Japan Gold drills 19 g/t AuEq over 1.05 metres at Ikutahara, Japan

Japan Gold Corp. [JG-TSXV; JGLDF-OTCQB] reported that drilling at the Saroma prospect has encountered multiple intersections of high-grade silver with gold mineralization along a 1-km length of the Saroma vein. The Saroma vein forms part of a larger, 3.5-km long open-ended district-scale mineralized structure which hosts the Saroma, Chitose and Taiho historical workings, collectively called the Saroma prospect. Saroma is one of several prospects the company is advancing within its 100%-owned Ikutahara Project in Hokkaido, Japan.

Highlights: High-grade silver with gold mineralized intervals include drill hole IKDD22-012 that returned 1.05 metres at 1.3 g/t gold and 1,449.5 g/t silver (19.0 AuEq) from 90.55 metres, including 0.4 metres at 3.2 g/t gold and 3,570.0 g/t silver (46.7 AuEq) from 90.8 m).

IKDD22-010 returned 3.1 metres at 0.4 g/t Au & 475.7 g/t Ag (6.2 AuEq) from 104.75 metres (incl. 1.0 m at 0.6 g/t Au & 1,128.8 g/t Ag (14.3 AuEq) from 105.5 m).

IKDD22-009 returned 4.1 metres at 0.7 g/t Au & 124.8 g/t Ag (2.2 AuEq) from 55.65 metres, including 0.75 metres at 2.7 g/t Au & 425.0 g/t Ag (7.9 AuEq) from 56.25 m.

All six drill holes intersected significant quartz vein zones up to 8 m wide proving continuity of a robust vein hosting structure along a 1-km section of the Saroma vein.

Vein intervals show a range of textures including colloform-crustiform-ginguro banding with overprinting vein breccia events indicating a dynamic multi-phase hydrothermal system.

Detailed mapping has confirmed multiple vein zones with broad silicification envelopes along a 3.5 km long mineralized corridor which hosts the Saroma, Chitose and Taiho historical workings.

The Saroma prospect structure remains open an additional 5 km southwest towards the historical Jomon mine workings where numerous quartz boulders sampled in a small open pit reported grades averaging 25 g/t gold and 50 g/t silver.

“The confirmation of wide coherent chalcedony-rich veins, and high-grade silver with gold intersections along an open-ended district-scale structure are very encouraging outcomes from the initial drill program at Saroma. Both gold and silver biased mineralization events are seen in adjacent prospects including Showa, Ikutahara, and Taihoku, and along the same structure 5 km to the SW at the under-explored Jomon workings. It is assumed the same gold rich events occur at the Saroma prospect based on historical production data. Large epithermal vein deposits require large fluid pathways which is what we are seeing in the cretaceous basement host rocks at Saroma. Typically, not all the quartz in such extensive vein systems is well mineralized and next year’s programs will target gold-rich shoots via staged soil sampling and geophysics to rapidly commence additional drilling,” commented Andrew Rowe, Japan Gold’s VP of Exploration.

The 2023 work programs will aim to delineate high-grade gold and silver shoots along the Saroma structure and towards the Jomon workings. Staged work programs will include detailed mapping with soil sampling to identify precious and path-finder element anomalies for focussed CSAMT geophysical surveying. Targets developed by this work will be ranked to guide drilling.

Located approximately 4 km south of the Kitano-o gold mine, the historic Saroma, Taiho and Chitose gold workings were developed on epithermal veins that step along a northeast trending fault zone which extends for at least 3.5 km along the Saroma valley.

Operated during the 1930s, records show the Saroma mine produced 13,189 tons of ore averaging 9.7 g/t gold between 1933 to 19392. There are no production records from the Taiho and Chitose workings; however, exploration and mining was reported from these latter two areas immediately prior to the 1943 gold mining moratorium.

Japan Gold is focused solely on gold exploration across the three largest islands of Japan: Hokkaido, Honshu and Kyushu. The company has a country-wide alliance with Barrick Gold Corp. [ABX-TSX; GOLD-NYSDE] to jointly explore, develop and mine certain gold mineral properties and mining projects. The company holds a portfolio of 31 gold projects which cover areas with known gold occurrences, a history of mining and are prospective for high-grade epithermal gold mineralization.