The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - June 24, 2024
Drilling and other exploration completed by Sitka Gold has identified a corridor of higher-grade mineralization within the Blackjack deposit on the RC Gold project that trends south toward mineralized zones on the Clear Creek property.
Sitka Gold Corp. June 24 announced that it has expanded its RC Gold project in the Yukon through the acquisition of the adjacent Clear Creek property from Victoria Gold Corp.
"We are very pleased to complete the purchase of the Clear Creek property and to welcome Victoria Gold as a major new shareholder of the company," said Sitka Gold CEO Cor Coe.
Before the Clear Creek acquisition, Sitka's RC project was already a district-scale property covering 386 square kilometers (149 square miles) of the Tombstone Gold Belt about midway between Victoria's Eagle Gold mine to the northeast and Brewery Creek gold mine project to the northwest.
According to an inaugural resource calculation completed early in 2023, the Blackjack and Eiger deposits at RC host 61.1 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.68 grams per metric ton (1.34 million ounces) gold.
The Clear Creek property purchased from Victoria covers 45 square kilometers (17.4 square miles) of intrusion-related gold mineralization immediately south of these deposits.
Exploration going back to the early 1990s has identified three primary zones of intrusion-related gold mineralization on the Clear Creek property – Contact Zone, which is within the Pukelman Stock; Rhosgobel Stock; and Bear Paw Breccia.
Highlights from historical drilling at Clear Creek include:
• 10 meters averaging 1.02 g/t gold in hole RC-92-1 (Pukelman).
• 74.7 meters averaging 0.83 g/t gold in hole CCRC95-15 (Rhosgobel).
• 67.1 meters averaging 1.03 g/t gold in hole CCRC95-16 (Rhosgobel).
• 26.7 meters averaging 2 g/t gold in hole BP99-1 (Bear Paw).
• 42.7 meters averaging 1.87 g/t gold in hole CC10-07 (Contact).
• 10.7 meters averaging 20.46 g/t gold in hole CC10-22 (Contact).
Holes CC10-07 and CC10-22 were drilled by Golden Predator, which had optioned Clear Creek from Victoria in 2009. Golden Predator returned Clear Creek back to Victoria in 2012 and no drilling has been completed on the property since that time.
Now, Victoria has agreed to sell Clear Creek to Sitka for 21.84 million shares, representing a roughly 8% interest in the exploration company, plus C$11 million (US$8 million) in cash. The cash portion of the sale is to be paid in three annual payments beginning with a C$2 million (US$1.5 million) payment to be made by the end of August 2025.
"We have been impressed with the exploration success that Sitka has demonstrated at its RC Gold project," said Victoria Gold President and CEO John McConnell "Combining the RC Gold project and Victoria's Clear Creek property consolidates this new Yukon gold camp. Sitka has a strong exploration team with decades of experience in Yukon. We expect Sitka will have further success exploring the combined project and Victoria will benefit as a significant Sitka shareholder."
For Sitka, the purchase of Clear Creek comes with a large database of geological, geochemical, and geophysical information that, when combined with its own increased understanding of the controls on mineralization at RC, suggests there is significant potential for the discovery of additional intrusion related gold deposits.
A prime example of the growth potential offered by Clear Creek is a north-south trending structural corridor hosting higher-grade mineralization within the Blackjack deposit that trends southward through the Pukelman West intrusion and along the western margin of the Rhosgobel intrusion. Sitka says this structural corridor linking these intrusions appears to extend for over 10 kilometers (six miles) and represents a significant exploration target.
"The potential for this area, including the newly acquired Clear Creek property, to host several multi-million-ounce intrusion related gold deposits is becoming more evident as we continue to systematically explore the region," said Coe. "With the entire Clear Creek Intrusive Complex now under Sitka's 100% ownership we will be pushing to unlock value in this target rich area as we pursue additional discoveries while expanding these wide-open deposits."
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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