The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2020 - Published January 19, 2021
GT Gold's 2020 drilling targeted Quash Pass, a promising copper-gold-silver prospect area about seven kilometers southwest of the Saddle North porphyry copper-gold deposit on the Tatogga property in Northern British Columbia.
Drill core ready to be deployed to the copper, gold and silver deposits and prospects at Tatogga.
After COVID-19 delays to the start of 2020 exploration at Tatogga, in late June GT Gold Corp. began mobilizing crews and equipment to this exciting gold-copper-silver property in British Columbia's Golden Triangle.
The 2020 field work, which included a 4,481-meter drill campaign, was carefully designed to comply with a robust COVID-19 prevention plan that aligned with provincial regulatory requirements and guidance provided by the Tahltan First Nation COVID-19 emergency management team.
While preparing for a drill program that got underway in August, GT Gold published a maiden resource estimate for Saddle North, a porphyry copper-gold deposit at Tatogga similar to those at Newcrest Mining Ltd. and Imperial Metals Corp.'s Red Chris mine about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) to the east.
Based on 41 holes of drilling completed since late in 2017, Saddle North hosts 298 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.28% (1.81 billion pounds) copper, 9.36 grams per metric ton (3.47 million ounces) gold, and 0.8 g/t (7.58 million oz) silver; plus 543 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.25% (2.98 billion lb) copper, 0.31 g/t (5.46 million oz) gold, and 0.7 g/t (11.64 million oz) silver.
This resource forms the basis for an early 2021 preliminary economic assessment that provides a first look at the engineering and economic parameters of establishing a mine at Saddle North.
The 2020 drill program did not target this large copper-gold resource, nor the adjacent higher-grade Saddle South gold-silver deposit. Instead, the nine holes drilled last year tested Quash Pass, a promising copper-gold-silver target about seven kilometers (4.3 miles) southwest of Saddle North.
Airborne and ground geophysics, mapping, soil geochemical sampling and prospecting have identified two large-scale anomalous trends and several adjacent individual targets at Quash Pass.
GT Gold crew is also relogging core from Saddle South, a gold- and silver-rich vein system about 1,500 meters southwest of Saddle North, with the goal of establishing a maiden resource in 2021.
Highlights from previous drilling at Saddle South include 53.7 meters averaging 10 g/t gold and 46.8 g/t silver; 28.3 meters averaging 6.58 g/t gold and 26.5 g/t silver; and 15 meters of 5.6 g/t gold and 15.2 g/t silver.
The Saddle South relogging is being completed at a new core relogging facility GT Gold established at Bear Paw lodge, a highway accessible location where the company established its camp to better manage its exploration during the COVID-19 pandemic.
GT Gold's programs at Tatogga are being financially and technically supported by Newmont Corp., which invested C$8.3 million to acquire 6.9 million GT Gold shares at C$1.20 apiece at the end of 2019. This is on top of a previous C$17.6 million strategic investment by the gold producing major. As of November 2020, Newmont held a 14.9% equity position in GT Gold.
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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