The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2019 – Published Nov. 1, 2019
Looking south over the main Johnson Tract deposit, where one 1988 hole cut 71.4 meters averaging 20.9 g/t gold, 5.2 percent zinc, 1.2 percent copper, 1.5 percent lead and 9.8 g/t silver.
A high-grade gold sample from the historic Croesus Mine on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
HighGold Mining Inc. was launched this summer to explore gold properties spun out of Constantine Metal Resources Ltd.
While the spin-out of HighGold was not finalized until early August, the new company hit the ground running with drills turning at Johnson Tract, a gold-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide VMS project in Southcentral Alaska.
Situated about six miles west of Cook Inlet and roughly 125 miles southwest of Anchorage, the 20,942-acre Johnson Tract property hosts a gold and base metals deposit that is reminiscent of the historical Eskay Creek Mine in British Columbia.
Under a joint venture with Cook Inlet Region Inc. (CIRI), the underlying Johnson Tract landowner, Anaconda Minerals discovered the Johnson Tract deposit in 1982. The discovery hole cut 102.6 meters grading 10.94 grams per metric ton gold, 8.01 percent zinc, 0.75 percent copper, 2.13 percent lead and 8.5 g/t silver; including 50 meters averaging 20 g/t gold, 9.4 percent zinc, 1 percent copper, 2.8 percent lead and 12.7 g/t silver.
Westmin Resources Ltd., which in the 1990s was investigating the idea of shipping ore from Johnson Tract to mill facilities at its Premier Mine in northwestern British Columbia, carried out extensive engineering studies for the Alaska property.
Based on 88 holes drilled prior to 1995, Westmin calculated that Johnson Tract had 1.04 million metric tons of resource averaging 10.05 grams per metric ton gold, 7.63 g/t silver, 8.32 percent zinc and 1.13 percent lead.
Resampling carried out by Constantine prior to spinning Johnson Tract into HighGold Mining returned grades and widths that strongly correlate with the drill results that formed the basis of this resource calculation.
An industry compliant NI 43-101 technical report confirmed that the "re-sampling program replicated similar assay values as historic data, indicating that the historic assay results can be considered accurate and representative of the mineralization observed."
The primary objective of HighGold's 2019 program is to complete enough drilling to elevate the historical resource to NI 43-101 standards, setting the property up for an even more robust drill program in 2020.
In addition to the main deposit area, a 7.5-mile stretch of prospects at Johnson Tract provide HighGold plenty of upside potential.
One such prospect is Northeast Offset, a target that is interpreted as the fault displaced extension of the Johnson Tract deposit. Limited historic drilling at this target has documented alteration and mineralization that shares characteristics with the main deposit.
Difficult Creek, which is about three miles northeast of the main Johnson Tract deposit is another prospect that was tested with two holes in the 1990s.
DC-001, cut three meters of 7.54 g/t gold, 3.72 percent zinc, 0.11 percent copper, 1.15 percent lead and 27.4 g/t silver; and DC-02 encountered 13 meters of 8.57 g/t gold, 4.7 percent zinc, 0.5 percent copper, 0.9 percent lead and 37.7 g/t silver.
In addition, Easy Creek, Kona and South Valley show promising surface results that require further field work to establish drill targets.
HighGold Mining's portfolio also includes the Munro-Croesus, Golden Mile and Golden Perimeter projects in Ontario's Timmins Gold Camp; a Yukon joint venture project; and certain royalty rights in Ontario.
EDITOR'S NOTE: For more details on HighGold Mining's 2019 program and initial plans for its Ontario properties, see HighGold wraps 2019 Johnson exploration.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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