The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
First successful hole at Unga target hits a wider second zone North of 60 Mining News – February 26, 2021
Aquila, at the southwest end of the Shumagin trend on Unga Island, is one of the gold targets Heliostar tested last year.
Heliostar Metals Ltd. reported two zones of strong mineralization from the first hole the company drilled into the Aquila target on its Unga project in Southwest Alaska.
In November, Heliostar reported that this hole, AQ20-01, cut 3.6 meters averaging 4.46 grams per metric ton gold and 6.8 g/t silver from a depth of 37.6 meters.
Further assay results show this hole tapped more robust mineralization over broader depths further downhole.
At 46.6 meters, hole AQ20-01 cut 17.4 meters averaging 2.24 g/t gold and 3.2 g/t silver, including 5.8 meters averaging 5.56 g/t gold and 6.6 g/t silver from a depth of 50.3 meters.
"The Aquila target is a new zone and hitting such a wide, shallow interval of gold mineralization in the first hole opens up an entirely new and exciting area of exploration at Unga," said Heliostar Metals Vice President of Exploration Sam Anderson.
Situated at the southwest end of the Shumagin trend, one of two corridors of gold and silver mineralization running across the breadth of Unga Island, Aquila was discovered by Battle Mountain Gold in the 1980s.
Historical trenching along the main outcropping vein zone at Aquila is reported to have encountered up to 11.48 g/t gold and 53.5 g/t silver over 3.7 meters in the discovery trench.
Limited drilling at that time, however, was unsuccessful and abandoned in large part due to poor drill recoveries.
With modern drilling techniques, Heliostar obtained better core recoveries with its 2020 program.
AQ20-01 was drilled at the approximate location of a historical hole that had poor core recovery.
Four follow-up holes tested the vein both along strike and at depth.
Heliostar says this drilling had significantly improved core recovery from the main Amethyst vein and has defined a second vein orientation, the Ankle Creek vein, which is a very favorable development allowing considerable room for expansion along strike and at depth. Assays are pending for holes AQ20-02 through AQ20-05.
"Aquila, located six kilometers (3.7 miles) southwest of the SH-1 resource, along the same vein and with outcropping gold mineralization over 850 meters, is one of the high potential exploration targets identified and drilled in 2020," said Anderson. "Due to the temperate climate of the project, the company will recommence drilling in late March and stepping out from this discovery hole will be a priority for the 2021 program."
The SH-1 deposit referred to by Anderson hosts 866,015 metric tons of inferred resource averaging 13.8 grams per metric ton (384,318 ounces) gold and 35.4 g/t (986,321 oz) silver.
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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