To (m) | Length (m)1 | Cu (%) | Au (g/t) | Ag (g/t) |
| HOP-21-DDH-01 | 38.60 | 40.75 | 2.15 | 0.383 | 0.137 | 3.4 |
| HOP-21-DDH-01 | 55.44 | 77.72 | 22.28 | 1.405 | 0.532 | 11.7 |
| including | 62.00 | 66.72 | 4.72 | 5.339 | 1.444 | 45.7 |
| including | 64.04 | 64.84 | 0.80 | 11.418 | 2.560 | 147 |
| HOP-21-DDH-02 | 25.26 | 29.19 | 3.93 | 0.169 | 0.043 | 1.3 |
| HOP-21-DDH-02 | 70.00 | 79.39 | 9.39 | 0.622 | 0.197 | 4.2 |
| including | 70.00 | 74.18 | 4.20 | 0.773 | 0.201 | 4.9 |
| HOP-21-DDH-03 | 77.00 | 87.96 | 10.96 | 1.365 | 0.488 | 9.6 |
| including | 83.95 | 87.96 | 4.01 | 2.715 | 1.014 | 20.1 |
| HOP22-DDH-02 | 107.02 | 123.54 | 16.52 | 0.804 | 0.492 | 6.7 |
| Including | 109.46 | 114.62 | 5.16 | 1.857 | 0.827 | 11.4 |
| And | 117.37 | 123.54 | 6.17 | 1.040 | 0.558 | 7.4 |
| HOP22-DDH-03 | 62.23 | 77.50 | 15.27 | 1.869 | 1.037 | 13.8 |
| Including | 63.85 | 70.00 | 6.15 | 3.926 | 2.203 | 28.8 |
1Drilling approximately directed perpendicular to bedding and skarn horizons, therefore intersects are expected to be within 95% of true width.
Hopper Porphyry zone
The Hopper Porphyry zone is centered within a large Late Cretaceous intrusion[1]. This intrusion age is similar to those in the Dawson Range gold belt, such as Patton Porphyry that hosts the world-class Casino deposit[2]. The Hopper intrusion is approximately 7 x 3km in size and contains wide soil anomalies with elevated Cu and Mo that correlate with chargeability and radiometric anomalies. The entire porphyry target has only been tested with six diamond drill holes to date. The results from diamond drilling indicate that the Hopper Porphyry contains a large, strong propylitic zone from surface and locally fault-associated mineralization with overprinting phyllic alteration. Potassic alteration appears at depth, locally relic and intermittently associated with well mineralized rock. Drilling on the porphyry will be focused on discovery of the central potassic zone of the porphyry-style hydrothermal system.
Figure 3. HOP22-DDH04 Top left: quartz-carbonate-chalcopyrite vein in propylitic alteration at 173m. Centre left; banded chalcopyrite-biotite-quartz-carbonate vein with vein-controlled potassic alteration at 279m. Top right: banded vein with chlorite-chalcopyrite (top) and quartz-pyrite (bottom) in intensely propylitic altered host rock at 192m. Bottom: pyrite-chalcopyrite-quartz vein at 192.5m.
Table 2. Drill highlights from HOP22-DDH04.
| Drill hole | From (m) | To (m) | Length (m) | Cu (%) | Ag (g/t) | Au (g/t) | Mo (%) |
| HOP22-DDH04 | 25.25 | 332.00 (EOH) | 306.751 | 0.107 | 0.62 | 0.008 | 0.002 |
| including | 163.00 | 194.82 | 31.82 | 0.348 | 2.47 | 0.010 | 0.006 |
| 191.00 | 193.00 | 2.00 | 3.630 | 23.60 | 0.060 | 0.047 | |
| 208.00 | 217.00 | 9.00 | 0.324 | 2.44 | 0.010 | 0.004 | |
| 269.22 | 283.00 | 13.78 | 0.488 | 2.84 | 0.024 | 0.003 | |
| 319.00 | 325.00 | 6.00 | 0.071 | 0.20 | 0.017 | 0.015 |
1This intersect contains two unsampled intervals from 218.73m to 234.14m and from 236.45m to 239.56m for which metal values were assumed to be nil.
Collar table
Table 3. Collar table. Locations as surveyed by dGPS.
| Drill Hole | UTM NAD83 Zone | Easting | Northing | Elevation | Azimuth | Dip | Depth | Zone Name |
| HOP21-DDH-01 | 8N | 397675.66 | 6794636.03 | 1178.84 | 269 | -70 | 83 | Copper Castle |
| HOP21-DDH-02 | 8N | 397711.23 | 6794599.16 | 1186.27 | 272 | -68 | 128 | Copper Castle |
| HOP21-DDH-03 | 8N | 397739.55 | 6794570.59 | 1190.72 | 271 | -70 | 146 | Copper Castle |
| HOP22-DDH-02 | 8N | 397552.99 | 6794727.96 | 1188.45 | 270 | -75 | 203 | Copper Castle |
| HOP22-DDH-03 | 8N | 397632.65 | 6794839.81 | 1211.36 | 270 | -75 | 260 | Copper Castle |
| HOP22-DDH-04 | 8N | 398063.18 | 6797338.21 | 1441.73 | 90 | -60 | 332 | Porphyry |
Data Verification
Drill core was halved on site. One half of the drill core remains on site in a core storage facility. The other half of the core was bagged, and security tagged and sent to MSA (2021) and ALS (2022) Laboratories for multi-element chemical analysis and assay. Upon receipt of the samples CAVU’s QAQC protocol flags any sets of samples that may not meet standards for disclosure, which are then sent back to the laboratory for re-assay. All assays reported here passed MSA, ALS and CAVU QAQC protocols.
Qualified Person
This news release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. J. Hanson, P. Geo., who is the Qualified Person (as that term is defined by NI 43-101) and takes responsibility for its technical content.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors,
~Darryl Jones~
Darryl Jones
CEO, President & Director
Alpha Copper Corp.
Contact Alpha Copper
Invictus Investor Relations
+1 (604) 343.8661
walter@invictusir.com
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