Author photo

By Shane Lasley
Mining News 

ATAC kicks off 2020 Rackla Gold program

Large Airstrip gold target to be the primary focus of work North of 60 Mining News – July 17, 2020

 

Last updated 9/26/2020 at 3:05pm

Helicopter slings drill to Airstrip gold target ATAC Rackla project Yukon

ATAC Resources Ltd.

A helicopter delivers an excavator to cut a system of trails and trenches across the large Airstrip gold anomaly at Rau that will be systematically mapped, prospected, and sampled to define targets for drilling during the 2020 season at Rackla.

ATAC Resources Ltd. July 15 announced that the initial phase of its 2020 exploration program is now underway at Rau, an intriguing precious and base metals project at the western end of the 185-kilometer- (115 miles) long Rackla Gold property in the Yukon.

ATAC's phase-one 2020 exploration program will include excavator trenching, 1,500 meters of rotary air blast (RAB) drilling, mapping and prospecting to develop diamond drill targets at the Airstrip target, which hosts an 11.5-square-kilometer (2,840 acres) gold-in-soil anomaly, the largest on the entire gold-rich Rackla property.

Airstrip is located about 5,000 meters southeast of Tiger, a carbonate replacement deposit that hosts 4.53 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 3.19 grams per metric ton (464,000 oz) of gold.

A preliminary economic assessment published earlier this year outlined plans for an open pit mine at Tiger that is expected to produce roughly 267,000 oz of gold over a six-year mine life.

Airstrip has the potential to add a source of satellite gold mineralization.

A first pass of RAB drilling carried out at Airstrip in 2016 cut 13.7 meters of 1.43 g/t gold in hole ASR-16-006 and 22.9 meters of 0.66 g/t gold in ASR-16-004. Both holes ended in mineralization at the roughly 70-meter maximum depth capacity of the drill. These holes are located 430 meters apart and have not received follow up drilling.

Prospecting and hand pitting in 2019 returned grab samples grading up to 1.63 g/t gold located more than 1,000 meters east of the RAB drilling, bolstering the large size potential of the Airstrip target.

A re-evaluation of Airstrip following the prospecting and mapping conducted last year suggests this area could be situated in the cupola of a blind intrusion.

An eight-ton excavator was recently relocated from the eastern end of the Rackla to the Rau Airstrip in preparation for developing a system of trails and trenches that could help reveal some of these intrusions across the Airstrip anomaly.

Trail cuts and trenches will be systematically mapped, prospected, and sampled to define RAB and diamond drill targets.

"Having an excavator of this size to work on the Airstrip target will allow for highly efficient evaluation of our largest gold soil anomaly on the Rackla Gold property," said ATAC Resources President and CEO Graham Downs. "The network of trails and trenches will help uncover the source of the Airstrip gold anomaly and provide critical geological and structural information necessary for drill targeting."

A downhole televiewer will be used to collect oriented downhole images down the RAB holes, allowing for structural interpretation and lithological and alteration logging.

The phase-two program, slated to begin in late August, will include 3,000 meters of diamond drilling at the targets develop during the initial phase of exploration at Airstrip and 1,500 meters of RAB drilling on regional targets.

"With a healthy treasury of over C$10 million, we are excited to aggressively diamond drill Airstrip later this season," said Downs.

One of the regional targets expected to be drilled this year is Val, an historical silver-lead-zinc vein target 36 kilometers (22 miles) northeast of Tiger.

One sample collected from Val last year contained 11,663 g/t silver, 76.4% lead, and 2.59% copper. Prospecting and mapping work in 2019 also identified broad zones of potential bulk-tonnage-grade silver-lead mineralization which were not evaluated by previous work.

In addition to RAB drilling, the regional program will include trenching, prospecting, hand pitting, soil sampling and mapping.

Cub, Bobcat, Condor, Puma and Spotlight are other targets on the docket for regional exploration this year.

ATAC Resources Connaught silver gold exploration map Yukon

ATAC Resources Ltd.

In addition to the work at Rackla, ATAC is planning to carry out an extensive prospecting, sampling and mapping program on Connaught silver property about 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Dawson City and 10 kilometers (six miles) east of the Alaska-Yukon border.

The main objectives of the 2020 program at Connaught are to identify the source of a 1.8-square-kilometer (445 acres) coincident silver-lead soil anomaly on the southern portion of the property, and follow up on gold-in-soil anomalism in the northeast portion of the property. Multiple samples from hand-pits and prospecting in the southern anomaly returned anomalous silver, lead, and gold with a highlight sample of 1,485 g/t silver, 43.96% lead, and 7.9 g/t gold.

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

Author photo

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

Helicopter Rackla Gold propertyRau gold copper silver exploration map ATAC Resources Rackla project YukonHelicopter slings drill to Airstrip gold target ATAC Rackla project YukonATAC Resources Connaught silver gold exploration map Yukon

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 

Our Family of Publications Includes:

Mining News
Metal Tech News

Powered by ROAR Online Publication Software from Lions Light Corporation
© Copyright 2024