Scottie Resources Corp. (TSX-V:SCOT) has reported new assays from the Blueberry Zone at its Scottie Gold Mine property in British Columbia's Golden Triangle region, including two high-grade intercepts in drill hole SR22-209.
The company noted the upper hit of 53.2 grams per ton (g/t) gold over 3 metres (m) is located at the contact zone, whereas the lower intercept of 19.2 g/t gold over 3m was situated well within the siltstone unit of the Lower Hazelton Group. Drilling in 2022 extended the strike length of the zone to more than 1,450m and the depth to 400m, it added.
"The Blueberry Contact Zone continues to fill in with the most recent assay batches. Having secured financing for our 2023 drill program we are now in the process of securing contractors necessary for another robust exploration season,” Scottie president and CEO Brad Rourke said in a statement.
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2022 exploration program
Scottie said the 2022 exploration program was dominated by the diamond drilling of the Blueberry Contact Zone, where more than 15,000m of the total 17,176m were drilled. The majority of the drill targets were designed to test pierce points along the structure at 60 to 120m spacings. In addition to this, the company tested substantial step-outs along strike to the south (greater than 400m) where surficial geology and sampling supported the extension of the mineralized zone.
The company said the 2022 drill results received thus far have extended the boundaries of the mineralized system from a strike length of 720m to more than 1,450m, and the vertical depth from 225 metres to 400 metres. Drilling also successfully targeted mineralization at the C and D Zones, intercepting up to 31.8 g/t gold over 4m. At a strike length of over 200m, it noted that the intercepts on C and D Zones represent the furthest tested extent of sulphide-rich cross-structures from the Blueberry Contact Zone.
In addition to drilling, it said loop electromagnetic (EM) surveys were carried out over the Scottie Gold Mine and the southern extension of the Blueberry Contact Zone along the historic Summit Lakebed. These surveys have been interpreted and have generated additional drill targets to be tested in 2023.
“Much like in 2022, our 2023 drill plan will be expansionary in nature, striving to define the outer limits of this well-endowed system, and a lower than usual snowpack this year offers promise of an early start,” Rourke added.
About the Blueberry Contact Zone
The Blueberry Contact Zone is 100% owned and royalty-free and is located 2 kilometres north-northeast of the past-producing high-grade Scottie Gold Mine, 35 kilometres north of the town of Stewart in British Columbia.
The company noted that historic trenching and channel sampling of the Blueberry Vein include results of 103.94 g/t gold over 1.43m and 203.75 g/t gold over 1.9m.
Despite high-grade surficial samples and easy road access, Scottie said the Blueberry Vein had only limited reported drilling prior to its exploration work.
The target was significantly advanced during Scottie's 2019 drill program when an interval grading 7.44 g/t gold over 34.78m was intersected in a new splay-off zone of the main Blueberry Vein.
The drill results received in 2020 and 2021, coupled with surficial mapping and sampling suggest that this splay is in fact a major north-south mineralized structure, of which the Blueberry Vein was only a secondary structure. The zone is steeply dipping, and there is no current restraint on its potential depth; the mineralization at the adjacent Scottie Gold Mine has a vertical extent greater than 450m.
Scottie also owns 100% interest in the Georgia Project which contains the high-grade past-producing Georgia River Mine, as well as the Cambria Project properties and the Sulu property. Altogether Scottie Resources holds more than 59,000 hectares of mineral claims in the Stewart Mining Camp in the Golden Triangle.
The company's focus is on expanding the known mineralization around the past-producing mines while advancing near mine high-grade gold targets, with the purpose of delivering a potential resource. All of the company's properties are located in the area known as the Golden Triangle of British Columbia which is among the world's most prolific mineralized districts.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com