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

White Gold Corp. Jan. 8 reported near surface gold mineralization in several rotary-air-blast holes drilled along the Coffee Creek fault that extends eastward from Goldcorp Inc.'s Coffee Gold property onto the company's Betty property.

White Gold Corp. reported earlier this year that at least 10 known target areas occur over a 12-kilometer (7.5 miles) trend of anomalous gold in soils at Betty.

The highest priority of these gold targets at Betty are structurally-hosted, high-grade gold zones associated with the easterly extension of the Coffee Creek Fault Zone. This structure is a regionally important feature that appears to be a primary control on gold mineralization in the district. This Coffee Creek Fault Zone cuts through the central portion of the Betty property and is associated with a more than 4,000-meter-long gold-in-soil trend that defines the White, Ford, Grable and BW gold targets.

The company drilled 28 holes testing six targets at Betty. The most exciting results were encountered at Ford, a 950- by 200-meter zone of strongly anomalous gold in soils at the center of the property.

One hole drilled at Betty Ford, BETFRDRAB18-002, cut 50.29 meters of 1.08 grams per metric ton gold from a depth of 4.57 meters. with the top 25.91 meters of the hole showing oxidized mineralization and additional shallow mineralization encountered in other holes along trend.

BETFRDRAB18-001, drilled 103 meters east of hole 002, cut 24.39 meters of 0.94 g/t gold from a depth of 19.81 meters.

BETFRDRAB18-003, drilled to the north from the same site as hole 002, cut 13.72 meters of 0.75 g/t gold from surface.

"The discovery on the Betty Ford target is a very significant finding, intersecting over 50 meters of near surface gold mineralization at grades comparable to the adjacent Coffee project, along trend and with structural similarities. We are also very encouraged with the discovery of gold mineralization encountered on other targets across the Betty property which indicates the presence of a broader gold system," said White Gold Corp. Vice President of Exploration Jodie Gibson.

White Gold Corp. also encountered promising results at Betty White, a 150- by 2,000-meter gold-in-soil anomaly located about 730 meters downhill to the north of the Ford target.

The company said all seven holes covering 670 meters of strike length within the soil anomaly cut anomalous gold mineralization, ranging from trace to 3.61 g/t gold.

The company said the gold mineralization encountered across multiple target areas highlights the large-scale potential of the mineralized system at Betty, with additional targets remaining undrilled.

"The Betty property remains underexplored and we believe that this preliminary shallow drill program has just scratched the surface of the mineral potential along the very prospective Coffee Creek fault," said Gibson. "Furthermore, this marks the fourth new discovery by our team this season, further increasing confidence in our exploration methodology and providing greater understanding of the regional geology and the prospects for additional discoveries. We look forward to applying our effective and efficient exploration techniques across our land package which now totals over a million acres in the White Gold District."

–SHANE LASLEY