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

Klondike Gold Corp. March 19 announced plans for a C$2.5 million exploration program at its Klondike District gold property near Dawson City, Yukon.

The company's 527 square kilometers (203 square miles) of mining claims blanket a 55-kilometer- (34 miles) long swath of the Klondike Gold District, which has produced more than 20 million ounces of placer gold since the stampede to the legendary mining district in 1898.

Designed to systematically test for gold mineralization along a trend that spans the entire property, from its Lone Star prospect to the new Gold Run target, this year's exploration program aims to demonstrate the larger gold potential of the Klondike District project.

Major components of the 2018 budget include plans for: 5,000 to 7,000 meters of drilling between multiple targets; 3,000 to 5,000 new soil samples; and 300 to 500 line-kilometers of ground magnetic geophysical surveying.

The first ever detailed structural and lithologic mapping and prospecting across the entire district is also slated for this year and Klondike plans to follow-up on any new targets generated.

Combined, this systematic program endeavors to show that gold mineralization can occur across the length of the Klondike, from the northwest end at the Lone Star target to the southeast end at the new Gold Run target.

Exploration of the Lone Star area suggests that a major fault – Rabbit Creek Thrust – has been a conduit of gold-bearing fluids and that secondary faults are the location of gold mineralization as quartz veins or as broader disseminations. Drill testing three of these structures yielded significant gold intersections associated with these faults.

It is inferred from magnetics that these individual or similar fault structures extend through the length of the Klondike property and systematic testing for gold mineralization associated with faulting is the top priority of the 2018 program.

The second priority is the continuation of drilling at known gold targets and newly identified prospects.

Lone Star, a sizeable gold target which lies above the confluence of celebrated Bonanza and Eldorado Creeks, will be an early focus of exploration in 2018.

One hole drilled at Lone Star in 2016 cut 37 meters averaging 2.4 grams per metric ton gold.

The 2017 program continued to show Lone Star's potential:

• LS17-81, the first hole of last year's program, cut 41.1 meters averaging 2.1 g/t gold from surface.

• LS17-82, a direct 25-meter undercut of LS16-58, cut 40.9 meters averaging 2.4 g/t gold from a depth of 10 meters.

• LS17-91, drilled about 525 meters east of hole 81, cut 30.7 meters of 1.6 g/t gold.

The 2018 program planned for the Lone Star target includes additional drilling and initial preliminary metallurgical testing.

Other targets planned for drilling include Nugget on the Nugget fault, where one hole drilled in 2016 cut 14.3 meters of 5.1 g/t gold; Gay Gulch, a showing on the Eldorado fault where one hole drilled in 2015 cut 2.8 meters of 75.6 g/t gold; and initial testing of the Irish fault – all in the northwest end of the Klondike District.

The company also intends an initial drill program at Gold Run at the southeast end of the property.

Mapping in 2017 identified a thrust fault that Klondike believes could be an extension of the Rabbit Creek Thrust, and two secondary structures in similar positions to the Bonanza and Eldorado faults. Prospecting located gold bearing quartz veins with visible gold from historical mine dumps, as well as gold-bearing mineralization from altered outcrops lacking noticeable quartz veins interpreted to be a style of disseminated gold mineralization.

–SHANE LASLEY