Sitka Gold drilling flagship RC Gold Project, Yukon
Sitka Gold Corp. [TSXV-SIG; OTCQB-SITKF; FSE-1RF] reported that diamond drilling has commenced at the company’s year-round road accessible RC Gold Project located in the prolific Tombstone Gold Belt approximately 100 km east of Dawson City, Yukon. Up to 15,000 metres of diamond drilling across winter and summer drilling campaigns is planned for 2024.
The key objectives of drilling this year will be to further expand and define the well endowed Clear Creek Intrusive Complex area, which currently hosts a maiden resource of 1.34 million ounces of gold comprised of the Blackjack and Eiger gold deposits, both of which remain open in all directions, and advance additional drill-ready targets elsewhere on the district-scale, 386 km2 property.
“We are very excited to have the drill turning again at our flagship RC Gold Project,” stated Cor Coe, Director and CEO of Sitka Gold. “This winter drilling program will be primarily focused on the southern extent of the Blackjack zone where we encountered the highest grade gold intercepts on the project to date in hole DDRCCC-23-047, which returned 219.0 m of 1.34 g/t gold including 124.8 m of 2.01 g/t gold and 55.0 m of 3.11 g/t gold. Gold grades of this magnitude are quite remarkable for a reduced intrusion related gold system and the data thus far indicates this higher-grade extension of the Blackjack gold deposit should persist further to the southeast and at depth. While step out drilling in this area could add substantial grade and tonnage to the existing resource, we are also excited to follow up on several other high priority, drill ready targets present across our district-scale and still largely under explored land package this year.”
The RC Gold Project consists of a 386 km2 contiguous district-scale land package located in the newly road accessible Clear Creek, Big Creek, and Sprague Creek districts in the heart of Yukon’s Tombstone Gold Belt. The project is located approximately 100 km east of Dawson City and is accessed via a secondary gravel road from the Klondike Highway which is usable year-round and is an approximate 2 hour drive from Dawson.
It is the largest consolidated land package strategically positioned mid-way between Victoria Gold’s Eagle Gold Mine – Yukon’s newest gold mine which reached commercial production in the summer of 2020 – and Victoria Gold’s Brewery Creek Gold Mine. The RC Gold Project land package comprises five underlying properties, namely, the RC, Bee Bop, Mahtin, Clear Creek, and Barney Ridge properties. Sitka currently owns 100% of the Clear Creek which encompasses the Blackjack and Eiger deposits, Mahtin and other independently staked claims which comprise 86% of the total 386 km2 land package that comprises the RC Gold Project. The company has an option to earn a 100% interest in the Barney Creek, Bee Bop and RC properties which comprise the remaining 14% of the RC Gold Project.
On January 19, 2023 Sitka Gold announced an Initial Mineral Resource Estimate prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 guidelines for the RC Gold Property of 1,340,000 ounces of gold. The road accessible, pit constrained Mineral Resource is classified as inferred and is contained in two near/on-surface zones: The Blackjack and Eiger deposits. The Mineral Resource estimate is presented in the following table at a base case cut-off grade of 0.25 g/t Au.
The Initial Mineral Resource Estimate of 1,340,000 ounces of gold at the RC Gold Project is comprised of two deposits: the Blackjack deposit containing 900,000 ounces of gold grading of 0.83 g/t gold and the Eiger deposit containing 440,000 ounces of gold gradingf 0.50 g/t gold. Both of these deposits are at/near surface, are potentially open pit minable and amenable to heap leaching, with initial bottle roll tests indicating that the gold is not refractory and has high gold recoveries of up to 94% with minimal NaCN consumption.
The Blackjack and Eiger deposits are in close proximity to highway and power infrastructure, are road accessible year-round, remain open in all directions and are located within the Clear Creek Intrusive Complex. The deposits are located within a large, 3 km by 5 km intrusion related gold system that was recently identified at the Northern Extent of the Clear Creek Intrusive Complex. To date, 54 diamond drill holes have been drilled into this system for a total of approximately 18,877 metres with results of up to 219.0 m of 1.34 g/t gold, including 124.8 m of 2.01 g/t gold and 55.0 m of 3.11 g/t gold in drill hole DDRCCC-23-047 at Blackjack.
Several high priority intrusion related gold targets exist at RC Gold with nine outcropped intrusions identified to date over the property, however Sitka’s main focus at the RC Gold Project has been on the underlying Clear Creek property where a large 500 metre by 2000 metre extensional corridor hosting an intrusion related gold system covering the area over the Blackjack, Saddle and Eiger zones was identified. Additional surface work has since extended the gold corridor an additional 3000 metres east and now encompasses the Josephine intrusion. Prior to the onset of the 2023 winter drilling program, the company had drilled 38 diamond drill holes into this system for a total of approximately 13,000 metres. This drilling culminated in the discovery of the Blackjack and Eiger deposits with an initial inferred mineral resource estimate of 1,340,000 gold ounces.
Sitka Gold Corp. is a well-funded mineral exploration company headquartered in Canada with about $7.5 million in the treasury.