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Research reveals new geological understanding for exploration North of 60 Mining News - October 11, 2023
Klondike Gold Corp. Oct. 11 announced an update on its 2023 exploration program at the company's namesake property in the Dawson Mining District in Yukon, Canada – reporting that it has been a fruitful season that grew the project closer to world-class status.
Located roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Dawson City, the Klondike District Gold Project covers 727 square kilometers (280 square miles) of the famed Yukon gold district.
According to a 2022 calculation, two of its more advanced deposits – Lone Star and Stander – host 21.59 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.68 grams per metric ton (468,901 ounces) gold and 6.46 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.54 g/t (111,959 oz) gold.
"Our 2023 field season was intense and highly productive," said Klondike Gold President and CEO Peter Tallman.
Fieldwork for the year was aimed at examining and relating the property's gold mineralization within an orogenic gold framework.
As a world-renowned placer gold field, the Klondike District historically produced roughly 20 million oz of gold, primarily from alluvial-rich silts and sands derived from Pliocene-epoch (five to three million years ago) White Channel paleoplacer (ancient riverbeds) deposits, that were themselves formed from erosion of bedrock quartz-carbonate orogenic gold vein systems.
Due to the historical relevance of the Klondike Gold Fields, the 2023 program was influenced by scientific studies undertaken the previous year by various academic institutions – including the University of Ottawa, University of Toronto, Dalhousie University, and Colorado School of Mines.
Immediate results from these research programs supported the idea of a younger age to the gold mineralizing event – likely coincident with the Mother Lode District in California. This allowed the company to restrict the age of mineralizing structures, which helped the company narrow down possible targets for the year.
"Research has constrained the age of the Klondike District's bedrock mineralization and geochemical/structural environment from which the famous 20 million ounces historical gold placer endowment was derived," said Tallman around the start of the season. "These results have considerable beneficial implications for the company's 100% owned Klondike District property and immediately focus the company's exploration efforts towards targeting new drill discoveries."
Applying results from the recently sponsored independent academic research findings and field visits from orogenic gold experts, work this year mapped regional crustal-scale faults through the property using magnetics, electromagnetics, regional gravity, and lidar surveys combined with field mapping.
"We really appreciated and enjoyed the collaboration and input from orogenic gold experts Rich Goldfarb and Ben Frieman who worked alongside us for portions of the season to establish the Klondike Gold District as a world-class orogenic gold district with potential for significant gold mineralization over the (more than) 50-kilometer strike length of the property," added the Klondike CEO.
With a research model in hand, its own studies allowed Klondike to determine several focused areas. From the mapping and surveying, multiple areas of orogenic quartz-carbonate gold vein showings received more focused structural mapping and detailed rock sampling.
In total, 245 rock prospecting grab samples were collected from the Dominion, Gold Run, Gay Gulch, and Violet prospect areas, as well as the eastern Stander Zone mineral resource area. Additionally, the company says visible gold was noted in rock samples from all these locations.
Aside from the sampling, a total of 2,340 meters of diamond core drilling was carried out in 25 holes. Targeting the Gold Run and Gay Gulch prospects, and similarly, at the Stander Zone mineral resource area, Klondike states that all technical logging and sampling drill core is now completed.
"In the short term we are eagerly anticipating this season's pending results, and in the longer term we are confident our disciplined focus on the Klondike will deliver for shareholders," finished Tallman.
All 2023 prospecting rock assays and drill core assays remain pending.
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