Agnico funds another year for White Gold

White Gold Corp. Dec. 13 announced that it closed a C$5.1 million (US$3.8 million) that included continued financial backing by partner Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd, which is increasing its 19.5% share to 19.85%, and ultimately financing White Gold's 2024 exploration program.

"We are very appreciative for the continued support of our strategic shareholders and are now fully funded for an impactful 2024 exploration program following the success of this past season where we continued to demonstration the expansiveness of gold mineralization in the under-explored White Gold district in a tier 1 jurisdiction," said White Gold CEO David D'Onofrio.

Holding a massive 350,000-hectare (865,000 acres) land package, to explore what is considered about 40% of the emerging White Gold District, substantial financial backing is necessary to truly tap into this underexplored property located roughly 95 kilometers (59 miles) south of Dawson City.

Hence, it is quite fortuitous that companies like Agnico Eagle, which holds a multitude of properties all throughout North America, Central America, as well as Europe, and Kinross Gold Corp., which has been operating the Fort Knox gold mine in Alaska for nearly 30 years, see the potential of this growing explorer and have invested into approximately 35% of White Gold between the two.

Given that funding from these majors is what contributed to its 2023 exploration program, despite its modest goal of 4,000 meters, White Gold has taken to utilizing its vast expertise in mineral exploration to map out targets the good old-fashioned way, as well as select its drill targets from that pool of experience.

"All of the significant grass roots discoveries in the White Gold District were initially identified through soil sampling," said D'Onofrio.

This search for trace elements in dirt that indicate gold in the bedrock below led to the discovery of White Gold's advance-staged Golden Saddle, Arc, and VG deposits. With its 2023 mineral resource estimate being bolstered by the addition of Ryan's Surprise, which was also identified through meticulous soil sampling, the company is quite confident in its approach to exploration.

"The White Gold project now ranks amongst the largest primarily open pit deposits at such high grades in Canada owned by an exploration company," said D'Onofrio. "The updated and increased resource is a testament to the success of our technical team, our systematic data driven exploration methodologies and the expansiveness of gold mineralization in the White Gold District."

According to the newest resource estimate, the Golden Saddle, Arc, Ryan's Surprise and VG deposits host 16.11 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 2.23 grams per metric ton gold (1.15 million ounces) gold, representing 55% of the total resources; and 18.99 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.54 g/t gold (942,400 oz) gold.

This new resource estimate represents an increase of over 40% compared to previous estimates for the Golden Saddle and Arc deposits from 2020 and the VG deposit from 2021.

Further, the company says that 94% of the resources are near surface, with open-pittable indicated resources of 1.125 million oz of gold averaging 2.2 g/t gold and open-pittable inferred resources of 853,000 oz gold averaging 1.46 g/t gold.

Showing its worth with real results, it is no wonder Agnico and Kinross are confident in their investments.

Although this year's approximately 4,000 meters of drilling focused primarily on newer targets such as the Betty Ford, Vertigo, and Cali prospects found on the Betty, JP Ross, and Nolan properties, respectively; the results spoke for themselves as assays from these targets proved its approach earns paydirt.

While assays have yet to be announced from drilling at the Cali target, Betty Ford returned high-grade gold that expanded known mineralization and revealed the consistency of wide high-grade gold intersections and continuity, while Vertigo drilling identified two primary fault and vein arrays.

Highlights from drilling at Betty Ford in 2023 include:

• 8.3 meters averaging 1.2 g/t gold from a depth of 166.7 meters in hole BETFD23D012.

• 53 meters averaging 3.38 g/t gold from 18 meters in BETFD23D013.

• 46.5 meters averaging 2.96 g/t gold from 11.5 meters in BETFD23D014.

• 20.85 meters averaging 5.04 g/t gold from a depth of 18.7 meters in BETFD23D015.

Highlights from the 2023 drilling at Vertigo target on the JP Ross property include:

• 1.3 meters averaging 4.37 g/t gold from a depth of 40.6 meters in hole JPRVER23D0051.

• 58.4 meters averaging 1.4 g/t gold from 40.95 meters in JPRVER23D0052.

• 1.9 meters averaging 2.77 g/t gold from 64.45 meters in JPREVER23D0053.

Revealing the potential for two new prospects that could add significant gold to its already sizable resource estimate, White Gold is already set for another year of discovery.