North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Golden Predator Mining Corp. Dec. 19 said the first 13 of 54 holes drilled during a winter 2016 program at its 3 Aces gold project in southeastern Yukon has extended the high-grade gold at the Ace of Spades zone and encountered wide zones of previously unknown lower grade gold mineralization.

Hole 3A16-RC-032 cut 7.54 meters of 32.86 grams per metric ton gold from a depth of 16.76 meters. Below this intercept in the main Ace of Spades vein, RC-032 cut 47.33 meters of low-grade gold mineralization in stockwork before encountering a new blind vein at 71.63 meters that returned 3.23 meters of 10.04 g/t gold.

Other highlights from drilling at Ace of Spades include 3.12 meters of 13.18 g/t gold from a depth of 10.57 meters in hole 3A16-DD-036; 6.75 meters of 25.61 g/t gold from a depth of 17.53 meters in hole 3A16-RC-042; and 6.91 meters of 14.73 g/t gold from a depth of 15.24 meters in holeDD-043.

The first 13 holes of this late 2016 program were all drilled in the Spades zone.

Assays are still pending from holes targeting previously undrilled areas at the Clubs zone, as well as step-out and infill drilling at the Hearts zone.

Golden Predator plans to resume drilling at 3 Aces in February with a 20,000-meter drill program that will initially focus on the Spades zone and then test other areas of the property.

Drilling in the Spades zone is intended to test targets including the depth and strike extensions of the Ace of Spades vein, deeper stockwork mineralization, and commence initial drilling at the Jack, Queen, Seven and Three of Spades.

Due to their higher elevations, follow up drilling at the Clubs and Hearts zones is expected to resume during the summer months.

-SHANE LASLEY