The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News – February 22, 2019
White Gold Corp. Jan. 20 reported that new results from 2018 drilling at Golden Saddle demonstrates strong potential for a previously unidentified series of shallow zones of gold mineralization within this 1.25-million-ounce gold deposit on the company's White Gold property in the Yukon.
A resource calculated for the White Gold property early in 2018 outlines 12.32 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 2.43 grams per metric ton (961,000 ounces) gold; plus 5.16 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.7 g/t (282,500 oz) gold in the adjacent Golden Saddle and Arc deposits.
GS Main, a high-grade core of the larger Golden Saddle deposit, contains 832,000 oz gold in the indicated category averaging 2.96 g/t gold and 107,000 oz gold in the inferred category averaging 3.18 g/t gold. Using reverse circulation drilling, the 2018 program focused on expanding the GS Main zone and testing the system at depth.
The latest round of assay results has identified new zones of high-grade gold mineralization in GS Upper, situated above GS Main Zone. The drilling also added additional continuity to the geological model, infilling gaps and significantly increasing the thickness of mineralization in the GS Main Zone in certain areas.
In addition to finding evidence of added shallow gold in Golden Saddle, the latest batch of results has provided a better understanding of Ryan's Showing, a high-grade gold discovery about 2,000 meters to the southwest.
"Our 2018 program on the Golden Saddle deposit focused on building ounces through expansion of the known deposit and the discovery of satellite deposits in the immediate vicinity," said White Gold Corp. CEO David D'Onofrio. "We are extremely pleased to have had considerable success on both fronts, expanding the footprint of the Golden Saddle, building the thickness and grade of mineralization within the resource boundary, as well as making the significant GS West and Ryan's Showing discoveries along trend with Golden Saddle."
GS West is a new discovery immediately west of the Golden Saddle deposit reported by the company in October. For further information, read White Gold makes another GS discovery.
Upgrading the GS model
Due to the orientation of the deposit, most of the holes drilled at Golden Saddle are angled to the southeast. The latest batch of results are from three diamond core and five reverse circulation holes angled toward the southwest, and orientation meant to improve geologic modelling of the deposit and test for mineralization running perpendicular to the main body of mineralization.
White Gold Corp. said this drilling successfully demonstrates strong potential for a series of shallow northwest trending, steeply northeast dipping zones of gold mineralization within the GS Upper zone that were not previously recognized due to the orientation of most of the previous drilling.
The three diamond holes were drilled along a fence across the center of the deposit.
WHTGS18D0193, a previously announced hole at the northeast end of this fence, cut 68 meters averaging 3.96 g/t gold from a depth of 210 meters.
WHTGS18D0195, drilled 150 meters southwest of hole 193, cut 1.05 meters of 5.29 g/t gold from 81.4 meters and 6.38 meters of 1.44 g/t Au from 89 meters in the GS Upper zone; 18.85 meters of 1.99 g/t gold from 148 meters in the GS Main zone; and 2.45 meters of 3.82 g/t gold from 353.55 meters in the GS Footwall zone.
WHTGS18D0196, drilled 130 meters further southwest, cut 34 meters of 2.39 g/t gold from a depth of 31 meters in the GS Main zone; and 19 meters of 1.62 g/t gold from 265 meters in the GS Footwall zone.
The RC holes were drilled along a fence about 100 meters northwest of the fence of three diamond holes.
The best RC intercept came in WHTGS18RC0022, the center hole of the fence, which cut 35.05 meters averaging 3.26 g/t gold from 160 meters and ending in GS Main zone mineralization. White Gold Corp. said this hole has expanded width of the GS Main zone by approximately 60 percent in this area.
Geologic modelling of the new mineralized zones encountered in these holes to ensure they are adequately captured in future resource updates on the project is currently underway.
Defining Ryan's Showing
White Gold Corp. also reported results from five holes to follow up on the successful discovery drilling at Ryan's Showing reported by the company in September.
The Ryan's Showing discovery hole, WHTRYN18RC0001, cut 6.1 meters averaging 20.64 grams per metric ton gold from a depth of 83.82 meters.
WHTRYN18RC0002, drilled 105 meters west of the Ryan's Showing discovery, cut 13.17 meters averaging 5.02 g/t gold from a depth of 121.92 meters, including 4.57 meters of 9.25 g/t gold from 123.44 meters.
This mineralized zone at Ryan's Showing is associated with an east-west oriented, north dipping structure that has been identified with Lidar imagery and geophysical surveys. White Gold Corp. says the structure remains open along strike and at depth, and there are indicators that the gold mineralization is one of multiple mineralized structures.
Follow up drilling on the newly discovered mineralized zone further defined the geometry and orientation of the mineralization of the discovery and infilled the gap between the discovery holes.
WHTRS18D0006, drilled between WHTRS18RC0001 and WHTRS18RC0002, encountered five zones of strong brecciation and quartz veining, all of which were associated with anomalous gold. The two most significant zones returned 6.06 meters averaging 4.52 g/t gold from a depth of 178.94 meters and 10 meters of 1.32 g/t gold from 200 meters.
White Gold said the drilling on Ryan's Showing further defined the shape and orientation of mineralization, providing valuable information to define the geological model and direct follow-up drilling on the target, which remains open along strike and at depth.
Coupled with GS West, another gold zone discovered in 2018, the company sees the potential to add additional gold in the immediate area of the Golden Saddle deposit.
"The proximity of the GS West to the Golden Saddle and high-grade results on the Ryan's Showing make them both very compelling targets which warrant follow-up drilling," said D'Onofrio. "We believe that we are just beginning to define these satellites of the Golden Saddle deposit and are very optimistic for the prospects for these new discoveries to add ounces to our global resources, and for the potential of additional discoveries along trend and in close proximity to our Golden Saddle deposit."
–SHANE LASLEY
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