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Drills test for Surebet gold veins source

North of 60 Mining News - July 10, 2024

Goliath launches 15,000-meter drill program at its Golddigger project south of Stewart, B.C.

Goliath Resources Ltd. July 10 reported that two drills are turning on its 66,608-hectare (164,592 acres) Golddigger property at the southern tip of British Columbia's Golden Triangle.

Over the previous three exploration seasons in Northern B.C., Goliath has focused much of its exploration on Surebet, a roughly 1,800-meter-long corridor at the southern end of the district-scale Golddigger property that hosts three interrelated high-grade gold zones – Surebet, Bonanza Shear, and Golden Gate.

According to a 2023 geological model, the Surebet, Bonanza Shear, and Golden Gate zones host an estimated 22.9 million cubic meters of mineralized rock averaging 7.74 grams per metric ton gold-equivalent, which accounts for the value of both the gold and silver.

More than 34,000 meters of drilling completed last year significantly expanded the Surebet zones.

Some of the highlights from the 2023 drilling along the Surebet corridor include:

23 meters averaging 18.95 g/t gold and 95.3 g/t silver (21.08 g/t gold-equivalent) in hole GD-23-157 (Surebet Zone).

26.9 meters averaging 5.81 g/t gold and 719.1 g/t silver (14.68 g/t gold-equivalent) in hole GD-23-173 (Surebet Zone).

7.9 meters averaging 64.88 g/t gold and 8 g/t silver (65 g/t gold-equivalent) in hole GD-23-180 (Bonanza Shear).

27 meters averaging 11.07 g/t gold and 23 g/t silver (24.83 g/t gold-equivalent) in hole GD23-197 (Golden Gate).

Goliath Resources Ltd.

A new model that integrates the 2023 drill data identified six new vein horizons connected to the previously identified zones – Big One, Eldorado, Goldzilla, Hotspot, and Whopper.

Several lines of evidence, including metal and trace element hot spots and zonation of the mineralization, indicate a potential porphyry feeder source for the vein systems identified so far.

Testing for this feeder system below the valley floor will be one of the primary targets for this year's drilling along the Surebet Corridor.

Another will be expanding the mineralized footprint, especially toward the Jackpot discovery about 1,000 meters to the southeast.

Goliath Resources Ltd.

One sample collected from a shear zone identified at Jackpot last year averaged 636 g/t gold, 1,690 g/t silver, and 7.96% copper.

This high-grade discovery consists of at least 10 shear-hosted quartz-sulfide veins within a 15-meter-wide stockwork that extends for 50 meters along strike before being covered by overburden at either end.

Samples collected within 150 meters of Jackpot outcrop returned assays of 44.4 g/t gold, 1,629 g/t silver, and 5.22% copper; 13.5 g/t gold, 32.1 g/t silver, and 0.09 % copper; and 8.43 g/t gold, 694 g/t silver, and 0.39% copper.

Geological and geochemical evidence suggests that the bonanza-grade veins discovered at Jackpot are connected to the Surebet Corridor mineralization.

Exploring the Cambria Icefields

Goliath Resources Ltd.

In addition to drilling in and around Surebet, this year's roughly 15,000-meter drill program will include discovery drilling at two outcropping targets – Treasure Island and Full Contact – in the Cambria Icefields toward the northern end of the Golddigger property.

Located about 36 kilometers (22 miles) north of Surebet, Treasure Island hosts multiple polymetallic zones over a 450- by 550-meter area that remains open under the ice cap around its edges.

Highlights from channel samples collected from the recently exposed rock at Treasure Island include: 20.6 g/t gold, 63.6 g/t silver, and 5.04% copper over 0.85 meters; and 3.54 meters averaging 0.13 g/t gold, 23.96 g/t silver, and 2.34% copper over 2.48 meters.

Lying about 19 kilometers (12 miles) northwest of Surebet, Full Contact is another distal target that demonstrates the potential for additional discoveries across the wider Golddigger property, which covers a 56-kilometer (35 miles) stretch of B.C.'s famed Red Line, a geological contact zone that runs within a few thousand meters of most of the major deposits within the Golden Triangle.

The Full Contact discovery consists of a 1,400-meter-trend on the Red Line, where multiple gossans (intensely oxidized and weathered rock indicative of underlying mineralization) have been identified.

Samples collected from Contact have returned assays as high as 101 g/t gold, 10 g/t silver, and 1% copper.

Goliath says Contact shares the same geological setting and alteration as the Bonanza Shear at Surebet.

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

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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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