TRU Precious Metals Corp reported that it has swiftly advanced its trenching and channel sampling program at the Mark's Pond high-grade gold target on its Golden Rose property in the prospective Central Newfoundland Gold Belt.
Earlier this year, the Toronto, Ontario-based copper and gold explorer shared high-grade gold channel sampling results from an initial Mark's Pond trench. The trenching and channel sampling at Mark's Pond began in mid-May and is expected to continue in June.
TRU said that two 50-to-100 meter (m) long trenches have been finished 100 m to the southwest and 90 m to the northeast of the main Northcott Zone trench completed last fall. In addition, several 25-to-30 m long trench extensions or test pits have been added to expand the known strike length of several gold-bearing graphitic shear zones with quartz-carbonate veins, including the newly discovered Northcott Gold Zone.
According to the company, high-grade gold mineralization appears to be most “prominent” at the contact between the Rogerson Lake Conglomerate and mafic volcanic units at this location.
TRU said that gold panning of soil and till collected within or on the sides of these new trenches has identified a “significant amount of pristine, fine-grained gold grains,” especially next to newly uncovered shear zones and rock unit contacts.
Importantly enough, visible gold has also been observed in the bedrock exposed within these new trenches. TRU said channel samples are being collected at 0.5-to-1 m continuous intervals in each trench. Assay results for the channel samples are pending.
"I have been impressed by how quickly and efficiently our exploration team and contractors have completed our trenching and channel sampling program at Mark's Pond, and this is a direct result of our detailed planning and preparation ahead of the start of our 2023 field season,” said TRU Vice President Paul Ténière.
“We are already seeing abundant mineralization in these new trenches and the potential extension of the Northcott Gold Zone along strike for up to 200 meters, which is very exciting news," he added.
A new high-resolution drone (UAV) survey was also completed to capture the new trenches and will also be used for detailed mapping and modeling of the channel samples, rock units, and alteration and mineralized zones at surface.
TRU has also received the high-res ground Magnetic-VLF data over the Mark's Pond target area conducted by GroundTruth Exploration, now being compiled into GIS and Leapfrog Geo for 3D geological modeling and interpretation.
TRU noted that the high-resolution Mag-VLF and drone survey data, structural mapping data, and channel sampling results will all combine to give it a “high degree of confidence” when developing drill hole targets to intercept the mineralized zones at depth.
Prospecting and mapping
Once the Mark's Pond trenching and channel sampling is finished, the exploration team will start detailed prospecting and mapping in the Jacob's Pond-Twin Ponds area to identify new copper and gold occurrences for trenching and drilling in this part of Golden Rose, said the company.
The Mark's Pond target area is among the company's claims under option from Quadro Resources. Under the agreement, the optionor will retain either a 49% interest or a 35% interest, depending on the extent to which TRU exercises its option.
Separately, TRU said that it was issued an additional 1,000,000 special warrants convertible into common shares of Eastern Precious Metals Corp for no additional cost, in line with the terms of the firm’s option agreement with Eastern.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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