Placer miners expose showings at Freegold

Triumph Gold Corp. Oct. 16 said that bedrock exposed from placer gold mining has revealed new copper-gold-zinc-lead showings in two streams cutting across the road accessible, Freegold Mountain project in the Yukon.

One of these showings, Drone Zone, is exposed over a roughly 100- by 25-meter area in Mechanic Creek, about 500 meters east of high-grade drill intercepts in the Nucleus gold deposit and 500 meters west of the Keirsten Zone porphyry system.

The Nucleus deposit hosts 74.74 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.54 grams per metric ton (1.3 million ounces) gold and 0.06 percent (105.3 million pounds) copper; plus 63.79 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.4 g/t (800,000 oz) gold and 0.05 percent (491,800 lb) copper.

The Revenue deposit, located east of Nucleus, hosts 80.8 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.39 g/t (1 million oz) gold and 0.14 percent (241.4 million lb) copper.

Further east, the Tintina Hill deposit hosts an additional 2.16 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.89 g/t (131,000 oz) gold 54.9 g/t (3.8 million oz) silver, 0.27 percent (13 million lb) copper, 1.41 percent (67.2 million lb) zinc and 0.99 percent (47.1 million lb) lead.

Together with the delineated deposits, Freegold Mountain hosts around 20 earlier staged exploration targets, including the Keirsten zone tested early this year.

The mineralization exposed by the removal of gravel at Drone Zone consists of disseminated sulfides and quartz-sulfide veins with pyrite, chalcopyrite, and lesser arsenopyrite and bismuthinite. In one location a sample from locally sourced rock debris contained abundant visible gold. The proportion of chalcopyrite to pyrite increases with proximity to the quartz feldspar porphyry dykes and to the faults. The zone was systematically chip sampled and grab samples were collected from select locations.

A second showing, Maximus II, was discovered in a newly exposed placer mining cut in Happy Creek, located roughly 1,000 meters northeast of the gold-rich mineralization cut by Triumph Gold this year at the Blue Sky porphyry. The Maximus II showing consists of multiple thick domains of dense veining and vein breccias with polymetallic mineralization that are exposed discontinuously over 70 meters strike length and are open in all directions. Thick zones of carbonate-quartz-sulfide altered metamorphic wallrock surround the veins and breccias. Sulfides consist of pyrite and arsenopyrite with lesser sphalerite, galena and chalcopyrite. Where exposed, the Maximus II was systematically channel and chip sampled and grab samples were collected from select locations.

Assays are pending from the sampling from both of the new showings.

"The six-kilometer- (3.7 miles) long multi-element soil anomaly that encompasses the Revenue-Nucleus-Blue-Sky zone is cut by five creeks, all of which have active or historical placer mining; this speaks not only to the sheer amount of gold that is eroding out these hills, but also to the increased likelihood of exposing a bedrock source of the gold through active placer mining," said Triumph Gold Vice President of Exploration Tony Barresi. "We are in the unusual and enviable situation where a number of active placer (surficial) mining and exploration operations are supporting our bedrock exploration efforts. We are grateful to the placer miners who generously alert us to the presence of newly uncovered mineralized bedrock."

–SHANE LASLEY