The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2021 - January 27, 2022
Starting what it started in 2020, Whitehorse Gold Corp. continued to tap high-grade gold-silver mineralization with resource expansion and exploration drilling at Skukum, home to a past-producing mine in southern Yukon.
New Pacific Metals Corp., which gained full ownership of Skukum through the 2011 acquisition of Tagish Lake Gold Corp., created Whitehorse Gold late in 2020 as a subsidiary to advance this 170-square-kilometer (65 square miles) gold property about 55 kilometers (34 miles) south of Yukon's capital.
Host to the historical Mount Skukum mine, which produced roughly 79,750 ounces of gold from 233,400 tons of ore from 1986 to 1988, the Skukum property enjoys excellent infrastructure for exploration and future production. This includes a year-round road, 50-person camp, roughly 4,800 meters of underground workings, 300-ton-per-day mill, tailings management facility, and service buildings.
There has also been roughly 140,000 meters of drilling previously completed on the property.
According to a 2020 calculation, Skukum hosts 1.33 million metric tons of indicated resource containing 274,544 ounces of gold and 5.36 million oz of silver; plus 1.11 metric tons of inferred resource containing 223,873 oz of gold and 1.91 million oz of silver.
The bulk of this resource is in the Skukum Creek deposit, which contains 1 million metric tons of the indicated resource averaging 5.85 g/t (188,344 oz) gold and 166.4 g/t (5.36 million oz) silver; plus 537,000 metric tons of the inferred resource averaging 4.99 g/t (86,124 oz) gold and 108.3 g/t (1.87 million oz) silver.
In July, Whitehorse launched a roughly 16,544-meter drill program focused on expanding the current resources and exploring new mineralized zones across the 170-square-kilometer (65.6 square miles) property.
In October, the company reported bonanza grade gold in a step-out hole drilled about 150 meters up dip from historical drilling at Rainbow 2, one of four zones that make up the Skukum Creek deposit.
This hole, SC21-015, cut 4.2 meters averaging 27.1 g/t gold and 346.4 g/t silver from a depth of 239 meters, including a 3.2-meter subsection averaging 33.4 g/t (1.07 oz/t) gold and 391.7 g/t silver.
Other highlights from assay results that were returned as of the end of October include 5.5 meters averaging 4.3 g/t gold and 279.9 g/t silver in SC21-005; 6.2 meters averaging 2.5 g/t gold and 431.8 g/t silver in SC21-008; 2.3 meters averaging 4.3 g/t gold and 864.4 g/t silver in SC21-009.
These holes were positioned to infill gaps between historical drill holes at the main Rainbow zone.
In addition to the primary gold deposits, the Skukum property hosts several underexplored precious metal occurrences.
The most significant mineralization is found in the Charleston vein, which lies about 5,000 meters west of the Skukum Creek deposit.
Charleston was discovered in 1907 and a short adit was advanced along the structure in 1921.
Samples collected by Whitehorse during 2020 returned 14.85 g/t gold and 98.2 g/t silver over 0.5 meters, and 8.79 g/t gold and 297 g/t silver over 0.5 meters. The company said these results validate historical samples on the out-cropping mineralized structure at Charleston.
Surface grab samples from a mineralized occurrence about 500 meters south-southeast of the Skukum Creek deposit returned 40.2 g/t gold and 134 g/t silver over 0.1 meters, and 30.9 g/t gold and 149 g/t silver over 0.1 meters. These samples, collected at Southeast Skukum Creek during 2020, highlight the potential for sub-parallel structures in the hanging wall and footwall of the deposit.
Surface grab sampling at Lake Zone, which is adjacent to the past-producing Mount Skukum deposit, returned 48.3 g/t gold and 174 g/t silver, and 22.9 g/t gold and 47.3 g/t silver. Sampling of Brandy Vein, which is in the same area, returned grades of 39 g/t gold and 48.1 g/t silver.
"Along with our Skukum Creek, Goddell and Mt. Skukum deposits, these other showings provide us with additional opportunity to grow the Skukum Gold project in the years to come," said Whitehorse Gold CEO Kevin Weston.
In addition to the field program, Whitehorse has been compiling data from historical exploration across the Skukum property. This work includes a review of past sampling of the Wanda, Marmot, Wolverine, Pika, and Fox gold-mineralized vein structures west of the Mount Skukum deposit.
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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