Tectonic Metals drilling Flat Gold Project, Alaska
Tectonic Metals Inc. [TSXV-TECT; OTCQB-TETOF] reported the start of the 2024 drilling program at the company’s flagship Flat Gold Project, southwestern Alaska. This program only marks Tectonic’s second year of drilling at Flat, an expansive, district-scale intrusion-hosted gold system hosting six intrusion targets.
The project, covering 99,000 acres is located on predominantly Alaskan Native-owned land under Doyon, Limited, one of Alaska’s largest Native Regional Corporations and Tectonic’s second-largest shareholder with investments of approximately $4 million into the company. The partnership between Doyon and Tectonic is formalized through a legally binding mineral lease production and impact benefits agreement, covering all aspects of exploration through to production. This agreement aligns the interests of both parties, reduces risk, and streamlines the process from discovery to development, production, and reclamation.
Peter Kleespies, Vice President of Exploration, commented: “We are pleased to commence the 2024 exploration program at our flagship Flat project and test the results of our ongoing compilation and interpretive work based on the application of modern exploration models and technologies which has resulted in the generation of a suite of high quality, intrusion-related gold targets. Our 2024 Reverse Circulation drilling program will follow-up on the higher-grade mineralized corridors identified in our 2023 drilling at Chicken Mountain and Adit, and focus on outlining the extent, orientations, and potential intersection geometries of the mineralized structures. We are especially excited to begin the inaugural exploratory drilling on potential buried intrusions at the Golden Apex Target and the extension of the Chicken Mountain Intrusion at the Alpha Bowl Target, both of which have received very limited past work despite over 50 years of exploration history at Flat.”
2024 High Priority Drill Targets – Chicken Mountain: a 6.5 km x 6.0 km monzonite intrusion hosting a prominent north-northwest oriented structural zone referred to as the Chicken Mountain Structure. Chicken Mountain presently hosts a 4 km-long high-tenor gold-in-soil anomaly in unglaciated terrain that is less than 50% drill tested. Using the gold-in-soil anomalies to guide drilling has been 100% successful as all 74 holes drilled to date at Chicken Mountain intersected gold mineralization, which has delineated 1.8 km of mineralized strike to a vertical depth of 300 m with mineralization remaining open in all directions. Furthermore, 37 drill holes have ended in mineralization, with the deepest hole being more than 400 m long.
Drill targeting along the Chicken Mountain Structure is planned to follow up on and expand higher-grade mineralized corridors identified in 2023, including 37.32 m at 1.02 g/t Au (CMD23-001), 36.40 m at 1.22 g/t Au (CMD23-002) and 22.86 m at 1.12 g/t Au (CMR23-001) and test directly beneath undrilled historic trenches reporting significant gold grades, including 27.44 m at 6.64 g/t Au and 30.48 m at 1.11 g/t Au.
The higher-grade mineralized corridors at Chicken Mountain are hosted within extensive mineralized envelopes. For example, CMD23-001 hosts 37.32m at 1.02 g/t Au within a broader mineralized interval of 146.90m at 0.61 g/t Au with the entire drill hole returning 423.15m at 0.41 g/t Au, terminating in mineralization.
Adit-Happy Structure (The Adit): a northeast-oriented, 2 km long structural corridor which intersects the northern extent of the Chicken Mountain Structure. Adit appears to be the primary source of ~200 Koz of historical placer gold production2 sourced directly over the western end of the structure.
The target is defined by a 2 km long gold-in-soil anomaly, historic drilling and trenching mostly within a localized 200m section of the structure, which returned highlight intervals of 12.2 m of 3.75 g/t Au, 7.01 m of 4.57 g/t Au and 10.60 m of 2.44 g/t Au. During Tectonic’s 2023 drill program, several holes were drilled into the Adit Structure 150 m and 500 m southeast of the historic drilled and trenched area, which returned 24.39 m of 1.08 g/t Au and 24.38 m of 1.00 g/t Au, respectively.
In 2024, drilling at Adit will focus on drilling a series of holes across the core kilometre of the structure and test the interpreted structural intersection zone of the Chicken Mountain and Adit structures.
Alpha Bowl: The previously un-drilled Alpha Bowl target is a bowl-shaped depression that is the northern extension of the Chicken Mountain intrusion complex and features the same host rocks found in the mineralized sections of Chicken Mountain. Limited historical soil and bedrock rock sampling indicate the intrusion is mineralized for at least 1,200 metres beyond the northernmost drill holes at the Chicken Mountain structure. This season, Alpha Bowl will be drilled for the first time. Drilling will focus on targeting intrusion-hosted mineralization along the established strike of the intrusion within the Alpha Bowl area.
Golden Apex: There are only two historical drill holes at Golden Apex across the expansive 2.5 km-long and 2.0 km-wide Golden Apex intrusion target. These holes from a 2003 program were not drilled in the optimum orientation, were drilled directly into a fault zone, and did not adequately test for the presence of underlying intrusions in the area.
Recently released drill assays have validated the presence of RIRGS distal mineralization. These assays and resulting geochemical zonation patterns suggest an intrusion closer to the surface than previously thought, particularly in the western part of the target area. This interpretation is further supported by recent Tectonic 3-D inversion of magnetic data, which reveal that the mineralization associated with gold-bearing intrusive rocks at Chicken Mountain is linked to domains of very low magnetic susceptibility. This low magnetic signature has now been identified and mapped at Golden Apex, just west of a 2003 drill hole, GA03-02, which returned 12.34 m at 1.08 g/t Au, 22.86 m at 1.00 g/t Au and 9.60 m at 0.93 g/t Au.
Initial assays are expected by the end of October 2024.
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 Flat is a very robust gold system.
Preliminary metallurgical analysis to-date has demonstrated rapid leach kinetics and gold recoveries averaging 95% from bottle roll testing. This, combined with gold intersections at or near the surface, suggests Chicken Mountain may also be an open-pit, heap leach opportunity.