Klondike Gold expands drill program, focus

Klondike Gold Corp. Aug. 14 said it is expanding this year's drill program at its Klondike District property in the Yukon, including the addition of a second drill to test the Nugget zone.

The first drill continues to focus on expanding Lone Star gold, a sizeable lode gold zone that lies above the confluence of celebrated Bonanza and Eldorado Creeks.

The Lone Star drill program will continue to systematically test sections to outline the geometry, continuity, and extent of disseminated gold mineralization and gold-bearing quartz vein mineralization found there.

So far, this first rig has completed 5,050 meters of drilling this year and an additional 2,000 meters are planned this season.

Assays from the drilling at Lone Star began to roll in during July, highlights include: 65.05 meters of 1.4 grams per metric ton gold from 2.5 meters in hole LS18-156; and 26.2 meters of 1.33 g/t gold from 6.6 meters in LS18-155. So far, drilling has traced Lone Star for about 1,000 meters along strike.

A second rig, which will focus on testing the Nugget Zone, has been mobilized and is also expected to complete about 2,000 meters over the balance of the 2018 season.

When Klondike Gold initially drilled Nugget Zone, it was focused on gold-bearing quartz veins carrying higher grades over narrower intervals, such as one hole drilled in 2015 that cut 14.3 meters of 5.1 g/t gold there. The company has since recognized that gold is disseminated in the host rock adjacent to quartz veining.

As a result, the company is re-sampling previously drilled holes for wider zones of lower grade, near surface gold. This work included resampling of holes drilled at Nugget, a zone that runs parallel to Lone Star about 1,500 meters to the southwest. Highlights from this work include 45.2 meters of 1.55 g/t gold in hole EC15-03; 58.1 meters of 1.03 g/t gold in EC15-15; and 9.15 meters of 2.52 g/t gold in EC17-04.

The objective of this year's drilling at Nugget Zone is to attempt to broadly outline the geometry, continuity, and extent of disseminated gold mineralization and gold-bearing quartz vein mineralization.

With positive results from its re-assessment of previous drilling, Klondike Gold has relogged 43 holes drilled in 2015 and 2016 – 37 from Nugget and six from Gay Gulch – and has submitted additional samples to be assayed for disseminated gold.

In addition to drilling and resampling, the company has completed a regional survey across the 527-square-kilometer (203 square miles) Klondike District property. This work included airborne geophysical surveys; soil sampling; structural and lithologic mapping; and prospecting.

–SHANE LASLEY