Klondike Gold Corp has reported a surface outcrop discovery of high-grade gold-silver in quartz veining at the Gay Gulch Showing at its flagship Klondike District Gold property, in the Dawson mining district, in the Yukon.
In a statement, Klondike CEO Peter Tallman said: "Our team has discovered another high-grade gold-silver vein, this time at the Gay Gulch Showing. The company's new partnerships with respected researchers within Canadian and American institutions has been beneficial.”
“Ongoing analysis of work conducted in 2022 is helping to characterize the style and chemistry of gold mineralization and constrain the timing of gold mineralized fault structures. This will allow the company to identify priority exploration targets for 2023," he added.
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The Vancouver-based gold exploration company said assay results have been received for 26 surface rock outcrop and subcrop grab samples collected in 2022, including the headline gold-silver sample from Gay Gulch.
A total of 14 surface rock samples were collected from examinations of known mineralized localities at Lone Star Zone, Stander Zone, and other structural areas of interest. Sampling from selected outcrop and subcrop yielded gold values of >0.05 parts per million (ppm) to 9.6 grams per tonne (g/t) gold (Au) at Lone Star, 11.7 g/t Au at Stander, and >0.05 ppm to 0.8 g/t Au from various areas.
Robust Gay Gulch results
The high gold sample was collected on Eldorado Creek around 1 kilometer (km) along a structural trend from Gay Gulch. The high gold assay results are from sheeted quartz veins and are in line with expected values.
At the Gay Gulch Showing, a total of 12 rock grab samples from outcrop were assayed. Eleven of the 12 samples assayed between >0.05 g/t Au and 8.1 g/t Au, 0.3 ppm and 6.3 ppm silver (Ag), and no detectable anomalous tellurium (Te), with the highest Au and Ag sample collected from a sheeted quartz vein in line with expected values.
During field work, hand trenching to expand the Gay Gulch Showing exposure revealed gold-bearing quartz veining at the fault contact between quartz augen schist and graphitic schist units.
Klondike revealed an outcropping quartz vein at the fault contact was observed to contain “abundant coarse visible gold;” rock sample FV1A was then collected for research, and part of this was submitted to a lab for assay as rock sample 1999552. Importantly, the Gay Gulch rock sample 1999552, assayed 4,064 g/t Au with 1,149 g/t Ag with anomalous tellurium (16.1 ppm), bismuth (3.5 ppm), antimony (24.6 ppm), and mercury (15.2 ppm).
The firm explained that FV1A was analyzed using a Scanning Electron Microprobe (SEM) by Dr Ben Frieman at the Colorado School of Mines. It confirmed telluride minerals are “directly associated with the gold (electrum) mineralization as well as silver sulfosalts,” noted the company. Klondike said this establishes “a direct link between high gold, silver, and tellurium mineralization” associated with cross-cutting fault structures.
In 2014, at the Lone Star Zone, outcrop samples of a similar quartz vein in a fault assayed 831 g/t Au to 1,776 g/t Au with 205 g/t Ag to 400 g/t Ag.
Similarly, in 2019 at the Stander Zone, drill hole EC19-267 intersected a fault, including dendritic gold wires, plus coarse gold clots, assaying 1,009 g/t Au with 1,035 g/t Ag and anomalous Te over 1 meter.
Klondike noted that “numerous linear Au-Ag-Te soil anomalies coincident with LIDAR lineaments,” interpreted as faults have been identified as “high priority targets for 2023 exploration.”
Upcoming events
Klondike Gold will be participating in PDAC in Toronto from March 5-8, 2023, and the PDAC-SEG Student Minerals Colloquium where it will put up three research poster displays.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive