Japan Gold Corp (CVE:JG) (OTCQB:JGLDF) announced Tuesday that Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has accepted 18 new prospecting rights applications covering extensions to the Barrick Alliance, Mizobe and Onoyama-Yamagano Projects in the Hokusatsu Region of the Southern Kyushu Epithermal Gold Province.
The Hokusatsu Region of Southern Kyushu is Japan's largest gold producing area with low-sulphidation epithermal deposits recording a combined production of over 11 million ounces.
In a statement, Japan Gold said the 18 new prospecting rights applications accepted by METI bring the company's total coverage in the Hokusatsu Region to 100,452.8 hectares — about 84% of prospective and explorable ground within the region.
READ: Japan Gold updates on 'significant amount' of work completed by Barrick exploration alliance
It also said that epithermal vein deposits in the Hokusatsu Region are generally hosted on the western margins of gravity anomalies which form the basis for the new prospecting rights applications.
The Onoyama-Yamagano Project is located along the prospective Hokusatsu volcanic front, north of the company's Ohra-Takamine Project and the Barrick Alliance Mizobe-Onoyama Project, and west of the historic Yamagano Gold Mine which produced in excess of 910,000 ounces of gold at a grade of 17.4 grams per ton (g/t).
Japan Gold said that nine new applications on the western side of the Onoyama-Yamagano Project were lodged to cover the western flank of a gravity-high feature which has been further defined by the Barrick Alliance project scale geophysical surveys.
The Mizobe Project, which now incorporates the Mizobe 1st Extension Project, is located in the southeast corner of the Hokusatsu Region and covers an area of gold-antimony anomalism associated with an extensive gravity-high feature that runs through the Mizobe Project and into the northeast part of the Ohra-Takamine Project.
The nine new Mizobe West Extension applications were similarly positioned to cover the southwest flanks of the gravity anomaly which coincident with highly anomalous quartz veins, breccia, and sinter floats sampled in drainages on the western side of the Mizobe Project and the southwest portion of the Mizobe-Onoyama Project.
The company's portfolio now comprises of 202,926.2 hectares of prospective ground across Japan's five major epithermal gold provinces within the three main islands of Kyushu, Honshu and Hokkaido Hokusatsu Region, Southern Kyushu Epithermal Gold Province.
Contact the author: patrick@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow him on Twitter @PatrickMGraham