Bonanza gold in grab sample near Hyder

Decade Resources Ltd. May 2 announced results from sampling completed at its recently acquired Crest gold property near the town of Hyder in Southeast Alaska.

Lying just across the border from British Columbia's Golden Triangle region, the Crest property is adjacent to Ascot Resources' Premier gold-silver mine property on the Canadian side of the border.

Due to the lack of snow at lower elevations in the Stewart-Hyder area in December, Decade was able to carry out preliminary silt and float rock sampling in stream beds along the Granduc Road which crosses the property.

The five silt samples collected returned up to 0.224 grams per metric ton gold, which is considered highly anomalous in silt.

The company also had 12 rusty appearing float rocks collected from the stream beds at Crest sampled. The best rock sample, CR-18-13, contained 2,034 g/t (65.4 ounces per metric ton) gold and 412 g/t (13.2 oz/t) silver. Other highlighted samples include 3.91 g/t gold and two g/t silver in CR-18-14; and 3.67 g/t gold and 599 g/t (19.26 oz/t) silver in CR-18-17.

Sample CR-18-13 had low lead-zinc values but was associated with high arsenic values indicating the possible presence of arsenopyrite. Both CR-18-14 and CR-18-17 had high lead-zinc values associated with the rock.

High-grade gold mineralization was identified at Crest roughly a century ago and is described in a 1929 United States Geological Survey bulletin, "Geology of Hyder and Southeastern Alaska."

According to A. F. Buddington, author of the bulletin, a northwest trending quartz-sulfide vein is present on the property.

"At one open-cut, in the bed of a small gulch, the vein consists of a number of small quartz stringers, some of which carry free gold. Assays of the quartz have yielded as high as $105 in gold to the ton," Buddington penned in the 1929 report. "At another open-cut a moil sample of the country rock and quartz stringers, two feet in width averaged $4.50 in gold to the ton. The mineralized shoots run from $7 to $12 in gold to the ton."

The figures in Buddington's report were calculated in the US$20 per ounce gold price of the time. These bonanza grade values, however, have not been confirmed with modern exploration.

During the 2019 field season, Decade Resources plans further sampling to locate the source of the rocks it collected in December, as well as evaluate the total property.

–SHANE LASLEY