Klondike Gold Corp. Oct. 27 said its 2022 exploration program at the Klondike District gold project in the Yukon's Dawson Mining District has yielded discoveries and important geological insights that could revive this historic property.

"The Gay Gulch discovery of gold-bearing veining associated with pervasive silicification in a series of drill holes is a first, and the direct relationship to a major structure is important in developing a resource model there and for future exploration elsewhere in the district," said Klondike Gold CEO Peter Tallman.

So far this year, Klondike Gold has completed approximately 6,000 meters of drilling in 47 holes, of which 35 explored areas adjacent to known mineralization – 11 at the Gay Gulch showing and 24 drilled at the Stander Zone. The other 12 holes tested new regional targets.

The discovery of visible gold at Gay Gulch led the company to examine more thoroughly the underlying structures there. As drilling intersected pervasive silicification, with quartz veining over a 250-meter distance, it is an exciting prospect for Klondike.

The breccia veining and associated silicification are oriented perpendicular to the gold-bearing sheeted quartz veins. Historically, all previous drilling has been parallel to this direction and this style of mineralization; thus, this marks the first time this style of mineralization has been documented by Klondike.

Of the 24 holes completed at Stander, 18 targeted potential extensions to gold mineralization contained in sheeted quartz veins along a 1,500-meter strike length.

Intended to infill a 1,000-meter data gap in the Stander mineralization model, at the main Stander Zone outcrop area, six drill holes were turned 90 degrees to test for gold-bearing cross structures along a 280-meter distance.

Separate from the drilling, a significant program of mapping and compilation throughout the property was done to constrain structures associated with gold mineralization and to upgrade the confidence in the ground location of important geophysical features.

This effort, however, resulted in a four-fold increase in the number of mapping points in the outcrop database from 2,500 in 2021 to over 10,000 at the end of the program in 2022.

Finally, an independent estimate of an initial bedrock mineral resource is expected shortly, Klondike says, the first ever in the 125-year history of the Klondike placer goldfields.

This major milestone is expected to demonstrate the potential of a modern Klondike to host in-situ bedrock gold deposits of significance.

The mineral resource will include the drill results to the end of 2021 from discoveries at Lone Star, plus two small sub-areas within Stander.

"As a milestone, the company plans to deliver an initial inferred resource shortly," added Tallman. "This prospectively is the first in-situ bedrock gold resource completed in the 125-year history of gold exploration in the Klondike Goldfields, finally identifying local bedrock sources of gold to begin accounting for the over 20 million gold ounces extracted from surface placer mining in the creeks and gulches since 1896. We anticipate the resource will grow from here."

All assays are still pending.