Snowline Gold Corp. (CSE:SGD) said it has encountered 415 metres (m) of nearly continuous mineralization downhole from bedrock surface in V-22-007 at its Rogue Project’s Valley Zone in Canada’s Yukon Territory.
The presence of such a large and intense zone of mineralization in a significant step-out along trend highlights the scale potential of the Valley Zone, the gold exploration company said.
"I've seen a lot of rocks and a lot of drill core from many intrusion-related gold systems, but these Valley intersections have the most intense vein densities I've ever seen. There are overprinting vein generations and varying vein orientations, which is unusual, and further indicates a very robust mineralizing system,” Snowline chair and director Craig Hart said in a statement.
“To see these vein densities over significant widths is very encouraging. The numerous observations of visible gold and bismuthinite indicate that the system is mineralized, but of course the assay results are required before we get too excited," he added.
READ: Snowline Gold encouraged by early findings of first 2022 hole drilled at Valley zone at Rogue project in the Yukon
Snowline said hole V-22-007, a 340m step-out along-strike to the southeast of 2021 drill hole V-21-003 which intersected 168.65m averaging 1.25 grams per ton (g/t) gold (Au) from bedrock surface, encountered steeply dipping sheeted quartz vein mineralization in diorite from bedrock surface at 4m to its total depth of 415m downhole.
“The hole encountered the densest concentrations of sheeted quartz veins observed in the Valley Zone to date, in places exceeding 20 quartz veins per metre,” it said.
The company noted minor bismuthinite in the veins, and small grains of visible gold in and along the bismuthinite-bearing quartz veins, with 26 instances seen in initial evaluation of the drill core across 369m, from the first instance at 19m downhole to the last at 388m downhole.
The final 20m of the hole from 395m to 415m were less intensely mineralized, averaging around five veins per metre, it said.
Snowline also provided an update on hole V-22-005, saying that the hole has continued to a total depth of 339m from 233m announced on June 13, 2022. It added that some of the hole's highest vein densities of up to 20 veins per metre and its thickest quartz veins of up to 30cm were encountered below the 233m mark in subsequent drilling, along with additional occurrences of trace visible gold.
Two drills now active
Separately, the company said a second helicopter-portable drill has been mobilized to the Valley Zone, and the two drills are working in tandem to rapidly build out the scale of known mineralization at Valley, an early-stage exploration project without a resource estimate.
The second drill has completed drill hole V-22-008, which was collared outside the northern boundary of the intrusion. The hole intersected moderate to strongly hornfelsed sandstones and siltstones locally cut by quartz-arsenopyrite veins known on surface to host gold.
From 190.7m downhole to the end of hole at 292m, V-22-008 encountered sheeted quartz veins in diorite, typically three to five veins per metre. The location of this mineralization is over 460m laterally from mineralization in Hole V-22-006 and 500m along section from the collar of V-22-007.
Snowline said the visual findings significantly expanded the potential footprint of the mineralized system at Valley, but cautioned that the significance of the observations will not be known until assays are received and reviewed.
Assays for all four holes drilled so far in 2022 are pending, and drilling of additional holes at Valley is ongoing, it added.
Snowline is a Yukon Territory-focused gold exploration company with a seven-project portfolio covering more than 106,000 hectares (ha). Its portfolio sits within the prolific Tintina gold province, host to multiple million-ounce-plus gold mines and deposits, including Kinross’ Fort Knox mine, Newmont’s Coffee deposit, and Victoria Gold’s Eagle mine.
The company is presently exploring its flagship 72,000-hectare Einarson and Rogue gold projects in the highly prospective yet underexplored Selwyn Basin.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com