HighGold Mining Inc (TSX-V:HIGH, OTCQX:HGGOF) has said its $9 million 2022 exploration program at the Johnson Tract polymetallic gold project in Alaska is well underway.
“Our 2022 Johnson Tract drill program is in full swing, and we are very pleased with the early visual results from veined and brecciated intercepts at the Difficult Creek (DC) prospect and the potential opportunity to grow a second JT-style deposit on the property,” HighGold CEO Darwin Green said in a statement.
“With the addition of the new on-site sample prep lab built this year, we hope to be receiving new assay results during our drilling season which will allow us to react immediately with follow-up holes,” he added.
READ: HighGold Mining set for a re-rate after expanding the gold resource at its flagship Johnson Tract property in Alaska, says Stifel GMP
HighGold said an updated NI 43-101 Technical Report on the project will be released before August 26, 2022. In the meantime, it provided the following update:
- Two drill rigs are active at the DC prospect as a follow-up to the late 2021 near-surface, bonanza-grade drill discovery of 6.40 meters (m) grading 577.9 grams per ton (g/t) gold (Au) and 2,023 g/t silver (Ag) in hole DC21-010. The first rig commenced drilling on July 4, 2022, and was joined by a second rig on July 14. Initial drilling is being completed on a close-spaced grid pattern with the objective of determining the geometry, geological controls, and grade distribution of this promising new mineralized zone.
- 15 drill holes ranging from 50 metres (m) to 150m in length have been completed to date. Upon completion of the initial phase of close-spaced drilling, one drill rig will move to larger step-outs along trend and the other rig will move 1 kilometre (km) southwest to the Milkbone prospect to test a high-grade gold-in-soil anomaly interpreted to occur within the same key host rocks and potentially be an extension of the same mineralizing system as the DC prospect.
- Veining and alteration documented in the recently-completed drill holes at DC is visually similar to that intersected at the main JT Deposit, located 4km to the southwest. Drilling has delineated zones of structurally-controlled quartz-carbonate-sulfide veining and brecciation over core intervals 2m to 15m or more in length, with local narrow intervals of coarse-grained semi-massive to massive sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, and pyrite. Surrounding alteration consists of silicification and a widespread zone of semi-massive to massive pervasive nodular anhydrite and anhydrite veining. The significance of the visual observations of veining and sulphide mineralization will not be known until assays are received.
- An on-site sample preparation facility installed at the JT camp is now fully operational, and the first batch of prepared sample material has been shipped out for analysis. Sample preparation has been a major bottleneck for North American assay laboratories, and the on-site, professional-grade, drying, crushing and pulverizing facility, built under the guidance of expert third-party consultant Dr. Barry Smee is anticipated to significantly reduce turn-around times for analytical results and enable follow-up of positive results during the current drill program.
- In addition to the high-priority exploration targets at DC and Milkbone, the 2022 program includes priority planned step-out and infill drilling on the JT Deposit mineral resource, including new targets identified following the recently-completed mineral resource update.
- Other Johnson District targets that may be tested during the 2022 drill program include the Kona, Easy Creek and South Valley prospects.
Johnson Tract is a polymetallic (gold, copper, zinc, silver, lead) project located near tidewater, 200 km southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. The 21,000-acre property includes the high-grade Johnson Tract Deposit and at least nine other mineral prospects over a 12 km strike length.
The JT deposit hosts an indicated resource of 3.489 million tonnes grading 9.39 g/t AuEq comprised of 5.33 g/t Au, 6.0 g/t Ag, 0.56% copper (Cu), 0.67% lead (Pb) and 5.21% zinc (Zn). The inferred resource of 0.706 million tonnes grading 4.76 g/t AuEq is comprised of 1.36 g/t Au, 9.1 g/t Ag, 0.59% Cu, 0.30% Pb, and 4.18% Zn
HighGold is a mineral exploration company focused on high-grade gold projects located in North America. Its flagship asset is the Johnson Tract Gold Project in Alaska, and the company also controls a portfolio of quality gold projects in the greater Timmins gold camp, Ontario, Canada that includes the Munro-Croesus Gold property, which is renowned for its high-grade mineralization, and the large Golden Mile and Golden Perimeter properties.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com