The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Set to launch inaugural 5,000-meter drill program in August North of 60 Mining News - July 14, 2023
Existing roads could lower the need for helicopter-supported drilling in certain areas of the Flat gold project in Alaska.
Map of oriented diamond drill holes (red) and RC holes (green) planned to be drilled this year at Flat.
Tectonic Metals Inc. July 13 announced that it is set to begin a 5,000-meter drill program at Flat in August that will involve two phases of drilling to define and expand the gold mineralization on this property in the Kuskokwim Mineral Belt of Southwest Alaska.
"Our inaugural 2023 drill program is all about unveiling the tier one potential of the Flat Gold Project," said Tectonic Metals President and CEO Tony Reda.
Located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of the world-class Donlin Gold project, Flat is a 92,160-acre property Tectonic leased from Doyon Ltd. that covers the likely lode source of two creeks – Flat and Otter – that is estimated to have produced more than 830,000 oz of placer gold since 1908. When you add in other streams draining Chicken Mountain on the property, this total is more than 1.3 million oz of alluvial gold.
Historical exploration carried out from the 1960s until 2003, including roughly 11,000 meters of drilling, has outlined a 3,800-meter-long and up to 600-meter-wide gold-in-soil anomaly formed by intrusion-hosted mineralization that begins at surface and remains open along strike and at depth.
Tectonic leased the property from Doyon Ltd., the Alaska Native corporation for Alaska's Interior region, in 2021 and carried out initial exploration last year.
Tectonic is beginning its inaugural drill program at Flat with oriented diamond core drilling. This initial phase of the 2023 program aims to define the structural orientation of gold mineralization at Chicken Mountain. The diamond drilling will also test for extensions of gold mineralization beyond depths of 100 meters and test for gold at Chicken Mountain East and Golden Apex, discovery areas to the east and northeast of Chicken Mountain.
"With 55 historical drill holes all encountering gold mineralization, we're thrilled about the possibilities that lie ahead. Out of these, 25 drill holes ended in mineralization, highlighting the incredible depth potential at Chicken Mountain," said Reda. "Armed with this newfound structural data, we'll aim to target mineralization at depths that have yet to be explored."
The second phase of 2023 Flat drilling will involve reverse circulation drilling to test a significant portion of a 4,000-meter-long gold-in-soil anomaly at Chicken Mountain, much of which is untested by drilling.
The RC drilling will test near-surface bedrock mineralization through a series of focused drill fences across the anomaly.
"We would like to express our gratitude to all the shareholders and stakeholders who have been instrumental in bringing us to this point," said Reda. "Their unwavering support has led us to this highly anticipated drill program at Flat."
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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