First 2023 Sitka Gold hole hits paydirt

Sitka Gold Corp. May 24 announced the preliminary assay results from its first hole drilled for the 2023 program at the Blackjack deposit on the RC Gold project in the Yukon. And after the initial excitement from the visible gold seen when the core first surfaced in April, it was well worth the wait.

"Step out drilling at our Blackjack gold deposit continues to impress with Hole 41 returning some of our best gold intercepts to date," said Sitka Gold CEO Cor Coe.

Shortly after beginning its 10,000-meter diamond drill program early April, Sitka Gold reported the extensive VG found in core from hole DDRCCC-23-041.

Collared 160 meters south of discovery drill hole 21 that named the Blackjack deposit, hole 41 was designed to test for an extension of high-grade material at a depth below drill holes 25 and 38, drilled in 2022.

With the wait finally over, Sitka Gold shared the results – 292 meters averaging 1 gram per metric ton gold from a depth of 200 meters, including:

• 203.9 meters averaging 1.28 g/t gold from 243 meters.

• 75 meters averaging 2.04 g/t gold from 273 meters.

• 30 meters averaging 3.11 g/t gold from 320 meters.

• 19.9 meters averaging 1.04 g/t gold from 418 meters.

"This hole demonstrates that the higher grade mineralization intersected at surface in this deposit continues to depth as highlighted by the 2.04 g/t gold over 75-meter subinterval," said Coe. "The Blackjack deposit is higher grade than the typical low grade, heap-leach deposits within these reduced intrusion-related gold systems. This hole adds significant tonnage with high gold grades and demonstrates that gold mineralization with high grades is persistent and continues to the southeast of the current deposit boundary."

After encountering expected metasedimentary country rock with weak quartz-sulfide veining from collar to 184 meters, hole 41 transitioned through a series of narrow intrusive dykes and sills within the metasediments with markedly increased vein density and gold occurrences, which continued into the main megacrystic intrusive from roughly 232 meters to 347 meters.

Already containing significant gold mineralization from the first instance of intrusive dykes within the metasediments to the end of the hole (the 1 g/t gold interval from 200 meters to 492 meters), the highest gold mineralization occurred within a larger megacrystic intrusive body – 273 meters to 348 meters, which returned 75 meters averaging 2.04 g/t gold, and included 30 meters averaging 3.11 g/t gold and 1.5 meters averaging 11.65 g/t gold.

Although the first to be received, three holes have been drilled so far, and each has been promising for Sitka.

"Visible gold and significant vein densities were observed in all three drill holes completed so far this year and we are optimistic that the assay results from the remaining two drill holes completed during the 1500 metre winter drilling program will continue to endorse the expansive gold endowment of this area," the Sitka CEO added.

Emboldened by this discovery, Sitka aims to continue focusing on Blackjack with aggressive step-out drilling as well as Eiger to possibly help elevate the numbers to its already substantial 1.34-million-ounce property reported earlier this year.

You can read about the early findings for hole 41 and the company's initial mineral resource estimate announcement at Sitka Gold shows off first 2023 drill hole in the April 14, 2023 edition of North of 60 Mining News.