TerraX to focus 2019 drilling on Northbelt

North of 60 Mining News – January 11, 2019

 

Last updated 9/25/2020 at 10:40am

TerraX Minerals Inc.

TerraX plans to focus its 2019 drilling primarily on four priority targets on the Northbelt property, part of the company's Yellowknife City Gold project in Northwest Territories.

TerraX Minerals Inc. Jan. 8 said it plans to focus its 2019 drilling on four gold targets within the core area of Northbelt, one of three major properties that make up the 783-square-kilometer (302 square miles) Yellowknife City Gold Project (YCGP).

Blanketing the same geological trend that hosts the historic Con and Giant mines, which produced a combined 14.2 million ounces of gold, the three properties that make up the YCGP – Northbelt, Southbelt and Eastbelt – cover a region known for yielding deposits of the scale and grade to be counted among Canada's great gold camps.

"The Yellowknife City Gold Project continues to emerge as a globally significant exploration opportunity due to its district scale, infrastructure and proximity of targets to historic gold producers Con and Giant," said TerraX Minerals President and CEO Davida Suda.

To identify the targets for this year's drilling, TerraX analyzed and prioritized more than 100 prospective areas across the expansive property. These prospective areas and targets were scored based on a rigorous classification of their exploration stage, potential, and the level of confidence from the information currently available.

Four top priority targets – Crestaurum, Barney Deformation Corridor (BDC), Sam Otto and Homer – within a roughly 60-square-kilometer (23 square miles) area on the Northbelt property were flagged for deposit expansion or confirmation drilling.

Crestaurum, a 10- to 25-meter-wide shear zone continues to be a top priority target for TerraX. One hole drilled at Crestaurum in 2013 cut five meters averaging 62.9 grams per metric ton gold. The company said the success of past drilling, together with strong vectors from geophysics and geochemistry, have identified two parallel structures to the north that are new and largely untested.

BDC is an extension of the Giant gold system with three parallel structures extending more than 1,000 meters and intersecting with Crestaurum and features abundant high-grade rock samples on surface. There has been very little drilling over most of this shear zone at the intersection with Crestaurum making this a strong new target.

Sam Otto is a prospective bulk tonnage target east of BDC where past exploration has outlined 2,500 meters of continuous gold mineralization. Drilling in 2016 cut zones of up to 49.7 meters averaging 1 g/t gold, 32.13 meters of 1.24 g/t gold, 30.75 meters of 1.29 g/t gold, and 2.4 meters of 9.89 g/t gold. The 2019 drilling will focus on further defining the extension of mineralization.

Homer, situated about 2,300 meters north of BDC, is a roughly 2,000- by 1,000-meter target with confirmed strong gold mineralization on surface. Pathfinder elements and felsic intrusions related to gold mineralization are contributing vectors that make this a very exciting target. TerraX says Homer is one of largest mineralized zones identified so far at YCGP and there is potential for economic gold bearing shears.

"The outcome of targeting has brought about an exciting turning point for TerraX," Suda added. "Most importantly, this work provides context for gold findings on and below surface to date and sheds light on new un-drilled opportunities that lie within our existing core focus areas."

BDC, Crestaurum and Sam Otto are the top three targets which will be the focus for expansion of gold deposits. Homer, screened as a new high potential target, will be the target of confirmation drilling during the 2019 program.

In addition to turning up drill targets, the YCGP district-wide review that was carried out by a panel of internal and external global experts identified new targets for TerraX to investigate.

"Equally exciting is the identification of several new high-potential early-stage targets that require additional exploration work," said TerraX Minerals Executive Chairman Joe Campbell. "These targets are parallel structures to the shear that produced (more than) 5 million ounces of gold at the Con mine."

–SHANE LASLEY

 

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