Tower Resources posts Rabbit North drill results, British Columbia

Tower Resources Ltd. [TSXV: TWR] reported complete gold assays from Blue Sky discovery hole RN24-055 on the Rabbit North property in the heart of the Kamloops mining district, British Columbia. These assays confirm earlier indications from partial assays that Blue Sky is Tower’s most illuminating discovery to date, revealing both the scale and Au grade potential of the gold structures.

Hole 055 Results: The Blue Sky intersection in Hole 055 spans 31.5 metres, from 255 to 286.5 metres down hole, and averages 4.15 g/t gold. Seven other gold zones, all diorite hosted like Blue Sky, were intersected higher in the hole, and all but one of the intervals between zones are highly anomalous, suggesting potential for both open pit and underground development. The closest zone, only 15 metres above and potentially connected to Blue Sky, returned 2.92 g/t gold over 9.0 metres.

At Hole 55 the diorite occurs under ~63 metres (vertical thickness) of cover comprised of 1 metre of glacial till, 48 metres of Chilcotin basalt flows and 14 metres of saprolite. However, the extremely high gold grain content of the till ~100 metres to the south (i.e. down-ice) at the head of the Dominic Lake gold dispersal train suggests that Blue Sky surfaces just north of the basalt.

The diorite immediately below the saprolite, 72.6 metres down-hole, and in six of the seven intervals between gold zones, is highly anomalous, typically averaging ~0.3 g/t gold – a common cut-off grade in open pit gold mines.
In addition to its attractive width and grade, the Blue Sky mineralization is of a favoured type. Both the upper and lower contacts are easily recognizable visually. The gold grade is relatively uniform and not influenced by erratic high-grade “outliers”; the highest and lowest Au grades obtained from 35 core samples spanning the 31.5-metre zone were 17.10 and 0.44 g/t, respectively. Arsenic and other deleterious elements are absent.

The highest Cu value, 1.96% representing ~5.7% chalcopyrite, was obtained from the coarsely chalcopyrite-veined section pictured in the October 31 news release. The visual estimate of 10% chalcopyrite reported for the pyrite-rich core section in the lower part of the gold zone is not supported by the Cu analyses, with the highest value being 0.25%. Copper is not necessarily a beneficial element in gold deposits because it can increase gold extraction costs.

Hole 53 was drilled in Tower’s earlier June drilling program but the core could not be cut at that time because the core saw failed and required significant repairs. The core was cut and assayed during the October campaign, along with that from Hole 052 on the Rainbow porphyry Cu-Au-Mo zone and new Holes 055 to 058.

Hole 053 was drilled near the apparent head of the Dominic Lake Train in search of its bedrock source. With Hole 055 subsequently locating the source, it is now apparent that Hole 053 was collared too far south. The hole did not intersect any significant gold zones but was only 147 m long, leaving a 100-metre untested gap between its termination and the top of the mineralized diorite in Hole 055.

The laboratory analyses for Holes 056 to 058 have now been received and are being evaluated. The company expects to release these results early in the new year, probably in two batches starting with Hole 056 on Thunder North because Holes 057 and 058 targeted a different trend, Thunder-Lightning, as outlined in the company’s October 31 news release.

The company’s key exploration assets, all in B.C., are the Rabbit North orogenic gold and porphyry copper-gold project located between the New Afton copper-gold and Highland Valley copper mines in the Kamloops mining district, the Nechako porphyry-associated gold-silver project near Artemis’ Blackwater project and the More Creek epithermal gold project on the critical “red line” structural zone connecting the mineral deposits of the Golden Triangle.