White Rock adds Tintina Gold Belt target

White Rock Minerals Ltd. Jan.28 announced the discovery of a large gold anomaly at Red Mountain, an expansive Alaska mineral exploration project better known for the zinc-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits found there.

Two VMS deposits on the Red Mountain property – Dry Creek and West Tundra Flats (WTF) – host 9.1 million metric tons of Australian Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (JORC) compliant inferred resource averaging 5.8 percent (1.17 billion pounds) zinc; 2.6 percent (516 million lb) lead; 0.1 percent (26.5 million lb) copper; 157 grams per metric ton (46.1 million ounces) silver; and 0.9 g/t (260,000 oz) gold.

During the 2019 field season, White Rock completed a detailed regional stream sediment program over prospective stratigraphy within the Red Mountain Project area. Sampling targeted stratigraphy prospective for additional VMS deposits as well as Cretaceous gold systems related to the world-class Tintina Gold Belt, a 125- by 750-mile gold-rich province that hosts Novagold Resources and Barrick Gold's 45-million-ounce Donlin Gold deposits, Kinross Gold's 13.5-million-oz Fort Knox gold mine and Northern Star Resources' 10-million-oz Pogo gold mine.

This sampling at Red Mountain led to the discovery of Last Chance Prospect, a six-square-mile (15 square kilometers) gold anomaly where 27 stream sediment samples returned up to 418 parts per billion gold. White Rock says this gold anomaly has a highly anomalous core, with samples returning greater than 100 ppb gold in first order stream catchments over 3,500 meters of strike. The gold anomaly is located in the headwaters of Last Chance Creek and upstream from significant placer mining.

White Rock said the Last Chance gold anomaly is located along a regional gold-arsenic-antimony trend that extends to the east and is spatially associated with a suite of exposed Cretaceous granites, the same age as those associated with the major gold deposits distributed throughout the Tintina Gold Belt.

"White Rock is extremely excited about identifying such a large, strong and coherent gold anomaly in a part of the world-class Tintina Gold Province, host to over 100 million oz of gold, that appears to have not been explored for gold by previous explorers despite the significant placer gold workings downstream only 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the Last Chance gold target," said White Rock Minerals CEO Matt Gill. "The detailed sampling gives White Rock an area for immediate focus with the hope that the gold anomalism could lead to a gold discovery with similar characteristics to world class deposits such as Donlin Creek and Pogo that are also located in the Tintina Gold Province."

In addition to Last Chance, the 2019 sampling program discovered the Moose zinc-copper prospect at the west end of the Red Mountain property and north of Last Chance. Stream sediment samples collected at Moose returned greater than 5,000 parts per million zinc and 750 ppm copper.

Both the Last Chance gold and Moose zinc-copper targets are expected to be prioritized for initial ground activities at the start of the 2020 field season.

White Rock has staked an additional 134 state mining claims to secure the Last Chance and Moose target areas. The expanded tenement area now forms a contiguous block of mining claims from the high-grade Dry Creek and WTF deposits in the east through to the new target areas and the historic Sheep Creek VMS prospect in the west. As a result of this staking, the Red Mountain project now comprises 894 state mining claims and mineral locations covering 216 square miles (559 square kilometers).

–SHANE LASLEY