The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - February 9, 2024
Tectonic Metals' 2023 program at Flat included three deep diamond drill holes at Chicken Mountain.
Click on photo for larger Chicken Mountain drill map.
Tectonic Metals Inc. Feb. 7 reported that all 19 holes drilled during its inaugural program at the Chicken Mountain target on the Flat project in the Kuskokwim region of Southwest Alaska cut intrusion-related gold mineralization similar to what is being mined at Kinross Gold Corp. Fort Knox mine near Fairbanks, Alaska.
Located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of the world-class Donlin Gold project, Flat is a 99,840-acre land package that includes a large land package leased from Doyon Ltd. and a smaller package of optioned and staked claims that cover three potential intrusions that are on-trend and show similarities to the Chicken Mountain intrusions on Doyon land. Approximately 1.4 million ounces of placer gold have been dug from streams surrounding draining the area around Flat.
Historical exploration carried out in the 1960s until 2003, including roughly 11,000 meters of drilling in 55 holes, 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.
Highlights from the historical drilling include: 24.7 meters averaging 12.56 grams per metric ton gold; 1.4 meters averaging 211 g/t gold; 76 meters averaging 0.98 g/t gold; and 36.6 meters averaging 1.36 g/t gold.
Tectonic says all 55 historical holes and the 19 it drilled last year have cut through gold mineralization.
"A total of 74 holes have been drilled at the Chicken Mountain intrusion target with each drill hole intersecting gold mineralization, which is remarkable and reinforces the notion that we are dealing with a very robust gold system," said Tectonic Metals President and CEO Tony Reda. "To further support this finding, it is important to note that Chicken Mountain has been identified as the primary bedrock source for over 1.4 million ounces of recorded placer production2 in the surrounding area."
Tectonic's inaugural program at Flat included three diamond holes to test for gold mineralization beyond the depths of historical drilling and 16 reverse circulation holes to test areas around the edges of the gold system.
Highlights from this drilling include:
• 423.2 meters averaging 0.41 g/t gold from a depth of 5.4 meters in hole CMD23-001, including 37.3 meters averaging 1.02 g/t gold.
• 344.6 meters averaging 0.36 g/t gold from a depth of 4.3 in hole CMD23-002, including 26.4 meters averaging 1.22 g/t gold.
• 88.9 meters averaging 0.6 g/t gold from a depth of 1.5 meters in hole CMR23-001, including 22.9 meters averaging 1.12 g/t gold.
• 76.2 meters averaging 0.55 g/t gold from surface in hole CMR23-008, including 24.4 meters averaging 1.09 g/t gold.
• 50.3 meters averaging 0.74 g/t gold from a depth of 1.5 meters in hole CMR23-012, including 24.4 meters averaging 1 g/t gold.
Out of the 19 holes drilled last year, 12 ended in gold mineralization, along with the two deep holes included in the highlights.
Click on photo for larger Chicken Mountain drill map.
Tectonic says Chicken Mountain demonstrates the same reduced intrusion-related gold system characteristics and geochemical signature as the deposits that have yielded more than 9 million oz of gold at the Fort Knox mine and that the higher-grade "sweet spot" of the enormous Chicken Mountain gold system has yet to be fully discovered.
Reda points out that the 1,800 meters of strike length drilled so far represent half of the nearly 4,000-by-1,000-meter gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly at Chicken Mountain and only a third of the roughly 6,000-by-5,600-meter geophysical anomaly also found there.
"Our journey has only begun, and more drill testing is warranted across all intrusion targets to fully uncover the tier one potential of the Flat Gold System," he said.
To continue the journey, Tectonic plans to drill new areas of Chicken Mountain and further advance the multi-million-ounce gold resource indicated by the drilling that has already been completed.
In preparation for the next phase of drilling, Tectonic plans to:
• Generate drill targets for all the five other intrusion targets at Flat.
• Continue compiling and interpreting the 2023 Flat exploration results.
• Integrate the new data with historical exploration information to assist in drill targeting.
• Cut and assay core from four 2003 holes drilled at Chicken Mountain and the nearby Golden Apex target.
• Continue metallurgical testing, including small-scale heap leach tests.
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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