The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Redstar eyes expansion of maiden NI 43-101 resource for SH-1 North of 60 Mining News – February 14, 2020
Looking down on the valley that hosts the SH-1 gold-silver deposit on Redstar's Unga gold project in Alaska.
Redstar Gold Corp. Jan. 10 published a maiden industry-compliant resource for the SH-1 zone, formerly known as the Shumagin zone, on its Unga gold project on the Alaska Peninsula.
The Unga project covers roughly 93 square miles (240 square kilometers) of two islands south of the Alaska Peninsula, Unga and Popof, that has long been known for its high-grade gold. The Apollo and adjacent Sitka mines, established on Unga Island in 1886, produced roughly 150,000 ounces of gold from high-grade epithermal veins before they were shuttered in 1922.
Most of the high-grade gold on Unga Island is found along two trends – Apollo-Sitka and Shumagin – that each cut roughly six miles across Unga Island. Apollo-Sitka hosts the historic Apollo Mine and Shumagin is a parallel high-grade gold trend about 2,000 meters to the northwest.
The Shumagin trend, which hosts the SH-1 zone, has been a primary exploration target for Redstar.
Using a cut-off grade of US$1,450 per ounce, SH-1 hosts 866,015 metric tons of inferred resource averaging 13.8 grams per metric ton (384,318 oz) gold and 35.4 g/t (986,321 g/t) silver.
This is the first ever resource for SH-1 compliant to National Instrument 43-101, which outlines the standards for publicly traded Canadian companies to report mineral resources and other information disclosed to the public.
"This is the first NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate for the Unga project and summarizes the achievements of both Redstar and earlier exploration work on the SH-1 zone," said Redstar Gold President John Gray. "This maiden resource is a milestone in achieving our strategic objective of identifying an economically minable resource at the project.
The SH-1 is found along a roughly 900-meter section at the center of the zone, which has been traced by diamond drilling for a total of 1,700 meters along strike.
Geological mapping, sampling, drilling and geophysics indicate expansion potential of the resource for an additional 400 meters to the northeast and for an additional 3,000 meters to the southwest along the Shumagin trend towards Orange Mountain, which has been interpreted as the hydrothermal center of the trend.
The northeast expansion potential is demonstrated by strong induced polarization and magnetic geophysical trends that show continuation of the SH-1 zone. Two holes drilled in this area in 2016 – 1.5 meters of 16.97 g/t gold and 13.1 g/t silver in 16SH022, and 0.3 meters of 34.5 g/t gold and 16.5 g/t silver in 16SH023 – leave the system open for further drill definition to the northeast.
The southwest expansion potential is demonstrated by geophysics showing the trace of the Shumagin trend which extends for 600 meters in this direction. One hole drilled 300 meters southwest of the SH-1 resource, DDH 17SH032, cut one meter of 2.11 g/t gold and 27 g/t silver. In addition, Pray's Vein remains a nearby target for resource expansion of the SH-1 Zone where surface sampling has returned up to 11.8 g/t gold.
"Systematic exploration of the Unga project including extensive geophysics, soil and rock geochemistry, trenching and drilling has identified over 40 gold and/or copper prospects on Unga Island allowing Redstar to prioritize future exploration," said Gray. "Six of the highest priority targets (including Aquila, Orange Mountain, Pray's Vein and Bloomer Ridge) lie either on the Shumagin Trend or within 1,000 meters of the SH-1 Zone. Redstar plans to test for additional resources along strike and down dip of SH-1 as well as testing these other highly prospective zones with the objective of developing the Unga project into a long-life, low cost gold and base metals producer."
Further details on prospective zones at Unga and Redstar's recent exploration on the property can be read at Priority Unga gold drill targets found in the Jan. 24 edition of North of 60 Mining News.
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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