The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2021 - January 27, 2022
White Gold's 2021 exploration included its first-ever diamond drilling at Betty, an exploration property along the same fault that runs through Newmont's Coffee Gold mine project.
From exploring resource expansion and discovery targets on its namesake property to testing a potential hardrock source of the rich placer streams in the Sixtymile district near the Alaska border, White Gold Corp. continues to systematically advance multiple gold targets across its more than 1 million acres of prospective land in Yukon's prolific White Gold District.
This work is bolstered by the technical and financial support of strategic partners Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. and Kinross Gold Corp., each owning roughly a 17% interest in the Yukon-focused exploration company.
White Gold kicked off its 2021 drilling at Ryan's Surprise, one of several exploration targets found on White Gold's namesake property.
The Golden Saddle and Arc deposits on the White Gold property host 15.6 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 2.28 grams per metric ton (1.14 million ounces) gold; and 9 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.39 g/t (402,100 oz) gold.
Situated bout 2,000 meters west of Golden Saddle, Ryan's Surprise lies at the center of a roughly 6,500-meter-long gold mineralized trend running alongside the Yukon River that also encompasses Ulli's Ridge, Teachers Showing, Minneapolis Creek, and other prospects.
Highlights from previous drilling at the Ryan's Surprise anomaly include 6.6 meters averaging 6.33 g/t gold in a hole drilled in 2011; 6.1 meters of 20.64 g/t gold in 2018; 21 meters of 2.07 g/t gold in 2019; and 3.8 meters averaging 10.96 g/t gold and 12.3 meters averaging 8.69 g/t gold in 2020.
During 2021, White Gold completed an eight-hole diamond drill program testing for western strike and down-dip extensions of the high-grade mineralization drilled at Ryan's Surprise during 2020, along with anomalous gold identified during the 2020 GT probe in the northernmost portion of the adjacent Ulli's Ridge target.
In addition to the diamond drilling, White Gold completed 11 rotary air blast holes to test shallow targets at Ulli's Ridge and Minneapolis Creek. The company was particularly encouraged by the 21.3 meters averaging 1.35 g/t gold, 6.1 meters of 4.67 g/t gold, and 9.1 meters of 2.26 g/t gold encountered by RAB drilling at Ulli's Ridge.
The company followed up on these results with diamond drilling later into the 2021 season.
White Gold also carried out its first-ever diamond drill program at Betty, a 17,127-hectare (42,322 acres) property that covers the eastern strike extension of the Coffee Creek Fault that also hosts Newmont Corp's Coffee Gold deposit about 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the west.
The 2020 exploration program at Betty included geophysical surveys and infill soil geochemistry sampling that helped define targets for 2021 drilling at the Betty White and Betty Ford areas of the property.
Betty White covers a more than 800-meter-long gold-arsenic-antimony soil anomaly across a north-facing hillside above Sunshine Creek. Roughly 400 meters of this trend has been partially outlined with GT Probe sampling and limited rotary air blast (RAB) drilling.
Highlights from White Gold's 2021 drilling at Betty White include 48 meters averaging 1.17 g/t gold in hole BETFD21D001 and 50 meters averaging 3.46 g/t gold in hole BETFD21D003.
Situated about 700 meters south of Betty White, the Betty Ford zone covers a 300- by 200-meter gold-in-soil anomaly. White Gold encountered 24.39 meters averaging 0.94 g/t gold and 50.29 meters averaging 1.08 g/t gold with 2018 RAB drilling.
White Gold has also tested Nolan, a property in the Sixtymile placer gold mining district between Dawson City and the Alaska border, with diamond drilling during the 2021 season.
The four wide-spaced holes drilled at Nolan tested Cali, a 2,500-meter-long gold-arsenic-copper-zinc-lead soil anomaly transected by the Sixtymile-Pika Fault, an important structure that controls porphyry, epithermal, and skarn mineralization in this part of the Yukon and into eastern Alaska.
In addition, the 2021 program at Nolan included geological mapping, induced polarization geophysical surveys, and GT probe sampling focused on advancing two porphyry-style copper-gold targets – Boucher and Mount Hart – to the drill-ready stage.
The 2021 regional exploration program also included mapping, soil sampling, GT probe sampling, lidar surveys, and ground geophysics designed to identify and advance targets in White Gold's continually expanding exploration pipeline, including the Bonanza property in the heart of Yukon's legendary Klondike district.
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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