GT Gold Corp. July 17 reported that the first holes of its 10,000-meter initial phase of drilling on its Tatogga property in northwestern British Columbia have successfully expand the porphyry copper-gold mineralization at the Saddle North discovery area.

"Our phase one program continues to bring into clearer focus the potentially significant economics of our Saddle North discovery," said GT Gold Vice President of Exploration Charles Greig

Last year's discovery program at Saddle North involved roughly 8,200 meters of drilling in 10 holes. Highlights from the 2018 drilling include:

• 822.2 meters of 0.42 grams per metric ton gold, 0.26 percent copper and 0.62 g/t silver in TTD085;

• 904.1 meters of 0.51 g/t gold, 0.3 percent copper and 0.93 g/t silver in TTD093;

• 323.8 meters of 0.43 g/t gold, 0.32 percent copper and 1.09 g/t silver in TTD108; and

• 1,149.7 meters averaging 0.62 g/t gold, 0.36 percent copper and 1.17 g/t silver in TTD109.

GT Gold said the first six holes drilled this year confirmed that the high grades identified in hole TTD108 continue to surface at Saddle North, and holes TTD116 and 112 show that a direct link of excellent and increasing grades exists between the near-surface mineralization through moderate depths to the deeper and generally highest grade mineralization at Saddle North.

Highlights from these first 2019 holes include:

• 238 meters of 0.25 g/t gold, 0.28 percent copper and 0.97 g/t silver from a depth of nine meters in hole TTD111;

• 685 meters of 0.7 g/t gold, 044 percent copper and 1.09 g/t silver from a depth of 21 meters in TTD112;

• 303 meters of 0.45 g/t gold, 0.38 percent copper and 1.04 g/t silver from a depth of 43 meters in TTD113; and

• 431 meters of 0.46 g/t gold, 0.33 percent copper and 0.91 g/t silver from a depth of 17 meters in TTD116.

Drilling continues with two drill rigs, with one continuing to extend near-surface high-grade mineralization northwest along strike from holes TTD113, 111 and 108, and a second testing the deeper high-grade zone centered around holes TTD093 and TTD109, drilled in 2018.

A total of 6,500 meters of the planned 10,000-meter phase 1 program have been drilled, with an expected completion by early August. Saddle North mineralization remains open in most directions, with particular potential evident at depth and to the northwest.

"This season's drilling has started off very successfully," Greig said. "We have shown that high-grade copper-gold mineralization occurs closer to surface than was previously known and have linked these zones with the deep and very high-grade copper-gold mineralization intersected last year in holes TTD093 and 109 with intersections in holes TTD112 and 116."

Once the initial phase of drilling is complete, GT Gold will reprioritize Saddle North targets and the second phase of 2019 drilling will focus on producing a preliminary resource for this porphyry body.

A number of additional targets peripheral to Saddle North will also be drilled. Any other new targets showing significant promise may also be tested in an anticipated phase 2 drill program.

In addition to drilling Saddle North, GT Gold has completed a property-wide airborne magnetotelluric geophysical survey. The data from this survey is being compiled and modelled along with previously collected geophysical data, and any anomalies identified will be targeted with additional fieldwork.

Field crews at Tatogga are also carrying out further prospecting, soil and stream sediment sampling at Quash-Pass, a target roughly seven kilometers (4.3 miles) southwest of Saddle.

A 6,000-meter-long east-southeast trending belt of highly anomalous gold- and silver-in-soil geochemistry at Quash-Pass shows similarities to Saddle South, the initial target of exploration at Tatogga. The Quash-Pass trend is marked by the presence of highly anomalous Saddle South-style pathfinder elements in soils, such as zinc, copper, antimony, and bismuth. Preliminary induced polarization geophysical surveying indicates that elevated chargeability anomalies are coincident with the anomalous geochemistry.

With roughly C$19 million in its treasury, GT Gold is well funded to continue work towards an initial resource estimation for Saddle North, as well as explore the wider Tatogga property.

GT Gold Corp.

This core is from a mineral-rich section of porphyry mineralization tapped at Saddle North this year.

–SHANE LASLEY