The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Strong grades in first two holes; labs slow to return assays North of 60 Mining News – September 11, 2020
The first hole of the 2020 season at JT cut 74.1 meters grading 17.89 g/t gold, along with silver, zinc, copper, and lead.
HighGold Mining Inc. Sept. 9 reports that the 2020 drill program on its Johnson Tract project in Southcentral Alaska picked up where the 2019 program left off – drills tapping long sections of high-grade gold and base metal mineralization.
Situated on the west side of Cook Inlet about 125 miles southwest of Anchorage, Johnson Tract is a gold-copper-zinc-silver-lead project that had been inactive for the 25 years prior to HighGold's 2019 program there.
Highlights from the 2019 program include:
• 107.8 meters averaging 12.4 grams per metric ton gold, 7.1% zinc, 0.9% copper, 1.6% lead, and 9 g/t silver.
• 74.1 meters of 17.9 g/t gold, 7.3% zinc, 0.5% copper, 1.3% lead, and 7.1 g/t silver.
• 75.1 meters of 10 g/t gold, 9.4% zinc, 0.6% copper, 1.1% lead, and 6 g/t silver.
Based on 88 historical holes and the nine holes drilled by HighGold last year, the JT deposit at Johnson Tract hosts 2.14 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 6.07 grams per metric ton gold, 5.8 g/t silver, 5.85% zinc, 0.57% copper, and 0.71% lead.
Including the value of the silver and base metals, this comes to 10.93 g/t (750,000 oz) gold-equivalent.
The first hole from the roughly 15,000-meter drill program being carried out at Johnson Tract this year cut high-grade gold down-dip from JT and the second encountered strong base mineralization on the northeast margins of the deposit.
JT20-092 cut 74.1 meters averaging 17.89 g/t gold, 0.48% copper, 7.28% zinc, 1.31% lead, and 7.1 g/t silver. This comes to 23.8 g/t gold-equivalent over an estimated true width 37.1 meters.
This intercept was encountered roughly 15 to 20 meters down-dip of JT19-90, the hole drilled last year that cut 75.1 meters of 10 g/t gold, 9.4% zinc, 0.6% copper, 1.1% lead, and 6 g/t silver.
At roughly 79% higher gold grade, the lower intercept in hole JT20-092 is encouraging and HighGold says this thick high-grade mineralization is open to expansion and remains a focus of ongoing drilling.
The second hole, JT20-093, cut 43.5 meters averaging 1.98% copper, 8.45% zinc and 1.35 g/t gold on the northeast edge of the JT deposit. This comes to 9.9 g/t gold-equivalent over an estimated true width of 28 meters.
"HighGold's 2020 drill program has started right where we left off last season with the intersection of exceptional widths of high-grade mineralization," said HighGold Mining President and CEO Darwin Green. "These intersections continue to confirm and expand the mineralized zone and, more importantly, include higher-grade mineralization than the closest neighboring drill holes. The results also support our exploration model which suggests that the lower part of the known JT deposit, the thickest and highest-grade portion, is open to expansion. One drill rig continues to systematically test this resource expansion target, while two other drill rigs remain focused on surrounding targets including the high-priority NE Offset area."
So far, HighGold has completed more than 8,000 meters of drilling in 15 holes. This includes the completion of eight holes at the JT deposit expansion targets, four at the NE Offset target, and three at the North Trend target.
HighGold, however, has only received assay results from the first two holes.
The company says assay turnaround times are significantly longer than normal due to a large increase in sample volumes at analytical labs and impacts related to government and industry mandated COVID-19 policies.
HighGold said it is working with its assay laboratory contractors to shorten turn-around times; however, neither the company nor the labs can give accurate guidance on timing for the receipt of future results.
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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