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

Klondike Gold Corp. Aug. 22 reported the start of a third phase of drilling at its Klondike district gold project in the Yukon.

The company also said it has added a second rig with the goal of drilling 40 holes in 30 days during an accelerated program at this 527-square-kilometer Klondike property just southeast of Dawson City.

This program will start with 40 holes along the Lone Star target/Bonanza Fault trend to test along a 4,000-metr-long soil anomaly identified there.

If the weather holds out, the company plans to test two other gold-bearing structural zones - Nugget and Eldorado fault trends - that run parallel to the Bonanza fault-Lone Star target.

Gold Run target, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southeast of the current drilling, is also being considered for drilling if the weather permits.

"What we've learned so far at Lone Star-Bonanza has implications for several other key, historically gold-rich target areas within the district, and we're eager to begin systematically testing these zones as they also exhibit strong discovery potential," said Klondike Gold President and CEO Peter Tallman.

So far, Klondike Gold has completed 37 holes at the Bonanza fault-Lone Star during the first two phased of 2017 drilling at its namesake project, results from 11 holes have been reported and assays are pending for the remaining 26.

Highlights from assays received so far include 41.1 meters of 2.1 grams per metric ton gold from surface in hole LS17-81; 40.9 meters averaging 2.4 g/t gold from a depth of 10 meters in LS17-82; and 30.7 meters of 1.6 g/t gold in LS17-91.

Drilling so far has traced Lone Star for about 1,950 meters along the Bonanza Fault.

The company hopes that by widening its step-outs the phase-3 drilling will double the strike of this zone.

-SHANE LASLEY