Foundation for Lucky Strike in the Yukon

Goldstrike Resources Ltd. May 22 said it is mobilizing for the 2018 exploration program at Lucky Strike and other properties it holds in Yukon's White Gold District.

This year's exploration will follow-up on the success Goldstrike had on the Lucky Strike property in 2017, where the company completed the first ever drilling into the property's Monte Carlo zone.

The company narrowed drill targets at Monte Carlo with trenching in 2016. One trench dug at this 1,400- by 350-meter geochemical anomaly cut 154 meters averaging 0.42 g/t gold. Goldstrike said this is comparable to trenches dug at Goldcorp's Coffee gold project, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) to the southeast, and White Gold Corp.'s Golden Saddle deposit, roughly 15 kilometers (9 miles) to the west.

This was followed up with 1,032 meters of diamond drilling in nine shallow exploratory holes last year. The discovery hole cut 22 meters averaging 5.36 grams per metric ton gold. Other highlighted intercepts from the 2017 program include 7.73 meters of 3.04 g/t gold and 2.15 meters of 5.12 g/t gold.

The 2018 drilling at Monte Carlo will focus on expanding this discovery zone. The company is using the results from last year's drilling, previous trench results, data from ground and airborne geophysical surveys and soil geochemistry to vector in on targets for this year's drilling.

Goldstrike plans to define the orientation of the mineralization and determine the extent of the strike length of Monte Carlo.

In addition to drilling, the 2018 exploration program will include a nine-kilometer (5.6 miles) induced polarization geophysical survey. This IP survey will be conducted on the Monte Carlo zone, where a previous similar survey was successful in identifying key mineralized structures that remain open to the north.

Monte Carlo is at the northeast end of a 10-kilometer- (6 miles) corridor running across Lucky Strike that hosts five large gold-in-soil anomalies – Monte Carlo, Belmont, Samson, Boss and Maverick.

Belmont is a 1,500- by 800-meter geochemical anomaly where soil samples have returned up to 254 parts per billion gold.

Samson is a 600- by 300-meter geochemical anomaly with up to 91 ppb gold in soil samples. Visible gold was observed in rock from a hand dug pit at Samson and a grab sample from that location returned 1.1 g/t gold.

Boss is a 1,000-meter-square geochemical anomaly with soil samples containing up to 700 ppb gold and 9.9 parts per million silver. One grab sample collected from Boss returned 41.7 g/t gold.

Maverick is a 150- by 200-meter geochemical anomaly with up to 90 ppb gold in soil samples

None of these prospects trending southeast from Monte Carlo have been drilled.

Based on the success at Monte Carlo, the company is planning to complete more than 10,000 meters mechanical trenching to test all of zones along the Lucky Strike gold trend in order to define further drill targets.

Goldstrike said extensive areas with strong gold potential on the Lucky Strike Property remain unexplored. This includes a large area the company staked southeast of the Maverick zone, which is thought to have strong gold potential.

The company said a systematic program of prospecting and soil sampling is planned for this area to confirm its gold potential.

In addition to the Lucky Strike program, exploration will also be conducted at Hotspot, another Goldstrike property about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west-northwest of Lucky Strike, near the Yukon-Alaska border.

Goldstrike said the inaugural 2017 program at Hotspot yielded promising early stage results. The Sure Bet discovery zone at Hotspot is a 100- by 150-meter geochemical anomaly that yielded soil samples of up to 4.1 g/t gold.

A mechanical trenching program is planned at the Sure Bet zone to determine the source and extent of the high-grade soil samples and the nature of the mineralization in preparation for drilling.

Outside of the Sure Bet zone, exploration will focus on the catchment area of a creek which yielded a regional stream sediment sample containing 123 ppb gold. Goldstrike's geological team believes this area has excellent potential to produce another discovery.

Additional reconnaissance prospecting and soil sampling is also planned across the wider Hotspot property.

Goldstrike's White Gold District portfolio also includes the King's Ransom, Goldsource, BRC and Bullseye properties. Although multiple anomalies were discovered on each of those properties last year, the company has decided to focus its 2018 exploration on Lucky Strike and Hotspot.

It is anticipated that the program will be carried out in its entirety by Lucky Strike Resources Ltd., which is proposed to be spun-off by Goldstrike as a new publicly traded company, see "New Luckystrike for White Gold projects" in the May 17 edition of Mining News.

"We look forward to an exciting exploration season for our White Gold properties," said Goldstrike President and CEO Terry King. "The excellent exploration results to date, coupled with the fact that all six properties are 100 percent owned with no underlying royalties or property payments, make these assets a solid foundation on which to build Lucky Strike Resources Ltd. as a stand-alone public company while Goldstrike focuses on its joint venture with Newmont on Goldstrike's Plateau Project."

–SHANE LASLEY