Kestrel in hunt for White Gold District similarities at Val-Jual

Kestrel Gold Inc. [KGC-TSXV; KSTBF-OTC] shares were active Friday December 8 after the company announced drill results from the Val-Jual property, located 70 km south of Dawson City, Yukon Territory. The property comprises two separate blocks located on either side of the Ten Mile Creek placer gold mine.

Kestrel said the objective of the drill program was to test for orogenic-style gold mineralization similar to the White Gold District. Yukon’s White Gold District came into focus several years ago due to the efforts of prospector Shawn Ryan, who is renowned for his work in seeking the bedrock source of the Yukon’s infamous placer gold deposits.

It involves the use of methodical soil sampling techniques that led to the discovery of a geophysical anomaly that he optioned to Underworld Resources in 2004.

In March 2010, Underworld was swallowed by Kinross Gold Corp. [K-TSX, NYSE-KGC] in a deal that sparked a staking rush as well as more discoveries, including Kaminak Gold’s Coffee gold project (named after the colour of a nearby river) and Comstock Metals Ltd.‘s [CSL-TSXV] QV Project.

In May 2016, Goldcorp Inc. [G-TSX, GG-NYSE], acquired the Coffee Project by snapping up Kaminak in a share exchange deal worth of $520 million.

In its December 8 press release, Kestrel said all 13 drill holes encountered low grade to anomalous gold mineralization hosted in granite, with maximum values per hole ranging from 3.13 g/t gold in drill hole 17RC-01 to 0.27 g/t gold in hole 17RC-06. Pathfinder elements for the gold mineralization may include lead, zinc, silver and arsenic.

“A picture is emerging at Val-Jual and Ten of several property wide zones of near surface gold enrichment and associated hydrothermal alteration that collectively suggest the footprint of a substantial orogenic gold system evident on both sides of Ten Mile Creek,” said Kestrel Gold President and CEO Kevin Nephin.

“These are early days of exploring a large target that is open in all directions and untested at depth,” he said. “With the first modest and relatively accessible reverse circulation drill program, we are just starting to get an understanding of the structural controls localizing gold mineralization.”

The company is planning to follow this up with additional near surface drilling, selective lines of ground-magnetic surveying and trenching, prospecting, mapping and further soil sampling.

Kestrel shares fell 25% or $0.01 to $0.03 Friday on active volume of over 1 million shares traded.