K2 Gold drills 0.053 g/t gold over 185.57 metres at Si2, Nevada
K2 Gold Corp. [KTO-TSXV; KTGDF-OTCQB; 23K-FSE] reported results from its inaugural diamond drilling program at the Si2 project, located in the Walker Lane trend of south-central Nevada. The program successfully intersected anomalous gold in all four holes, including a peak assay of 0.520 g/t gold over 3.2 metres in hole SD-23-001. The program confirms that the barren steam-heated alteration observed at surface is the product of a gold-bearing epithermal system.
Highlights: K2’s drilling has successfully identified a blind-to-surface gold-bearing epithermal system at Si2.Gold mineralization is hosted within a major NE-trending fault zone focused along the margin of a rhyolite dome.
Assay highlights include hole SD-23-001: 3.2 metres of 0.520 g/t gold from 344.58 metres to end of hole. SD-23-002: 185.57 metres of 0.053 g/t gold from 200 metres to end of hole.
Both holes were drilled into the NE-trending fault zone and ended in mineralization and increasing arsenic anomalism.
A 6.4-metre thick quartz vein intersected in the immediate footwall of the controlling fault is gold-bearing, exhibits high-level textures, and indicates the epithermal system is capable of forming large veins.
Drilling was conducted at a single target area within an 8 km2 alteration cell. Additional target areas with identical surficial alteration, structural control, and geochemistry are ready for future drill testing.
“Our 2023 drill program at Si2 was designed with one goal in mind: determine if the steam-heated alteration identified at surface might hide a gold-bearing epithermal system below.” stated Anthony Margarit, CEO.
“Our diamond drilling has successfully demonstrated that the Si2 epithermal system is gold bearing. The 185-metre gold-bearing intercept we drilled indicates that the hydrothermal system that created the extensive property-wide steam-heated alteration at surface mobilized a tremendous amount of gold-bearing fluid. The next step will be to identify where that fluid was trapped, concentrated, and potentially deposited higher grades of gold. This first drilling program tested only one of the fault-controlled alteration cells on the property, all of which share similar characteristics and are just as prospective.”
Drilling at the Si2 Project was designed to test the Southern Rhyolite Dome target area, which consists of an extensive blanket of near-surface steam-heated alunite-kaolinite alteration.
The 2023 program consisted of four diamond drill holes for a total of 1,777.3 metres. The four holes were oriented to the southeast, aligned in a fence-style pattern, and drilled at angles of 50 to 60 degrees from horizontal to cut across a prominent set of NE-trending faults observed at surface at the margin of the rhyolite dome. The objective of the drilling was to test beneath the steam-heated alteration to determine if the epithermal system is gold bearing. A diamond drill was utilized to obtain core samples to observe textures of alteration and mineralization to guide future exploration.
Hole SD-23-002 drilled through the same fault system cut by hole SD-23-001, with barren steam-heated alteration intersected from surface to 62 metres where a fault zone cutting oxidized and silicified rhyolite returned 0.067 g/t gold over 4 metres. Consistently elevated gold values begin at a prominent fault at 200 metres down hole, with an intersection of 0.053 g/t gold over 185.57 metres, including an interval of 0.179 g/t Au over 5.50 metres at 361m down hole with a sub interval of 0.228 g/t gold over 1.50 metres. The drill hole ended in mineralization and increasing arsenic anomalism. controlling fault structures.
The results of the 2023 program indicate that the Si2 Project hosts a blind-to-surface, fault controlled, gold-bearing epithermal system. Multiple steam-heated alteration cells on the property remain untested and are now considered high-priority targets for follow up.
The Si2 Gold Project is located in Esmeralda County, approximately 60km northwest of Tonopah, Nevada, and 20km northwest of Allegiant Gold’s Eastside deposit (1.4Moz Au, 8.8 Moz Ag). The project is road accessible and consists of 118 BLM lode claims covering 986 Ha, 65 of which are under option from Orogen Royalties Inc.
K2 is a member of Discovery Group and currently has projects in Southwest USA and the Yukon.