Mining Explorers 2016: Independence Gold Corp.

Independence Gold Corp. is exploring a growing portfolio of gold projects in Yukon Territory and British Columbia.

Boulevard, a gold property that lies immediately south and west of Goldcorp Inc.'s recently acquired Coffee gold mine project, has been a primary exploration focus in recent years.

Goldcorp, which acquired Coffee through a C$500-million buy-out of Kaminak Gold Corp., also acquired a 19.99 percent interest in Independence Gold buy purchasing 10.88 million shares of that company through a private placement in June. The C$1.96 million raised in this financing primarily went towards exploration at Boulevard and Rosebute, two of the nine properties in the company's Yukon portfolio.

In July, Independence launched a 2,946-meter reverse circulation drill program that tested four targets at Boulevard - Denali, Sunset, Sunrise and Kahiltna.

Denali is a 1,200-meter-long multi-element geochemical anomaly located about 12 kilometers (seven miles) west of the Coffee gold deposit. This year's drilling at Denali followed up on a hole drilled in 2015 that cut 4.25 grams per metric ton gold across 6.1 meters.

In August, Independence Gold announced the discovery of Kahiltna, a 1,200-meter-long gold-arsenic-antimony soil anomaly located 750 meters north of and subparallel to Denali.

Sunrise-Sunset, a 2,400-meter-long multi-element soil anomaly located about nine kilometers (six miles) south of the Coffee deposit, also was targeted by drilling.

Hole BV15-31, drilled at Sunrise last year, cut 1.52 meters averaging 8.8 g/t gold and 29 meters of 3.21 g/t gold.

The 2016 drilling at the Sunrise-Sunset target was oriented to the southeast to test the relationship between southwest striking quartz veins and gold mineralization.

Following its program at Boulevard, Independence completed 12 rotary air blast drill holes at the Hudbay zone on the Rosebute property. Taku Gold Corp., which optioned Rosebute to Independence in May, intersected 6.2 g/t gold over five meters; 1.2 g/t gold over 10 meters; and 1.5 g/t gold over 20 meters in trenches dug at the Hudbay zone in 2012. Ground magnetic surveys completed this year identified a network of faults cutting perpendicular to three north-trending gold-in-soil anomalies at Hudbay. The company said this fault-soil anomaly layout is similar to Kinross Gold's Golden Saddle deposit 37 kilometers (23 miles) to the south.

Independence also continued early stage exploration at Moosehorn, a property situated roughly 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Dawson City, and five kilometers (three miles) east of the Yukon-Alaska border. Moosehorn hosts a gold-arsenic soil anomaly located in an area that drains into multiple placer gold creeks. Independence completed two more soil sampling grids, which extended the gold anomaly to about 1,400 meters in length. The company also encountered subsurface gold in three trenches, 527 meters, dug at the property in 2016.

Independence also owns the 3Ts gold-silver property about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) south of New Gold Inc.'s Blackwater project in central British Columbia.

-SHANE LASLEY