Mining Explorers 2016: Stakeholder Gold Corp.

Stakeholder Gold Corp. has nabbed the expertise of renowned Yukon prospector Shawn Ryan to explore the potential of the Ballarat gold project in the Yukon Territory.

Ryan, who discovered Kinross Gold's White Gold project and Goldcorp's Coffee project, typically works only on his own properties. However, he made an exception for Ballarat, which lies across the Yukon River from Coffee and just southeast of White Gold.

Planned and executed by GroundTruth Exploration Inc., an innovative exploration company founded by Ryan, an initial phase of the 2016 program at Ballarat started with a drone-generated, high-resolution topographic survey of the entire property.

The drone survey was followed up with detailed geological mapping; induced polarization - DC resistivity surveys at the two primary gold zones, Northwest and Eastern; testing of the Northwest zone with GroundTruth's exclusive GT Probe, a track-mounted rig that drives a probe to collect a sample of the soil-bedrock interface; and conventional soil sampling at the Eastern zone.

The Eastern zone lies within 500 meters of a proposed road that would link the Coffee Gold project to Yukon's road system near Dawson City to the north.

Stakeholder Vice President of Exploration John Nebocat said, "This could add significant upside potential and provide meaningful logistical advantages should an economic deposit be discovered here."

Though Eastern was the least advanced of the two zones at Ballarat, it was the most intriguing to Ryan.

Soil sampling during the phase-1 program expanded Eastern from a series of interesting ridge samples to a prospect measuring more than 700 meters by 300 meters.

Two float rock samples collected from Eastern returned 0.759 g/t and 0.587 g/t gold.

The company followed up with geophysics and GT Probe testing of Eastern during the phase-two 2016 program.

The phase-one program at Northwest included soil sampling that confirmed the continuity of gold-in-soil anomalies already identified and extended the zone to the northeast.

Stakeholder drilled five holes at the Northwest zone in 2012. Results from the phase-one program, however, indicate that the main target lies to the north and northwest of that drilling.

Northwest and Eastern were both targets of GT RAB drilling, a track-mounted rig similar to the GT Probe that carries a rotary air blast drill.

Stakeholder also holds 10 claims about five kilometers (three miles) east of the Coffee gold deposit and enclosed by Goldcorp's claims.

-SHANE LASLEY