The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - October 03, 2024
Klondike Gold Corp. Oct. 2 announced assays from high-grade gold discoveries along the newly mapped Eldorado Fault at its Klondike District property in Yukon, highlighting the growing potential of this significant structural corridor.
Located roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Dawson City, Klondike Gold's 727-square-kilometer (280 square miles) Klondike District Property sits in the heart of the historic Klondike goldfields, where more than 20 million ounces of placer gold were mined during the famed gold rush.
This expansive property includes several promising targets, such as the company's more advanced Lone Star and Stander zones, forming the central part of Klondike Gold's ongoing exploration initiatives.
The 2024 exploration season began in late April, building on discoveries from 2023 that highlighted the presence of significant gold mineralization at Stander. These findings laid the groundwork for defining the Eldorado Fault as a key structural corridor controlling gold emplacement.
Initially, Klondike Gold planned for 2,500 meters of diamond drilling, later expanding to over 5,000 meters based on encouraging early results, with a focused effort to further explore the mineral potential along the newly defined Eldorado Fault and its surrounding areas.
Exploration this year led to the discovery of three significant gold showings: Archy, Archy Wasp, and DJ.
Situated 300 meters from the Eldorado Fault, Archy Showing was initially prospected in 2017, where samples collected from quartz veining ranged from five to 33 grams per metric ton gold. During the 2024 re-examination, new zones of massive pyrite seams and quartz veins with visible gold were identified within an iron carbonate alteration zone, which extended intermittently over a 100-meter strike length.
Approximately 1,300 meters east-southeast of Archy, along the same fault, the Archy Wasp Showing features visible gold hosted in quartz veins across both outcrop and local float over a 60-by-20-meter area. This mineralization is associated with coarse pyrite and notable iron carbonate alteration.
DJ Showing, initially discovered by placer miner Dave Johnson in the 1980s and rediscovered during prospecting in 2024, comprises a five- to 10-meter-wide quartz vein zone featuring multiple individual veins located 100 meters from the Eldorado Fault.
A total of 14 samples were collected from Archy, thirteen from Archy Wasp, and eight from DJ; drilling was also conducted at DJ to test the new vein zone approximately 300 meters along strike.
"Our 2024 drilling and sampling season was highly productive, with quantifiable advancements in discovering additional high grade gold zones and refining mineralization controls," said Klondike Gold President and CEO Peter Tallman. "Importantly, the new identification and understanding of the Eldorado Fault structural corridor as a locus of gold mineralization is delivering positive exploration successes and outlining substantial drill targets."
Initial assays from samples collected at the newest showings revealed high-grade gold, with results up to 46.6 g/t at Archy and 52.7 g/t at Archy Wasp. Core drilling at DJ and additional assays from all three showings are still pending, suggesting further potential along the Eldorado Fault corridor. More specific results from the showings include:
Four rock samples from a two-by-four-meter outcrop at Archy #1 Showing contained visible gold and assayed:
• 12.2, 13.4, 20.4, and 46.6 g/t gold.
Four rock samples from a seven- by three-meter outcrop area at Archy #2 Showing assayed:
• 1.3, 1.8, 3.4, and 4.1 g/t gold
Five rock samples from a two- by three-meter outcrop at Wasp #1 Showing assayed:
• 2.1 to 3.8 g/t gold from crystalline sheeted quartz veins
• Two samples with coarse pyrite assayed 10.8 and 19.3 g/t gold
• One sample of vein/wallrock alteration assayed 0.3 g/t gold
Four rock samples from a 10- by 10-meter outcrop in a new placer cut at Wasp #2 Showing assayed:
• 1.7 to 10.8 g/t gold from sheeted quartz veins
• A fifth sample assayed 52.7 g/t gold from quartz vein with abundant coarse pyrite and iron carbonate.
These discoveries highlight high-grade potential at surface and suggest a larger, more complex system at depth. Gold mineralization has been documented over a vertical height of 450 meters, indicating the presence of multiple stacked gold-bearing zones. Furthermore, mineralization has been traced along five kilometers of the Eldorado Fault, which remains open, providing significant targets for deeper drilling.
"Exploration in 2024 has documented 450 meters of vertical height to gold mineralization implying multiple vertically stacked gold vein zones and deeper targets to test," added Tallman. "The five kilometers of length to mineralization along the Eldorado Fault remains open."
Beyond the vertical and lateral extent of the mineralized zones, the ongoing exploration continues to uncover potential parallel and extensional structures that may add to the overall gold endowment of the district.
"Exploration this season has increased the gold potential of our district significantly, especially as other extensional and parallel structural corridors are coming into view," the Klondike CEO said. "Now we await drill assay results primarily targeting expansion of the Stander Zone mineral resource area and Gay Gulch showing mineralization."
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