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

Grande Portage Resources Ltd. Jan. 27 announced the first drill results of the 2022 drill program at the company's Herbert Gold property in Southeast Alaska.

Located 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of Juneau, the Herbert Gold project is an exploration stage, high-grade, gold-mineralized mesothermal quartz vein system in the historic Juneau Gold Belt of Southeast Alaska.

According to a 2021 calculation, Herbert Gold hosts 3.64 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 10.23 grams per metric ton (1.2 million ounces) gold, and 5.87 g/t (686,700 oz) silver; plus 1.14 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 8.91 g/t (325,900 oz) gold, and 4.63 g/t (169,300 oz) silver.

The 2022 program at Herbert Gold progressed at an uncharacteristically slower rate than expected, which meant that several highly prospective holes and targets that were planned from multiple drill pads could not be achieved before the season ended.

"Our 2022 program began late due to unforeseen contractor and supply chain delays," Grande Portage Resources President and CEO Ian Klassen said in November. "This, coupled with unseasonably poor and foggy weather, further interrupted the company's original drill plan."

As such, some of the most prospective targets planned last year have been moved forward to 2023.

"The deepest drilling program proved to be technically challenging, however we are pleased that the shortened program continued to intersect potentially economic mineralization in some of [the] eastern-most drill holes completed on the property to date, albeit over narrower widths," said Klassen. "It was expected that the veins would eventually terminate against the eastern gneisses, however that contact seems to dip moderately to steeply to the east, providing for extensions east of the surface contact, providing for additional resource potential."

The five holes completed at Herbert Gold were drilled from AB pad, which is located farther north than any previous drill pads. From this vantage, drills targeted the deeper projections of the Goat, Sleeping Giant, Ridge and Main Veins.

One hole, 22AB-4, cut all three of these veins – Goat, Sleep Giant, and Main. These intercepts include –1.21 meters averaging 3.22 g/t gold from 472.7 meters and 1.15 meters averaging 4.03 g/t gold from 473.9 meters (Goat); 0.73 meters averaging 6.08 g/t gold from 597.9 meters (Sleeping Giant); and 0.8 meters averaging 3.3 g/t gold from 740.7 meters (Main).

Other highlights from 3,631.5 meters of 2022 drilling at Herbert Gold include:

• 1.32 meters averaging 3.19 g/t gold from a depth of 335.6 meters in hole 22AB-1 (North Vein).

• 0.75 meters averaging 6.31 g/t gold from 626.2 meters in 22AB-3 (Sleeping Giant).

• 0.57 meters averaging 5.57 g/t gold from 446.2 meters in 22AB-5 (Goat Vein).

The company says hole 22AB-1 was lost before reaching its targets and could not be re-entered, and hole 22AB-3 went completely through the quartz diorite and into the younger metasediments to the west of and underlying the quartz diorite.

Past drilling over many years has confirmed that the Herbert Gold project is a high-grade deposit with the primary gold-bearing veins extending from the Western boundary fault to the Eastern fault, a distance averaging nearly 1,000 meters.

Grande Portage says the strong gold mineralization has been identified almost everywhere along these structures, both laterally and to the deepest limits of drilling over the last number of years. Much of the shallower portions of the veins have been tested with good to superb results.

Grande Portage Resources Ltd.

Just a few days later, on Jan. 30, the company announced that it had filed its 2023 plan of operation for mineral exploration at Herbert.

Aiming to drill up to 10,000 meters of diamond drilling with additional mapping and trench sampling, Grande Portage says the program will consist of one diamond drill rig utilizing up to four pads to drill approximately 12 holes.

These holes are planned to test the main mineralized structures of the Goat, Main, Sleeping Giant, and Deep Trench veins. As it stands, the company hopes to begin its program in late spring.

"Future work will continue to test the structures to depth as well as internal gaps that exist in areas within our well mineralized veins," finished Klassen.