StrikePoint Gold cuts deal for Willoughby

StrikePoint Gold Inc. Jan. 16 announced that it has signed a letter of intent to acquire Willoughby, a gold-silver exploration project about 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of Stewart, from Sojourn Exploration Inc.

Willoughby is an intrusion related gold-silver project with similarities to IDM Mining Ltd.'s Red Mountain Mine project about seven kilometers (four miles) to the west.

Red Mountain, which recently received regulatory approvals to develop an underground mine, hosts 2.77 million metric tons of measured and indicated resource averaging 7.91 grams per metric ton (704,600 ounces) gold and 22.75 g/t (2.77 million oz) silver.

Like Red Mountain, mineralization at Willoughby is focused along the contact with Jurassic-aged Goldslide intrusive rocks.

While mineralization on adjacent properties is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization at Willoughby, past drilling has encountered up to 20.5 meters of 24.98 g/t gold and 184.21 g/t silver.

The last drill program at Willoughby, however, was in 1996. Since that time, there has only been limited geophysics and prospecting carried out at this gold-silver property in British Columbia's Golden Triangle.

The 4,625 meters of diamond drilling completed at Willoughby from 1989 and 1995 encountered gold-silver mineralization over 1,000 meters.

In addition to the gold-silver intercept noted above, drilling at Willoughby has cut 11.7 meters grading 40.11 g/t gold and 109 g/t silver in the North Zone target; and 13 meters of 13.37 g/t gold and 63.43 g/t silver in the Main Zone target.

Rapid deglaciation of the area has exposed new prospective ground that has not been explored since the last campaign in 1996.

Millrock Resources Inc., which vended Willoughby to Sojourn in 2017, and the latter company funded an exploration program that included mapping prospecting and sampling on the property, including areas recently exposed by retreating glaciers.

In 2017, Sojourn announced the program carried out by Millrock discovered important new zones of bedrock mineralization recently revealed by the retreat of glaciers and snowfields.

Out of 60 bedrock and float grab samples collected across the Willoughby property, 16 returned values in excess of 1 g/t gold. A shallowly west dipping, one-meter thick quartz sulfosalt shear vein was discovered and mapped over a 250-meter strike length.

Highlights from a one-meter chip samples across the vein include 3.88 g/t gold and 2.42 g/t silver; 2.76 g/t gold and 92.1 g/t silver; and 1.93 g/t gold and 4.81 g/t silver. A grab sample of locally derived sulfide talus down slope from the exposure returned 6.18 g/t gold and 206 g/t silver. The shear vein pinches out to the south and is open to the north underneath the North Willoughby Icefall.

StrikePoint Gold said the highly prospective Willoughby property will be complementary to its Porter property, a high-grade silver project about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) to the southwest.

According to a resource estimate prepared in 2012, the Porter side of Mount Rainey hosts 394,700 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 868 g/t silver (11 million ounces) silver, 3.37 percent lead and 1.41 percent zinc; and 88,900 metric tons of inferred resources grading 595 g/t (1.7 million oz) silver.

A 4,304-meters diamond drill program carried out by StrikePoint in 2018 included 22 holes focused on affirming and expanding the historical resource.

StrikePoint, which will continue exploring the high-grade silver potential at Porter in 2019, said the Willoughby property provides an opportunity for expanded exploration without significantly expanding established camp infrastructure or other overhead costs.

According to the terms outlined in the letter of intent, Strikepoint will acquire full ownership of Willoughby by paying C$85,000 in cash and issuing 3 million shares to Sojourn, which will retain a 1.5 percent net smelter return royalty that Strikepoint can reduce to 0.5 percent for an additional payment of C$1 million.

"The proposed transaction will provide Sojourn with a significant share position in Strikepoint and a royalty on the Willoughby project," said Sojourn Exploration President and CEO Tyler Ruks. "This will provide Sojourn shareholders with exposure not only to exploration upside at Willoughby, but to Strikepoint's entire project portfolio, which includes exciting high-grade precious metals properties in BC's Golden Triangle, and throughout the Yukon. The Strikepoint team has a track record of discovery, wealth creation for shareholders, and significant prior exploration experience with Willoughby. We are confident that the Strikepoint team will make exciting discoveries that will benefit Sojourn shareholders."

The companies anticipate closing the Willoughby property deal around mid-March.

–SHANE LASLEY

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was updated on Jan. 19, 2019 to better explain Millrock Resources' role in the 2017 exploration program at Willoughby.