The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Cuts extension of vein that provide gold ore to historic mine North of 60 Mining News – June 18, 2021
Heliostar has encountered high-grade gold in holes targeting extensions of the veins that supplied ore to historic Apollo-Sitka gold mines on Unga Island just off the Alaska Peninsula.
Heliostar Metals Ltd. June 16 reported that drills have tapped a high-grade gold vein in the area of the historic Apollo Mine on Unga Island and multiple strong gold intercepts at the adjacent Sitka Mine site.
From 1886 to 1922, the historic Apollo Mine produced roughly 130,000 ounces of gold from ore that is estimated to have averaged around 10 grams per metric ton gold. This ore is reported to have been mined from three closely spaced, parallel veins.
The Apollo vein transitions from gold-rich at shallow levels to gold with silver and base metals at depth. The historic mining, which occurred prior to the development of floatation technology to recover gold from sulfide ore, only mined the oxidized gold-rich ore found near the surface Apollo.
Historical reports note that many of the underground drifts and crosscuts at Apollo encountered veins with gold, silver, and base metals that were not followed up with drilling.
A 14-hole drill program in the 1980s tested for extensions of the veins but did not encounter the main Apollo gold zones.
Heliostar geologists believe this drilling did not adequately test the main Apollo-Sitka vein corridor due to inaccuracies in the historic mine drawings and locations of the 1980s holes.
Four holes drilled by Heliostar in 2020 intersected a halo of low-grade mineralization around mined-out areas at Sitka and cut veins near the main mine at Apollo Shaft 1. It remains unclear, however, if the 2020 Apollo drilling intersected the main vein or additional parallel veins to the north.
This year, Heliostar planned fences of reverse circulation drill holes to accurately locate the vein, with exploration drilling then to step-out along strike to expand the lateral footprint of mineralization.
After cutting a broad zone of intense clay and pyrite alteration that indicated that the first hole of this program was close to a major structure, the second cut high-grade gold in the Apollo vein.
This hole, APSRC21-02, cut 3.05 meters averaging 88.3 g/t gold from a depth of 21.35 meters.
APSRC21-03, drilled back across the structure near to APSRC21-02, cut the vein but only returned a low-grade interval. This grade variability is not uncommon for high-grade gold systems and has been the case at SH-1, the most advanced gold deposit currently outlined at Unga.
A total of 13 RC holes and one diamond drill hole were completed this year at Apollo. This includes an RC (APSRC21-06) and diamond hole (APS21-08) that intersected the Apollo vein below APSRC21-02. Assays are pending from these intercepts.
Heliostar also completed 12 RC holes at the adjacent Sitka Mine area. One hole drilled about 500 meters east of APSRC21-02 and in the Sitka zone that cut multiple gold intercepts were included in the first batch of results from this year's drilling.
This hole, SKRC21-03, cut:
• 4.57 meters averaging 7.98 g/t gold from a depth of 13.72 meters.
• 4.57 meters averaging 1.91 g/t gold from 39.62 meters.
• 10.67 meters averaging 8.65 g/t gold from 54.86 meters.
• 1.52 meters averaging 10.2 g/t gold from 83.82 meters.
Heliostar says the 27 holes that have been drilled so far this year at Apollo-Sitka have defined parallel veins over a strike length of 725 meters and to a depth of 140 meters. This mineralization remains open and drilling is ongoing.
"These are exceptional results and this discovery at Apollo adds another high-grade zone to the Unga project," said Heliostar Metals CEO Charles Funk. "The Apollo-Sitka trend is over two kilometers long and drilling completed to date in 2021 has tested just 725 meters of the trend, with additional assays pending."
This year's planned 7,000-meter drill program also includes additional holes at SH-1, which 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.
Five holes, including two twin RC holes for comparison to 2020 diamond holes, have been completed at the SH-1 resource area. A diamond drill rig is being used to define extensions to known mineralization. Historical hole BM-1 is the deepest hole in the resource and intersected 5.48 meters grading 23.99 g/t gold, and mineralization is open to depth.
The Unga exploration team has also completed four holes at Aquilla, another priority target at Unga. This drilling targeted the Amethyst vein, where one hole drilled last year, AQ20-01, cut 31.6 meters averaging 1.8 g/t gold, including 5.75 meters of 5.56 g/t gold.
Heliostar said all four holes drilled this year cut the Amethyst vein at depth and along strike. Assay results from these holes are pending, and drilling is ongoing at Aquilla.
Funk says the goal of the 2021 program is to demonstrate the "the current resource can grow to greater than 1 million oz of 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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