Kristie Batten: Northern Star-backed PolarX accelerating US gold and copper hunt

One of Australia’s top mining journalists, Kristie Batten, writes for Stockhead every week in her regular column placing a watchful eye on the movers and shakers of the small cap resources scene.

Shares in PolarX (ASX:PXX) are up 170% since August – and that’s before the company has received any results from exploration at its two US projects.

August coincided with a major earn-in deal announced with gold major Northern Star Resources over the Alaska Range project in Alaska.

Northern Star has been a long-time shareholder of PolarX, with a current stake of 14%, and agreed to spend up to US$39 million to earn up to 70% of the project.

“For us, it just solves the biggest issue, which is continually having to go to market to get funded,” PolarX executive chairman Mark Bojanjac told Stockhead.

“Already, the guys are on site, looking at and doing things which we wouldn’t have done without that sort of backing behind us.

“We can take a whole regional sweep at this thing, which we’ve already been doing, and it’s been an eye opener, even for us. We knew it was good. We’ve been to areas that we haven’t really set foot on before, and they’re pretty gobsmacking so far, so hopefully they drill up alright.”

Alaska Range’s Caribou Dome and Zackly deposits already have a combined resource of 269,000 tonnes, or 595 million pounds, of copper, 213,000 ounces of gold and 3.13 million ounces of silver.

A 2024 scoping study outlined capital costs of US$147 million for a 9.5-year operation that would generate life-of-mine revenue of almost US$1.5 billion with total EBITDA of US$825 million, based on metal prices of US$8500/t of copper, US$1900/oz of gold and US$25/oz of silver, all well below current prices.

PolarX is awaiting assays for a recently completed drill program.

“We got visible mineralisation wherever we thought we’d find it, so that’s been good,” Bojanjac said.

“We’ll get assays in the next few weeks and publish those.”

The exploration budget for Alaska Range next year is expected to be US$6 million but could be more based on funds left over from this season.

Nevada drilling kicking off

Locking in the Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) deal allowed PolarX to raise $5 million for drilling at its 100%-owned Humboldt Range gold project in Nevada, which sits between two large-scale active mines, the Florida Canyon gold mine and the Rochester silver-gold mine.

The project hasn’t been mined since the 1920s and has had limited drilling.

An initial 2000m reverse circulation drilling program will kick off there on Monday.

“It’s very much a toe in the water program, pre-Christmas,” Bojanjac said.

“We’ll go back in the new year once winter’s over there, pre-Alaska drilling, and fire it up big time.”

Drilling will target the 3.6km-long, up to 1.3km-wide Ridgeline prospect, which has previously returned rock chip samples grading up to 43.8 grams per tonne gold and 86.1g/t silver.

Bojanjac said the geology was similar to the nearby Rochester mine.

“So we kind of know what we’re going to get for Christmas, to a degree, but what’s different with ours is we’ve got lots of high-grade quartz veins as well, and those were the focus back in the 1850s and of course, they did what they could with limited tools,” he said.

“What we think we’re going to get is the best of the lower grade background, compared to the neighbours, with some high-grade quartz veins within it – the sugar hits, which really move the dial.”

Trump bump

The regulatory climate for mining projects in the US has rapidly improved since the start of Donald Trump’s second term.

Bojanjac pointed to New World Resources as an example of that change.

New World held the Antler copper project in Arizona and despite the project being advanced, the company struggled to get market traction.

Earlier this year, New World was subject to a bidding war between Central Asia Metals and Kinterra Capital, with the latter winning the battle.

“They sold that for four times their market cap,” Bojanjac said.

“That’s telling you how much the discount is on the ASX compared to overseas at the moment, and that’s inspiring to us as well.”

To address that, PolarX is progressing an OTC listing in the US.

“We’ll get it in front of US investors. They’ll get this instantly as they’re both US projects,” Bojanjac said.

Alaska has also been in the news after the Trump Administration approved the Ambler road project – which unlocks Trilogy Metals and South32’s (ASX:S32) Ambler copper project – and took a 10% stake in Trilogy.

Bojanjac said the news was huge for mining in Alaska.

“There’s a point where they might even look at [Alaska Range] too, if we get it in front of them,” he said.

“A lot of the environmental things have been made easier.”

In August, the US Geological Survey earmarked copper as a potential addition to the country’s critical minerals list.

“That’s another plus,” Bojanjac said.

“A lot of things have come together all at once. It’s inspiring to be in the business at the moment.”

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While PolarX is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not pay for this article.