Japan Gold (TSX-V:JG) Corp has hailed the latest drill results from its Saroma prospect at its wholly-owned Ikutahara project, which hit multiple intersections of high-grade silver with gold mineralization along a 1 kilometre (km) length of the Saroma vein.
All six holes intersected significant quartz vein zones up to 8 metres (m) wide proving continuity of a robust vein-hosting structure. Highlight assays included a length of 1.05m in one hole at a grade of 1.3 grams per ton (g/t) gold and 1,449.5 g/t silver from a depth of 90.55m. Another hole intercepted 3.1m at 0.4 g/t of the yellow metal and 475.7 g/t silver from 104.75 m depth.
"The confirmation of wide coherent chalcedony-rich veins, and high-grade silver with gold intersections along an open-ended district-scale structure are very encouraging outcomes from the initial drill program at Saroma," said Andrew Rowe, Japan Gold's vice-president (VP) of exploration in a statement.
READ: Japan Gold welcomes latest drill results from Ryuo prospect at the Ikutahara project
"Both gold and silver-biased mineralization events are seen in adjacent prospects including Showa, Ikutahara, and Taihoku, and along the same structure 5 km to the SW at the under-explored Jomon workings.
"It is assumed the same gold-rich events occur at the Saroma prospect based on historical production data. Large epithermal vein deposits require large fluid pathways which is what we are seeing in the cretaceous basement host rocks at Saroma. Typically, not all the quartz in such extensive vein systems is well mineralized and next year's programs will target gold-rich shoots via staged soil sampling and geophysics to rapidly commence additional drilling," he added
Japan Gold said its work next year would aim to delineate high-grade gold and silver shoots along the Saroma structure and towards the Jomon workings.
Staged programs will include detailed mapping with soil sampling to identify precious and path-finder element anomalies for focused CSAMT geophysical surveying, it said.
Sitting just around 4 km south of the Kitano-o gold mine, the historic Saroma, Taiho and Chitose gold workings were developed on a northeast trending fault zone which extends for at least 3.5 km.
Operated during the 1930s, records show the Saroma mine produced 13,189 tons of ore at an average grade of 9.7 g/t gold between 1933 to 1939, said the company.
Japan Gold is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused solely on gold exploration across the three largest islands of Japan: Hokkaido, Honshu and Kyushu. It also has a country-wide alliance with major Barrick Gold Corp to jointly explore, develop and mine certain gold mineral properties and mining projects.
Contact the writer at giles@proactiveinvestors.com