Chips have been stacking up for Sitka Gold

Sitka Gold Corp. Dec. 19 announced that it has acquired full ownership of Clear Creek, a property that hosts the company's Blackjack and Eiger gold deposits, followed by a year-end summary of its 2023 exploration program for its overall RC Gold project in Yukon, Canada.

"Completing our requirements to obtain 100% ownership of the Clear Creek property, which hosts the Blackjack and Eiger deposits, is an important milestone in Sitka's advancement of the RC Gold project," said Sitka Gold CEO Cor Coe.

Consisting of a 386-square-kilometer (149 square miles) contiguous district-scale land package, RC Gold is located in the newly road-accessible Clear Creek, Big Creek, and Sprague Creek districts in the heart of Yukon's Tombstone Gold Belt.

Found approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Dawson City, RC Gold is the largest consolidated property positioned strategically between Victoria Gold's Eagle Gold Mine and Brewery Creek Gold Mine.

Overall, RC Gold comprises five underlying properties, namely, RC, Bee Bop, Mahtin, Clear Creek, and Barney Ridge.

With the latest announcement, Sitka now holds 100% interest in Clear Creek, adding it to a list shared with the Mahtin property. For the rest of the project, the company owns about 86% of the total land package among its remaining properties, with options to earn 100% in the Barney Creek, Bee Bop, and RC properties.

Discovered on the Clear Creek property in 2021, Blackjack immediately became the focus for Sitka.

According to a calculation announced in March, Blackjack hosts 33.7 million metric tons averaging 0.83 grams per metric ton (900,000 ounces) gold at a cutoff grade of 0.25 g/t gold; and Eiger hosts 27.4 million metric tons averaging 0.5 g/t (440,000 oz) gold at the same cutoff.

"The Clear Creek property also covers the Northern Extent of the Clear Creek Intrusive Complex where several additional targets with the potential to host intrusion related gold deposits of significant size and grade have yet to be drilled," said Coe. "With this prospective ground now under Sitka's 100% ownership, we are eagerly looking forward to continuing our exploration efforts as we grow the initial mineral resource estimate and pursue additional new discoveries."

2023 season recap

Kicking off the year with the announcement of a 1.34 million oz resource estimate, Sitka did not allow itself to sit back and enjoy the fanfare.

"2023 has been a very exciting year for Sitka Gold exploring the RC Gold property," said Coe. "Our team has accomplished several milestones starting with the publication of the initial mineral resource estimate at the Blackjack and Eiger deposits."

Completing a 16-hole expansion drill program that came out to around 6,515 meters drilled, the program was once more focused on the winning hand that Blackjack could deal.

Despite the impressive nature of drill results since its discovery in 2021, this year provided the best intersection drilled to date on the property – 219 meters averaging 1.34 g/t gold in hole DDRCCC-23-047 – and ultimately expanded known mineralization from the southern extent of the current resource area.

Found between Blackjack and Eiger, Sitka has also been exploring the Saddle zone, a sizable geochemical anomaly that connects along the large 500- by 2,000-meter intrusion-related gold systems that make up each target.

"The potential for high grades within Reduced Intrusion Related Gold Systems in the Yukon's Tombstone Gold Belt has been recognized with the discovery of the Valley target by Snowline Gold and the grades intersected in our Blackjack deposit," added Coe. "The RC Gold project encompasses the Blackjack and Eiger deposits, and seven other under-explored intrusive bodies with known gold mineralization."

This year saw drilling at Saddle that returned 84 meters averaging 1.21 g/t gold from surface. With only four drill holes completed so far, Sitka says Saddle remains open in all directions and is underlain by both the largest and highest-grade gold-in-soil anomaly on the property.

"The exceptional grades intersected in many of the drill holes in the Blackjack zone, both within and outside of the current resource area, highlight the significant potential of the property," the Sitka CEO said. "The scale, grade and continuity of the gold system here continues to impress us and really demonstrates the potential of this area to host a multi-million ounce economic gold resource."

Although special attention has been paid to its flagship target and the surrounding area, Sitka worked to expand its data and potential resources with drilling at otherwise undrilled targets – hence, 2023 saw the first-ever drilling at Josephine, another Tombstone-style intrusion within the block of targets at Clear Creek, which confirmed significant gold-bearing mineralization.

"The company has focused drilling on the current resource discoveries while compiling information on the many additional highly prospective targets within the district scale property using both current and historical data during 2023," added Coe.

This data compilation, along with reconnaissance field exploration work, has identified five new additional drill-ready intrusion-related drill targets within the wider RC Gold property, as well as other prospective target areas that have the potential for undiscovered intrusions to follow up on.

With momentum building and its winning streak seemingly stacking the chips, Sitka has closed off the year with a satisfying end and set up the next for a possibly larger jackpot in 2024.

"With a treasury of approximately $8 million and no debt, Sitka is well positioned to advance both the current drill-ready targets elsewhere on the property and continue to expand and define the very fertile, gold endowed Clear Creek Intrusive Complex area that currently hosts the Blackjack and Eiger deposits," finished Coe.