The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2022 - January 19, 2023
A Tectonic Metals geologist collects samples along the Flume gold trend at Seventymile.
Tony Reda
Toward its foundational goal of being an ESG-focused gold exploration company that is a catalyst for economic development and improved social well-being in the areas where it works, Tectonic Metals Ltd. has built a strong partnership with Doyon Ltd., the Alaska Native corporation for the region of Alaska it is exploring for gold.
The Doyon region blankets a mineral-rich swath of Alaska's Interior that is nearly the size of Texas. The Alaska Native corporation owns 12.5 million acres of land within this vast region, making it the largest private landholder in Alaska and one of the largest in North America.
Following the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) in 1971, Doyon selected much of its lands for their mineral potential.
Since its formation in 2018, Tectonic has signed discovery-to-production lease agreements for several Doyon properties – Seventymile, Carrie Creek, Maple Leaf, Mount Harper, and the Flat gold exploration properties.
In addition to the land agreements, Doyon has invested more than US$2.3 million into Tectonic financings and currently holds a 14% equity interest in the explorer.
"2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and the formation of Doyon, Ltd. Since that day, our mission has been clear: continually enhance our position as a financially strong Native corporation in order to promote the economic and social well-being of our shareholders and future shareholders, to strengthen our Native way of life, and to protect and enhance our land and resources," said Doyon President and CEO Aaron Schutt. "Our investment in Tectonic is our mission in action."
Tectonic began its 2022 season with drilling at Seventymile, an underexplored Doyon property that covers a 25-mile-long greenstone belt about 37 miles east of Eagle, Alaska.
Last year's program tested four gold targets – Flanders, Flume, Bonanza, and Alder – along a roughly five-mile-long trend toward the northwest end of the belt.
Limited historical drilling along this Flume trend demonstrated the presence of high gold grades and significant strike potential at these targets.
Since leasing Seventymile in 2018, Tectonic has validated the historical work. Including rotary air blast drilling in 2020 that cut 19.8 meters averaging 1.37 grams per metric ton gold at Bonanza and 6.1 meters averaging 4.38 g/t gold at Flanders.
Highlights from six reverse circulation holes drilled at Flanders and one in each of the other targets during the 2022 program include:
• 1.53 meters averaging 59.4 g/t gold in hole SMRC22-002 (Flanders).
• 15.24 meters averaging 1.6 g/t gold in hole SMRC22-005 (Flanders).
• 4.57 meters averaging 1.39 g/t gold in hole SMRC22-007 (Alder).
• 10.67 meters averaging 1.98 g/t gold in hole SMRC22-009 (Flume).
Tectonic's 2022 program also included an initial investigation of Flat, a Southwest Alaska gold property leased from Doyon in 2021.
Located in the Kuskokwim Mineral Belt about 25 miles north of the 39-million-ounce Donlin Gold project, the 92,160-acre Flat property covers the likely lode source of more than 1.3 million oz of placer gold recovered from the streams there.
Historical exploration, including roughly 11,000 meters of drilling, has outlined a nearly 4,000-meter-long gold-in-soil anomaly formed by intrusion-hosted mineralization that begins at surface and remains open along strike and at depth.
With ample geological evidence that Flat hosts a substantial gold system, Tectonic decided to begin its work there with metallurgical testing.
"At Flat, we are blessed with historical work, including soil sampling, trenching, and drilling, that suggests the presence of a large mineralizing gold system," said Tectonic Metals President and CEO Tony Reda.
"With that box ticked and given our business model, it only makes sense that we de-risk Flat as quickly as possible with metallurgical testing to add value quickly and provide a tremendous amount of insight into the processing amenability of the Flat gold mineralization, which in return will shape how we target and explore Flat going forward."
In addition to Seventymile and Flat, the Doyon properties in Tectonic's portfolio include Carrie Creek, Maple Leaf, and Mount Harper, which are all associated with Tectonic's Tibbs gold property about 22 miles southeast of Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s Pogo gold mine.
During 2021, Tectonic made a significant discovery at Tibbs – low-angle veins similar to those that provide the bulk of the high-grade gold ore at Pogo.
"After multiple explorers and years of trying, the elusive low-angle quartz veins carrying Pogo-style gold mineralization have now been discovered at Tibbs," said Reda.
Hole TBDD21-012, drilled by Tectonic in 2021, cut four low-angle quartz veins, including 0.75 meters averaging 9.95 g/t and 0.6 meters averaging 7.64 g/t gold.
"Our drill discovery of multiple stacked intervals of high-grade, low-angle veining represents an excellent exploration opportunity to delineate the extent of the Tibbs' Gray Lead system and test for areas of increased grade and thickness," he added.
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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