Cantoo property goes almost overlooked

Blackwolf Copper and Gold Ltd., Oct. 18 announced that initial reconnaissance exploration at the company's Cantoo property just north of Hyder, Alaska, and Stewart, British Columbia, identified encouraging quartz vein structures and sulfide mineralization. Specifically, a large, shallow-dipping, gold-bearing structure estimated at over 30 meters wide.

Cantoo, located on the Alaskan side of the Golden Triangle, immediately west of the Premier Gold project, and south of the past-producing Scotting Gold and Granduc Copper Mines, showed strong sulfide mineralization in-vein and breccia in areas of historic high-grade gold and silver assays, as well as copper oxide mineralization associated with multiple phases of intrusive rock.

Blackwolf crews identified veining and intrusive rocks with varying styles of alteration, including the "Premier porphyry," a megacrystic orthoclase-rich porphyritic unit spatially associated with gold mineralization in the area.

Although limited modern exploration has been performed on Alaskan lands of the Golden Triangle, with virtually none in the past 25 years, U.S. government geologists in the 1990s collected 19 samples, six of which assayed over 1 gram per metric ton gold.

Individual samples included: 18.5 g/t gold, 1,206 g/t gold, 9.2 g/t gold, and 1,173 g/t gold from galena-rich vein mineralization, possibly sourced from the lower vein.

A single sample of quartz with disseminated pyrite reportedly collected from a "100-foot-wide vein" outcropping in a very steep area returned 27.7 g/t gold and 13.5 g/t gold.

Significant barite mineralization, commonly associated with epithermal gold systems, has been identified with these structures.

Blackwolf acquired exclusive historic maps from a Hyder resident describing at least two large vein systems, both of which are partially exposed along a steep, vegetation-covered east-facing cliff immediately west of the Canadian border.

Revealed in the 1920s, two small aerial tramlines were installed to access two separate structures: a lower, silver-rich vein and the upper gold-rich "100-foot-wide vein."

The recent reconnaissance by Blackwolf crews was able to locate the cables, which led to the vein outcrops. The larger structure coincided with a lineament that can be traced over 1,000 meters along strike under thick vegetation.

"Without these old maps, our historic research and particularly the knowledge from a local old-timer, coupled with the challenging terrain and lack of any modern exploration, this drill-ready target may have stayed hidden to modern explorers," said Blackwolf Copper and Gold President and CEO Rob McLeod. "I've closely followed Golden Triangle mining history and exploration throughout my career, and this is certainly one of the most exciting targets that I've seen."

Limited direct shipping mineralization at Cantoo was recovered on surface without blasting, with reportedly 20 tons shipped in the 1920s from rocks spalling off the steep cliff face. Mostly covered in vegetation, Cantoo mountain hosts local exposures of strongly altered intrusive rocks of high-grade gold-silver mineralization, often paired with copper, molybdenum, barium, lead, and zinc.

"Cantoo is underlain by the same intrusive and volcanic rocks that host the Premier Gold project, and the 100-foot vein has the same apparent dip as the wide structures historically mined at the Big Missouri deposit. Gold, silver, and geology certainly do not recognize international borders," added McLeod.

Blackwolf crews collected 28 rock and 41 soil samples at Cantoo, and while the company has commenced permitting work to drill the initial exploration holes there, all assays are pending.

Applications will subsequently be made to drill other gold-silver and volcanogenic massive sulfide targets in the Hyder area following the receipt of assay results from this exploration that are expected later this year.