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

Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. June 28 reported that recent resampling of historical core from the Johnson Tract gold property in Southcentral Alaska returned long zones of high-grade gold, along with zinc, copper, lead and silver. The results from this resampling are included in a technical report filed in advance of a July 25 meeting for shareholders to vote on Constantine's proposal to spin out Johnson Tract and the company's other gold properties into HighGold Mining Inc.

In May, Constantine finalized a long-term agreement to lease Johnson Tract from Cook Inlet Region Inc., an Alaska Native regional corporation more commonly known as CIRI.

Further details on the agreement can be read at HighGold to explore CIRI gold property in the May 24 edition of North of 60 Mining News.

Johnson Tract will be the flagship of a group of gold assets to be spun into Highland, including the Munro-Croesus, Golden Mile and Golden Perimeter projects in Ontario's Timmins Gold Camp, Ontario; a Yukon joint venture project; and certain royalty rights in Ontario.

Pursuant to a plan of arrangement under the British Columbia Business Corporations Act, Constantine shareholders will be entitled to receive one HighGold Share for every three Constantine shares held. Upon completion of the arrangement, HighGold is expected to have roughly 15.12 million outstanding shares.

With shareholders able to realize more value from the gold assets being held in a separate gold-focused exploration company, Constantine can concentrate its efforts on advancing its flagship Palmer zinc-copper-silver-gold-barite project in Southeast Alaska toward a development decision.

"Constantine will continue to create shareholder value by advancing the Palmer project and will allow shareholders to realize the value locked in the gold assets through their spinout into a separate entity," said Constantine Metal Resources President and CEO Garfield MacVeigh. "It is a very exciting time for our board, management and staff to see their efforts, both corporately and technically, create and augment this value."

Johnson Tract technical report

The June 27 technical report for Johnson Tract confirms the quality of historical work carried out on this property located near tidewater, 125 miles (200 kilometers) ‎southwest of Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, and details the potential for new high-grade gold discoveries across a 7.5-mile (12 kilometers) trend.

Under a joint venture with CIRI, Anaconda Minerals discovered the Johnson Tract deposit in 1982 with a hole that cut 102.6 meters grading 10.94 grams per metric ton gold, 8.01 percent zinc, 0.75 percent copper, 2.13 percent lead and 8.5 g/t silver.

A 50-meter section of this high-grade discovery intercept averaged 20 g/t gold, 9.4 percent zinc, 1 percent copper, 2.8 percent lead and 12.7 g/t silver.

Other highlighted intercepts from drilling the Johnson Tract deposit include:

• 36 meters of 13.41 g/t gold, 2.01 percent zinc, 0.41 percent copper and 3.57 g/t silver in hole 82-7;

• 71.4 meters of 20.94 g/t gold, 5.21 percent zinc, 1.23 percent copper, 1.51 percent lead and 9.81 g/t silver in 88-34;

• 99.7 meters of 10.07 g/t gold, 6.34 percent zinc, 0.9 percent copper, 1.27 percent lead and 6.68 g/t silver in 93-65; and

• 112.2 meters of 10.34 g/t gold, 5.01 percent zinc, 0.66 percent copper, 1.48 percent lead and 6.35 g/t silver in 93-69.

Resampling showed a strong correlation with the historical results, including 88-34, which returned 71.4 meters of 20.7 g/t gold, 4.85 percent zinc, 0.88 percent copper, 1.28 percent lead and 8.16 g/t silver.

In all, 88 holes were historically drilled on the Johnson Tract property over a 12-year span.

Two holes drilled at Difficult Creek, situated about three miles northeast of the Johnson Tract deposit, demonstrates the property's wider potential.

• DC-001 cut three meters of 7.54 g/t gold, 3.72 percent zinc, 0.11 percent copper, 1.15 percent lead and 27.4 g/t silver; and

• DC-02 encountered 13 meters of 8.57 g/t gold, 4.7 percent zinc, 0.5 percent copper, 0.9 percent lead and 37.7 g/t silver.

Difficult Creek is one of at least nine prospect areas spanning a 7.5-mile stretch of the property, most of which have seen little or no drilling.

Constantine Metals Resources Ltd.

The technical report concludes that there is very good potential for discovery of additional mineralization at Johnson Tract. The most immediate opportunity is Northeast Offset, a target that is interpreted as the fault displaced extension of the Johnson Tract deposit. Limited historic drilling at this target has documented alteration and mineralization that shares characteristics with the main deposit.

In addition, Easy Creek, Kona and South Valley show promising surface results that require further field work to establish drill targets.

"Both the results of the re-sampling program at the Johnson Tract project and positive headway made in the process of spinning out all of Constantine's gold assets into HighGold represent advances in the growth and evolution of Constantine that has been a significant part of the ongoing strategic planning for the company," said MacVeigh.

–SHANE LASLEY