The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2024 - January 15, 2025
White Gold Corp. initiated its maiden drilling program at the Chris Creek target, drilling a minimum of 1,200 meters across four holes to evaluate the area's mineralization potential.
Supported financially for another year by Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., White Gold Corp. put the funding to good use, unveiling new discoveries, expanding district-scale targets, and achieving significant resource growth across its White Gold District in Yukon, Canada, further emphasizing the region's untapped potential.
Located roughly 95 kilometers (59 miles) south of Dawson City, the White Gold District covers an expansive 350,000-hectare (864,869 acres) land package that represents approximately 40% of this highly prospective gold region.
This enormous property hosts multiple deposits and high-priority targets, including the established Golden Saddle, Arc, Ryan's Surprise, and VG deposits, along with newer prospects like Betty Ford, Vertigo, Chris Creek, Bridget, and Isaac.
According to a November calculation, White Gold's four most advanced deposits – Golden Saddle, Arc, Ryan's Surprise, and VG – collectively host 17.66 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 2.12 g/t (1.2 million oz) gold and 24.47 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.42 g/t (1.12 million oz) of gold.
Early in 2024, the company prepared its upcoming season based on a gold-in-soil anomaly discovered on the QV property during the previous exploration season. Initial sampling had outlined a 1,000-meter-long anomaly with similarities to the nearby VG and Golden Saddle deposits, prompting further exploration to assess its scale, continuity, and resource potential.
Leveraging these results, White Gold's program aimed to enhance resource growth and identify new discoveries. The plan included up to 2,800 meters of diamond drilling across five high-priority targets, supported by extensive soil sampling, geophysical surveys, and geological mapping.
Drilling focused on expanding mineralization at established deposits like Golden Saddle, VG, and Ryan's Surprise, while maiden exploration tested targets such as Betty Ford and the extended QV anomaly.
Kicking off the season mid-June, White Gold launched its drilling campaign at the Betty and QV properties. Initial efforts targeted the QV anomaly, Betty Ford, Black Betty, and Betty White East, and focused on testing new zones and refining targets identified through prior soil sampling.
As the season advanced, exploration pivoted to established deposits like Golden Saddle and Ryan's Surprise, aiming to expand known mineralization and probe deeper extensions within these key areas.
Exploration at QV led to the identification of the Chris Creek target, a promising new zone marked by a 1,250-meter stretch of gold-bearing altered and mineralized intrusives. Surface sampling revealed high gold-in-soil values, with the anomaly extending over 5.2 kilometers (3.2 miles), making it one of the largest targets identified within the district.
"These gold in rock sample results over such a long distance further support the Chris Creek target as an exciting new target on our QV property and another example on the effectiveness of our data-driven exploration protocol to be able to discover a target and quickly advance to maiden diamond drilling," said White Gold CEO David D'Onofrio.
A total of 787 soil samples were collected from Chris Creek, revealing gold-in-soil values ranging from less than 0.5 parts per billion to a maximum of 600 ppb, while 14 rock samples along the 1,250-meter stretch all returned anomalous gold values, including highs of 1.06 and 1.09 g/t gold.
Following the promising results at Chris Creek, White Gold quickly initiated a maiden drilling program to further evaluate the target's resource potential.
The program, encompassing 1,200 meters of diamond drilling, aimed to test the continuity of mineralization along the newly defined 5.2-kilometer trend. Simultaneously, ongoing drilling at Betty Ford continued to yield significant results, with high-grade gold intersections expanding the known mineralization and confirming the target's resource potential.
Assays from the 2024 drilling campaigns at both the newly identified Chris Creek target and established Betty Ford zone are still pending, with initial observations suggesting promising extensions of mineralization in both areas.
Alongside drilling campaigns at Chris Creek and Betty Ford, White Gold also advanced exploration at Bridget and Isaac, where geophysical surveys revealed new chargeability anomalies, suggesting potential porphyry-style mineralization.
These results, combined with comprehensive geophysical surveys across the district, continue to support the identification of deeper targets and refine exploration accuracy, further enhancing the district's resource potential.
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