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

GT Gold Corp. Aug. 8 reported that the initial results from the 2018 program at Saddle South have returned high-grade gold to the east and west of this exciting discovery made by the company in 2017. In addition to extending Saddle South along strike, one hole has discovered a deeper high-grade trend to the south.

"We are very pleased with the early success of the drill program at Saddle South this season. All holes have hit mineralization as we step out to the east and west, and our deep drilling encountered high grades and strong widths along a new and well-mineralized trend not far south and east of the area drilled in 2017," said GT Gold President and CEO Steve Burleton.

Hole TTD076, drilled to the west of the Saddle South deposit outlined in 2017, cut 6.47 meters of 9.47 grams per metric ton gold, including a 1.54-meter section averaging 33.4 g/t gold.

Hole TTD077, drilled to the east of Saddle South, cut 4.15 meters averaging 6.7 g/t gold.

So far, the 2018 drilling has added 400 meters to the strike of Saddle South. As a result, this high-grade gold zone has been traced by drilling for more than 1,000 meters in an east-west direction.

A secondary goal of early 2018 drilling at Saddle South is to test the depth of the deposit. Toward this objective, hole TTD069 cut high-grade mineralization 650 meters below surface in what appears to be a new sub-parallel mineralized trend roughly 175 meters south and east of the main area of 2017 Saddle South drilling.

From a drill depth of 673.35 meters, TTD069 cut 40.02 meters averaging 4.67 g/t gold, including 2.82 meters of 32.65 g/t gold.

Drilling continues to test extensions of Saddle South, which remains open to the east, west and at depth, as well as infilling the high-grade area outlined last year.

GT Gold Corp. has also begun drilling at Saddle North, an exciting copper-gold-silver porphyry system intersected late in the 2017 season. Results from two reconnaissance holes drilled at Saddle North last year suggest strong similarities to the Red Chris deposit, which is being mined at a copper-gold operation about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) southeast of the Saddle targets.

Reconnaissance hole TTD062 tapped this porphyry-style mineralization beneath thick glacial cover toward the eastern end of the Saddle North trend. The 210.53-meter intercept from bedrock surface to the bottom of hole 62 ran 0.14 g/t gold, 0.28 g/t silver, and 0.16 percent copper. These grades strengthened at depth, with the bottom 33.73 meters averaging 0.22 g/t gold, 0.36 g/t silver and 0.24 percent copper.

Hole TTD064, drilled about 1,000 meters west of hole 62, cut 18.4 meters of similar mineralization that averaged 1.35 g/t gold, 1.42 g/t silver and 0.37 percent copper, including 7.4 meters of 2.28 g/t gold, 2.03 g/t silver and 0.56 percent copper.

An induced polarization (IP) ground geophysical survey completed this year has confirmed that the nearer-surface geophysical signatures outlined in a shallow survey completed in 2017 extend to depths of at least 500 meters and are continuous along trend. An initial 3,000- to 5,000-meter drill program slated for Saddle North will test several targets at the porphyry discovery, including deepening TTD062.

"As per plan, we are now also underway with follow-up drilling to last year's intriguing results at Saddle North, where our first two reconnaissance holes showed significant potential for a sizable copper-gold-silver porphyry system, perhaps like that of the Red Chris mine, which is only 20 kilometers southeast of Saddle," said Burleton. "We look forward to further demonstrating the true potential of the Saddle discovery area – both North and South."

–SHANE LASLEY