Variety of metals, deposits turn up at Rau

ATAC Resources Ltd. Jan. 16 said the final results from the 2018 exploration of the highly prospective Bobcat, Condor and Spotlight targets have advanced the company's understanding of the broad controls on mineralization across Rau, a 660-square kilometer (255 square miles) property located at the western end of the ATAC's Rackla Gold property in the Yukon.

The company says results of this program continue to provide compelling evidence that the Rackla Pluton is one of multiple intrusive-related systems on the Rau property. So far, exploration has identified polymetallic intrusive-related mineralization over a 20-kilometer (12.5 miles) trend that varies from copper and gold skarns closest to the Rack Pluton to carbonate replacement style deposits with silver, zinc, lead and gold at a distance.

"We continue to be impressed by the strength and variety of targets throughout the Rau Project," said ATAC Resources President and CEO Graham Downs. "With over 20 kilometers of strike length identified to date, we see evidence of a substantial intrusion-related system."

The 2018 exploration at Bobcat, a gold-copper skarn target about 1,500 meters east of the mapped surface expression of the Rackla Pluton, returned numerous multi-gram gold and multi-percent copper grab samples.

Previously reported results from prospecting and hand pitting early in the 2018 program include: 6.07 g/t gold with 7.41 percent copper; and 5.08 g/t gold with 3.69 percent copper.

Follow-up work completed in September identified additional gold mineralization including a surface grab sample grading 9.53 g/t gold, expanding the length of the skarn target area to roughly 250 meters.

Grid sampling east of Bobcat has identified a 1,200- by 1,000-meter silver-lead-tin soil anomaly that remains open to the east. The easternmost line of this grid contained a soils sample grading 14.55 g/t silver.

ATAC said the style of mineralization identified at Bobcat is characteristic of distal, retrograde skarn alteration related to an intrusive center. Host rocks observed in the Bobcat area consist mainly of fine-grained limestone, marble, hornfels (a metamorphic rock formed by contact with a hot igneous body) fine-grained siliciclastic (containing broken pieces of older silica rocks), and minor volcanic rocks.

The 2018 program at Spotlight, a skarn target about 6.5 kilometers (four miles) north of Bobcat, included soil sampling and prospecting. This work follows up the 2017 discovery of high-grade grab samples containing 7,080 g/t silver and 3.27 g/t gold. These samples were collected from a 500-meter-long gold and silver soil anomaly.

Soil sampling in 2018 expanded this anomaly to more than 2,200 meters in length and remains open to the north, east and west. Soil values of up to 0.7 g/t gold and 15.2 g/t silver have been collected from this anomaly.

Over just one day of detailed prospecting was conducted in the Spotlight area during 2018, ATAC geologists collected rocks samples with 4,090 g/t and 1,765 g/t silver in limonite- (iron oxides) bearing quartz veins were collected near the initial discovery. Prospecting along a 1,200-meter anomalous soil trend returned brecciated quartz-siderite (an iron mineral) material containing 2.17 g/t gold and 1.38 g/t gold.

ATAC said there is ample evidence to indicate high fluid flow, likely from a nearby intrusive system. These observations are supported by the development of gold-copper-tungsten skarn mineralization at the historic Blue Lite occurrence located 1,000 meters south of Spotlight.

ATAC also carried out exploration at Condor, a target situated in a similar stratigraphic and structural environment to the Tiger gold deposit about 1,500 meters to the southeast.

Tiger, the most advanced deposit on the Rau property, is a carbonate replacement body with 5.68 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 2.66 g/t (485,700 oz) gold.

The 2018 exploration at Condor followed up on an area of high-grade prospecting samples (17 g/t gold and 23.30 percent zinc) collected in 2017.

Hand pitting at Condor identified a zinc-rich zone. Highlighted samples collected from this pit contain 37.49 percent and 36.51 percent zinc.

While underexplored, ATAC said the Rackla Pluton represents one of the proposed hydrothermal fluid sources for the district and may have mineralized porphyry potential.

The neighboring Bobcat target reflects outward fluid flow and the development of gold-copper skarn mineralization. This mineral zonation continues to transition outwards to a gold-silver dominated carbonate-replacement system exemplified by Tiger. At the periphery, silver-zinc-lead mineralization has developed at the Ocelot target, demonstrating distal components of fluid flow.

Systematic exploration at the Rau Project has revealed an exciting geological environment, which has already led to multiple discoveries and suggests a robust system with significant additional potential. Planning for the 2019 field program is currently underway and details will be announced in the coming months.

"Much of the property still remains at a very early stage of exploration, with strong potential for additional discoveries to be made. We look forward to continuing to advance this project in upcoming exploration seasons, with a focus on both gold and base metal opportunities," said ATAC Resources CEO Downs.

–SHANE LASLEY