White Gold outlines 2023 exploration plans

White Gold Corp. June 15 outlined its 2023 exploration programs at properties within the company's namesake gold exploration district in Canada's Yukon.

"We are excited to kick off our 2023 exploration programs in the White Gold District," said White Gold Vice President of Exploration Terry Brace.

The company holds roughly 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) of highly prospective land or roughly 40% of the White Gold District.

Located approximately 95 kilometers (59 miles) south of Dawson City and practically next door to Western Copper and Gold Corp.'s Casino deposit and Newmont Corp.'s Coffee deposit, White Gold and adjacent QV are the most advanced properties in the company's portfolio.

According to the most recent calculation, the Golden Saddle, Arc, Ryan's Surprise, and VG deposits on these properties host 16.11 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 2.23 grams per metric ton (1.15 million ounces) gold; and 18.99 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.54 g/t (942,400 oz) gold.

Given the sheer scale of the White Gold District, White Gold has its job cut out for it. However, the company is operating strategically and aims for roughly 4,000 meters of drilling pointed at elevating some of its earlier staged assets.

The 2023 White Gold program is slated to include:

• 3,200 meters of diamond drilling on three targets – Betty Ford, Vertigo, and Cali.

• 800 meters of first pass rotary air blast (RAB) drill programs on the Wolf and Toonie gold properties.

• Induced Polarization resistivity ground surveys over the large early-stage Bridget and Hayes copper-molybdenum porphyry targets located on the Pedlar and Hayes properties near Western Copper and Gold's Casino deposit.

• Regional exploration on other properties including geological mapping and prospecting, soil geochemistry surveys, and ground magnetics and VLF-EM geophysical surveys to generate new targets for future drill testing.

"We expect 2023 to be another exciting year for White Gold as we build on the success of our recent field seasons where we have made a very significant new high-grade gold discovery on our Betty property and continued to expand the large footprint of mineralization at our flagship White Gold Project and significantly increasing resources," said White Gold CEO David D'Onofrio. "These results further demonstrate the expansiveness of gold mineralization in the White Gold District and the potential for continuing to make additional new discoveries as well as increase our significant gold resources."

Primary focus exploration

The diamond drilling of White Gold's 2023 program is slated to include four holes at the Betty Ford target on the Betty property, which lies about 15 kilometers (nine miles) northeast of Casino.

"Diamond drilling at Betty Ford is primarily designed to test the mineralized system at depth, essentially looking for evidence of an underlying porphyry as well as trying to identify the feeder to gold mineralization that occurs near surface," said Brace.

This near-surface gold has been encountered by White Gold with drilling carried out over the past two years; highlights include:

• 48 meters averaging 1.17 g/t gold in hole BETFD21D001.

• 50 meters averaging 3.46 g/t gold in hole BETFD21D003.

• 18.3 meters averaging 8.94 g/t gold in hole BETFD22RC004.

White Gold also plans to carry out diamond drilling at the Vertigo target on the JP Ross property, which is just across the Yukon River from the White Gold and QV properties.

Vertigo was first tested with four holes drilled by Kinross Gold Corp. in 2010.

During 2018 and 2019, White Gold drilled 25 RAB, 36 reverse circulation, and 46 diamond holes at Vertigo.

Highlights from the Vertigo drilling include:

• 10.67 meters averaging 17.34 g/t gold in hole JPRVERRAB18-001.

• 82.3 meters grading 3.21 g/t gold in hole JPRVERRC18-006.

• 4.2 meters averaging 9.16 g/t gold in hole JPRVER19D0005.

• 5.3 meters averaging 11.64 g/t gold in JPRVER19D0015.

White Gold said it recently reviewed and interpreted available borehole optical televiewer and trench structural data, indicating that there are three mineralized vein sets at Vertigo – the primary west-northwest striking vein set, which has been the focus of previous drilling; a north-northeast striking secondary vein set which dips steeply to both the west and east; and a set of narrow sheeted quartz veins that strike east-northeast and dip moderately north. These latter quartz veins were exposed during mechanical trenching during the 2019 field season, and vein samples returned encouraging gold assays in the range of 1.5 g/t gold to 17.3 g/t gold. The 2019 diamond drill holes, however, were largely blind to this vein set due to the orientation of drilling.

"We have also reviewed the existing structural information at Vertigo, including borehole optical televiewer data and vein measurements recorded in trenches and feel this year's drill orientation will more effectively test the multiple mineralized vein sets at Vertigo," said Brace.

White Gold plans to complete roughly 1,100 meters of drilling in five holes at Vertigo.

The balance of the 2023 diamond drilling is anticipated to include three holes at the Cali target.

The Cali target forms a large 250-meter- by 2,000-meter-long northeast-trending multi-element soil anomaly, including maximum values of 515 parts per billion gold, 1,436 parts per million arsenic, 2,184 ppm copper, 1,225 ppm lead and 2,670 ppm zinc. The strongest base metal values appear to occur in sub-zones within the larger anomaly, which remains open along strike, particularly to the southwest.

"The planned diamond drill holes at the Cali target are widely spaced holes designed to test this two-kilometer-long gold and multi-element soil geochemical anomaly which occurs along a major regional structure, so we really like the apparent size and geological setting of Cali," said Brace.

Earlier-staged properties

While attention will be paid to the aforementioned targets, White Gold will continue its tradition of advancing some of the most promising prospects in underexplored sections of its land package.

This early-stage exploration will include four RAB holes to test the Taurus gold target at Wolf, which lies about 35 kilometers (22 miles) west of the White Gold property.

Lying within the southwest region of Wolf, Taurus is defined by an approximately 2,000-meter-long by 500-meter-wide, northeast-trending gold-in-soil anomaly with up to 358 ppb gold.

The four holes at Wolf will be drilled to a depth of roughly 100 meters and spaced to test the main 1,500-meter section of the anomaly.

White Gold plans to carry out a similar four-hole RAB drill program to test the Deux target on the Toonie property, which lies approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) southwest of Dawson City.

Situated in the northwestern region of the Toonie property, Duex is defined by a 1,500-meter by 500-meter east-west trending multi-element soil anomaly with grades as high as 156 ppb gold.

A previously-flown property-scale airborne magnetic and electromagnetic survey appears to show a prominent resistivity anomaly that flanks the soil geochemical anomaly on all sides.

The four holes at Deux will be drilled to a depth of roughly 100 meters and spaced to test the entire 1,500-meter-long anomaly.

White Gold was awarded Yukon Mineral Exploration Program grants for target evaluation at Wolf and Toonie.

In addition to drilling, White Gold intends to conduct a ground-based induced polarization survey at Pedlar and Hayes, properties located in the southern portion of White Gold's land package approximately 25 kilometers (16 miles) northeast and 30 kilometers (19 miles) east, respectively, of Casino.

"We have designed a very impactful program to further diamond drill test these recent high-grade gold discoveries, perform maiden diamond drilling on the Cali target as well as advance other high-priority targets across our expansive and underexplored land package," said D'Onofrio. "Extensive review and analysis performed in the off-season has also provided insightful new interpretations on several projects which we are excited to integrate into our methodical exploration methodologies."