Independence Gold advances on B.C. drilling news
Independence Gold Corp. [IGO-TSXV] has launched a 4,000-metre diamond drill program at its 100%-owned 3Ts project, which is located in central British Columbia, approximately 185 kilometres southwest of Prince George. The estimated budget for the program is $1.1 million.
Independence Gold shares advanced on the news, rising 7.7% or $0.01 to 14 cents in light trading volume. The shares currently trade in a 52-week range of 15.5 cents and $0.04.
The 3Ts project is located 16 kilometres southwest of Artemis Gold Inc.’s [ARTG-TSXV] Blackwater project, which recently announced the approval of BC Mines Act Permit for the development of the Blackwater mine.
Blackwater is estimated to host a measured and indicated resource of 12.4 million AuEq ounces (597 million tonnes at 0.65 g/t AuEq, 0.61 g/t gold, and 6.4 g/t silver).
Independence said the drill program will consist of 28 holes, and focus on the Tommy vein system and an area 200 metres around it. The targets were selected based on an updated NI 43-101-compliant resource calculation which was announced back in August, 2022.
The estimate included an in-pit and an underground component, the company said in a press release. The combined in-pit and underground components of the Tommy and Ted-Mint vein systems contain a total inferred resource of 4.47 million tonnes of grade 3.64 g/t gold and 96.26 g/t silver, at a cut-off grade of 0.4 g/t gold equivalent (AuEq) in pit and 2.0 g/t AuEq underground, containing 522,330 ounces of gold and 13.8 million ounces of silver.
That includes an underground resource of 267,936 ounces gold, and 6.07 million ounces of silver, and an in-pit resource of 254,395 ounces of gold and 7.7 million ounces of silver.
The company said drilling this year will focus on testing targets along strike of the vein systems and new veins discovered during the fall 2022 exploration program, as well as testing the potential porphyry targets outlined by the previous geophysical surveys conducted in 2021.
The 3Ts project consists of 15 mineral claims covering 5,200 hectares in the Nechako Plateau region of central British Columbia. It is comprised of the Tsacha, Taken, Tam, Tommy Bot and Blackwater South properties.
3Ts covers an epithermal quartz-carbonate vein system within which more than a dozen individual mineralized veins, ranging from 50 metres to more than 900 metres in length and true widths up to 25 metres, have been identified.
The first gold-bearing quartz vein was discovered in 1993 at Tommy Lake by a B.C. government mapping crew. Independence Gold has continued to explore the project with recent work, including mapping geophysics, drilling and metallurgy at three main targets, including the Ted-Mint Vein, the Tommy Vein and Ringer Target.
Independence Gold is headed by CEO Randy Turner, who is best known for guiding Winspear Diamonds from the discovery of the Snap Lake diamond find in the Northwest Territories to its eventual sale to De Beers Mining for $305 million.