White Rock Minerals Ltd (ASX:WRM, OTCQX:WRMCF) has staked a contiguous block of new tenements across its new high-grade White Gold Project, identified within the prolific Tintina Gold Province in Alaska.
The company has secured 38 contiguous mining claims across 24 square kilometres where historic geochemistry and core drilling have highlighted the gold potential of the district.
Highlights from historic exploration include:
- 18 metres at 9.1g/t gold including 4 metres at 33.8g/t gold in surface trenching;
- 19 metres at 4.0g/t gold including 2.6 metres at 11.2/t gold in surface trenching;
- 9.8 metres at 8.6g/t gold including 3.8 metres at 14.3g/t gold in surface trenching; and
- 28 metres at 3.0g/t gold including 3.3 metres at 16.4g/t gold in surface trenching.
Interestingly, the White Gold Project encompasses eight mineralised prospects connected by a 16-kilometre network of northeast-trending geological structures in a region which is host to giant gold deposits including Donlin Creek (45 Moz Au), Pogo (10 Moz Au) and Fort Knox (13.5 Moz Au).
“Quality portfolio"
White Rock managing director and CEO Matt Gill said: “White Rock is committed to building a quality portfolio of high-grade precious metal assets in the world class Tintina Gold Province, to stand alongside our high-grade zinc-silver rich VMS deposit at Red Mountain, now measuring over 21 million tonnes at 8.5% Zinc Equivalent or 393 g/t Silver Equivalent grades.
“Generative exploration work by our first-class team in-country is continuing to highlight significant prospectivity where limited historic exploration has been undertaken when compared with similarly endowed terrains on a global scale.
“In this instance, White Rock has been able to stake a contiguous block of new tenements over eight quality high-grade gold mineralised prospects that are structurally linked.
Mineralisation
The mineralised prospects appear to be controlled by a series of northeast-trending structures within an orogenic setting that is distal to the Cretaceous granitic intrusions linked to mineralisation in the Tintina Gold Province.
The gold mineralisation metasediment hosted and likely represents an orogenic gold system or possibly a distal end-member of the Intrusion Related Gold System (“IRGS”) mineralisation classification of the major gold deposits in the Tintina Gold Province.
Within orogenic gold systems, fault-controlled mineralisation often persists for extensive strike lengths and depths.
Forward plan
White Rock is currently undertaking a full compilation and desktop review of the historical exploration data to identify the best targets with the potential for a significant high-grade gold deposit
In parallel, the company is assessing a range of options to fund possible exploration programs that progress the priority targets.
Exploration work is likely to include preliminary field due diligence ahead of drilling, provided funding and a drilling contractor can be secured.
“I and the Team remain impressed and encouraged by the rich mineral endowment and high exploration prospectivity that the geology of Alaska offers," Gill adds.
“Overlaid by this geological prospectivity is the fact that Alaska is ranked by the Fraser Institute in the Top 5 jurisdictions in the world for overall Investment Attractiveness, which takes both mineral and policy perception into consideration.”