Sitka Gold drills 1.47 g/t gold over 154 metres at RC Project, Yukon
Sitka Gold Corp. [TSXV-SIG; OTCQB-SITKF; FSE-1RF] drill hole DDRCCC-23-058 (Hole 58), has intersected strong gold results south of the current Blackjack Gold Deposit resource, Yukon Territory.
Hole 58 was the second of two holes completed during the 2024 winter diamond drilling program at the company’s 386 km2, road accessible RC Gold Project located in Yukon’s Tombstone Gold Belt (TGB), approximately 100 km east of Dawson City.
Hole 58 intersected 154.0 metres of 1.47 g/t gold, including 37.0 metres of 3.07 g/t gold and 8.0 metres of 4.61 g/t gold, confirming persistent gold mineralization continues 200 metres downdip of the gold mineralization encountered in DRCCC-23-047 (Hole 47), which returned the best drill hole results to date with 219.0 metres of 1.34 g/t gold, including 124.8 metres of 2.01 g/t gold and 55.0 m of 3.11 g/t gold.
The results from Hole 58, when taken together with the results of Hole 47, and 57, have enabled the company to generate a 3D model interpretation that shows this strong gold mineralization is associated with the Blackjack Fault, is open to the southeast and projects both to depth and to surface.
Assay highlights from drill hole DDRCCC-24-058: 351 m of 0.85 g/t Au from 157.0 m, including 154 m of 1.47 g/t Au from 354.0 m; 37.0 m of 3.07 m g/t Au from 449.0 m; and 8.0 m of 4.61 g/t from 470.0 m.
“The strong gold results from Hole 58 continue to highlight the potential of this area to add significant higher-grade tonnage to our gold resource while further demonstrating the prospectivity of the multiple intrusion related gold deposit targets we have across our 100%-owned, district-scale RC Gold Project,” stated Cor Coe, Director and CEO of Sitka. “The information from Hole 58 has also provided key insight into the three-dimensional continuity of the robust gold mineralization and associated structural controls in this recently discovered, higher-grade zone of the Saddle intrusion.
“The Blackjack Fault, which was previously unknown prior to our diamond drilling campaigns, appears to be an important control to the mineralization being discovered here with both this fault and the associated gold mineralization trending in the same direction to the south of our current extent of drilling. What has us really excited is that this mineralized corridor, which projects to surface and to depth, traces south of our resource, through a highly prospective area that has remained largely unexplored to date, and on towards additional intrusions that have similar geological characteristics to the Saddle intrusion. This updated geological model has highlighted an area of approximately 1 km in length along strike to the south of our resource as a high-priority target that could extend the higher-grade gold zone discovered at Blackjack significantly. This area, along with the Saddle Zone target area, which remains largely untested by drilling and contains the largest and strongest gold-in-soil anomaly on the property, will be the primary focus of our exploration efforts this season.
“With the summer phase of drilling about to commence and the largest drilling campaign planned to date at RC Gold, with up to 15,000 metres diamond drilling proposed, we look forward to further unlocking this potential while we continue to expand our rapidly growing gold resource.”
The results of Holes 57 and 58, when taken together with the results of Hole 47, have significantly enhanced the company’s understanding of the structural controls of gold mineralization at the Blackjack deposit. The higher-grade gold intervals identified in these holes form a large volume of well mineralized rock that define a SSE trending corridor, now called the Blackjack Mineralized Corridor, that is coincident with the Blackjack Fault, a previously identified feature which is interpreted to have been important in the emplacement of the Saddle Stock and subsequent gold mineralizing episodes.
When placed in a district context, the results of the recent drilling further demonstrate the potential of significant gold mineralization in the Blackjack deposit to continue to the southeast. The area between the known southern extent of the Saddle Stock and the West Pukelman Stock is of particular interest as it is essentially unexplored. Soil sampling has been one of the key identifiers of gold mineralization in the Clear Creek intrusive complex area, but there has been virtually no soil sampling in the area between the Saddle Stock, the West Pukelman Stock and the western margin of the Pukelman Stock.
Hole 58 was collared approximately 70 metres north of recently completed DDRCCC-24-057, which also intersected visible gold in sheeted veining within megacrystic quartz monzonite and returned 191.0 Metres of 1.16 g/t gold. Hole 58 was drilled to a depth of 534.9 metres at an azimuth of 60 degrees and dip of -60 degrees. It was drilled to test the down dip extension of the well mineralized quartz monzonite intrusion intersected in hole DDRCCC-23-047.
Both quartz monzonite intrusions were cut by abundant 1-2 cm sheeted quartz veins, quartz-arsenopyrite veins, and arsenopyrite veins. Visible gold was noted at several locations including 180.2 m, 240.5 m, 244.2 m, 276.3 m, 401.2 m, and 476.9 m, and several occurrences of bismuthinite were noted such as 476.8 m and 420.0 m.
A focus for drilling up to 15,000 m in 2024 will be to continue to define gold mineralization along the newly recognized Blackjack Mineralized Corridor to the SSE. In addition, soil and rock sampling and geologic mapping will also be conducted along the Blackjack Mineralized Corridor to further evaluate the mineralization within this unexplored portion of the property.
In addition to extending Blackjack gold mineralization to the southeast, objectives for the 2024 exploration season include further drilling of the Saddle East zone (84 m of 1.21 g/t Au in 2023), further drilling of the Eiger Deposit (Inferred Resource of 440,000 oz Au in 2023), further drilling of the Josephine Stock (visible gold discovered at surface in 2023) and further investigation of the nine known intrusions with associated gold mineralization that have been discovered to date on the company’s RC Project.
The RC Gold Project consists of a 386 386 km2 contiguous district-scale land package located in the heart of Yukon’s Tombstone Gold Belt. The project is located approximately 100 km east of Dawson City, which has a 5,000-foot paved runway, and is accessed via a secondary gravel road from the Klondike Highway which is usable year-round and is an approximate two-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 former producing Brewery Creek Gold Mine.
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 zones: The Blackjack and Eiger deposits. Both 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.
To date, 56 diamond drill holes have been drilled into this system for a total of approximately 19,962 metres including 16 drill holes totalling 6,515 metres completed in 2023 focused on expanding the initial resource. The drilling in 2023 produced 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. The company recently completed two drill holes totalling 1,085 metres during the winter phase of a planned 15,000-metre diamond drilling program at the RC Gold Project for 2024.
Sitka Gold is currently exploring its flagship RC Gold Project within the Tombstone Gold Belt in the Yukon Territory with a 15,000-metre, fully funded, diamond drill program planned for 2024. The company is also advancing the Alpha Gold Project in Nevada and currently has drill permits for its Burro Creek Gold and Silver Project in Arizona and the Coppermine River Project in Nunavut.