Amid renewed market interest in gold, White Gold Corp. recently reported increased mineral resource estimates for its flagship White Gold Project and unveiled plans for a 2023 exploration program across its namesake district in the Yukon.

The junior explorer, which enjoys the financial backing of major Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (19.5%) and Kinross Gold Corp. (15%), has turned its attention in 2023 to further evaluation of targets at its JP Ross and Betty Ford projects and conduct initial diamond drilling on the Cali target on the Nolan property in a push to add to its gold resources in the district.

Other planned regional exploration work this year includes maiden rotary air blast drilling on the Wolf and Toonie properties and a significant early-stage exploration program to identify and advance other targets across the company's extensive district land package.

White Gold has dominated mineral exploration activity in the emerging gold district located about 95 kilometers (about 59.03 miles) south of Dawson City in west-central Yukon for much of the past decade and owns a portfolio that covers more than 40% of the district's land mass, some 17,584 quartz claims across 30 properties totaling about 350,000 hectares, (864,850 acres).

The White Gold district lies in the Klondike region of the Dawson Range, which is the southwestern portion of the Tintina gold belt. The belt itself is a 200-kilometer- (124 miles) wide, 1,200-kilometer- (640 miles) long arc that extends from northern British Columbia into southwestern Alaska - and is the originator of much of the Yukon's fabled mineral wealth.

The White Gold project hosts four near-surface gold deposits -- Golden Saddle, Arc, Ryan's Surprise and VG, which lie within 12 kilometers (7 miles) of each other.

The company recently reported a 41% increase in the flagship project's mineral resource estimate, including 1.53 million oz in 16 million metric tons averaging 2.23 grams per metric ton gold in indicated resource and 942,400 oz in 19 million metric tons averaging 1.54 g/t gold in inferred resource.

"We expect 2023 to be another exciting year for White Gold as we build on the success of our recent field seasons where we have made a very significant new high-grade gold discovery on our Betty property and continued to expand the large footprint of mineralization at our flagship White Gold Project and significantly increasing resources," said David D'Onofrio, White Gold's chief executive officer. "These results further demonstrate the expansiveness of gold mineralization in the White Gold District and the potential for continuing to make additional new discoveries as well as increase our significant gold resources. ... Extensive review and analysis performed in the off-season has also provided insightful new interpretations on several projects, which we are excited to integrate into our methodical exploration.

"This is elephant country," D'Onofrio told a reporter in April.

While he acknowledged that more exploration lies ahead for the junior, he also said White Gold has already identified a new high-grade gold trend over five kilometers (three miles) long near its flagship deposit at a time when investor interest in gold is starting to rebound.

Looking beneath the surface

The Betty property comprises 860 quartz claims which cover an area of 17,127 hectares and is strategically located contiguous to and 15 kilometers (9 miles) northeast of Western Copper and Gold Corp.'s Casino porphyry deposit and 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Newmont Corp.'s Coffee Gold deposit.

The property hosts several early-stage exploration targets, including the Betty Ford, Betty White, Betty Grable, Betty Black, and Mascot targets. The property was originally staked in 2010 and since that time has seen intermittent exploration.

Early exploration from 2010 to 2013 was carried out by Ethos Gold Corp. and included soil geochemistry surveys (coarse grid), airborne magnetic and radiometric surveys, the acquisition of high-resolution satellite imagery, trenching, and reverse circulation drilling. The majority of Ethos's work was focused on the Mascot target area, leaving large portions of the property underexplored.

The Betty Ford target is located at the center of the property on the eastern extension of the Coffee Creek Fault, which hosts Newmont's Coffee deposit. The target, which forms a roughly 1,000-meter-long east-west trending gold-in-soil anomaly with gold values ranging from trace up to 1,961 parts per billion gold, was initially rotary air blast drill tested by White Gold in 2018.

D'Onofrio said Betty Ford "is a really large under-explored target" that is situated contiguous to the Coffee and Casino projects.

Newmont's Coffee project, which hosts 2.14 million oz of gold in indicated resources grading 1.23 g/t gold and 230,000 oz gold in inferred resources averaging 1.01 g/t gold, is currently in Yukon's mine permitting process.

The Casino copper-gold-molybdenum project, which is owned by Western Copper and Gold Corp., has measured and indicated resources exceeding 7.6 billion pounds copper and 14.5 million oz gold, plus inferred resources of 3.3 billion lb copper and 6.6 million oz gold. Rio Tinto Canada and Mitsubishi Corp. are significant shareholders in Western Copper, with 7.8% and 5% ownership interests, respectively.

The 2022 Betty Ford drill program included five diamond drill holes totaling 933 meters and 201.2 meters in two reverse circulation holes. Drill results include 1.17 g/t gold over 48 meters in near-surface mineralization and 8.94 g/t gold over 18.29 meters from 35.1 meters downhole, which included a high-grade sub-interval of 21.73 g/t gold over 6.1 meters. This extends the gold mineralized zone on the Betty Ford target an additional 35 meters along strike to the west, with the total strike length currently at 165 meters.

"Diamond drilling at Betty Ford is primarily designed to test the mineralized system at depth, essentially looking for evidence of an underlying porphyry as well as trying to identify the feeder to gold mineralization that occurs near surface," said Terry Brace, White Gold vice president of exploration.

Testing Vertigo veins

The Vertigo target comprises at least six mineralized structures over a 1,500- by 650-meter area and consists of west-northwest striking, steeply south dipping zones of quartz veining, brecciation, and fracture-controlled mineralization comprising disseminated to vein-controlled semi-massive sulfides with locally visible gold.

The mineralization was identified as a prospective target area by Underworld Resources Inc. in 2009 through early-stage soil geochemistry sampling and geological mapping and prospecting, with rock chip samples of quartz veins returning 1.3 g/t gold.

In June 2010, Kinross Gold Corp. acquired Underworld and continued exploration on the JP Ross property, including the Vertigo target.

Subsequent exploration on Vertigo included more soil sampling, prospecting and surface rock sampling, mechanical trenching and diamond drilling.

Prospecting confirmed the presence of gold in quartz vein float at Vertigo, with two grab samples returning 5.37 g/t gold and 8.08 g/t gold. Chip sampling of trenches returned anomalous gold generally ranging from 0.1 to 0.2 g/t gold over widths of five to 30 meters, with a best interval of 1.05 g/t gold over 45 meters in trench JRVE10T0008. Diamond drilling intersected relatively narrow (one- to two-meter) mineralized zones of generally low grade (< 0.5 g/t gold). The best interval was in hole JRVE10D0003 which returned 17.85 g/t gold over one meter in a vuggy quartz vein and silicified breccia zone from 103 meters depth.

In June 2017, White Gold acquired all of Kinross' projects in the White Gold District, including the JP Ross property. In 2018 and 2019, the company carried out extensive drilling programs on the Vertigo target, which included rotary air blast drilling (1,448.9 meters in 25 holes), reverse circulation drilling (2,551.3 meters in 36 holes), and diamond drilling in 2019 (9,568.5 meters in 46 holes).

The best RAB hole was JPRVERRAB18-014, with 23.44 g/t gold and 144.75 g/t silver over 24.38 meters from surface, while the best RC drill results were from JPRVERRC18-006: 9.46 g/t gold and 36.68 g/t silver over 22.86 meters from surface. However, the 2018 RAB and RC holes were drilled to the south, partially down-dip on the mineralized zones, thereby exaggerating the thicknesses.

Thus, the 2019 diamond drill holes were drilled predominantly to the north-northeast to test the interpreted steep southerly dip. Highlights included: 11.64 g/t gold and 31.68 g/t silver over 5.34 meters from three meters and 18.46 g/t gold and 23.9 g/t silver over 2.48 m from 92 meters depth.

Since 2019, exploration work at the Vertigo target area has been limited. Having reviewed the existing structural information at Vertigo, including borehole optical televiewer data and vein measurements recorded in trenches, Brace said the company believes its drill orientation in 2023 will more effectively test the multiple mineralized vein sets at Vertigo.

Branching out

At the Cali target, White Gold plans to drill widely spaced holes designed to test the two-kilometer-long gold and multi-element soil geochemical anomaly which occurs along a major regional structure.

"We really like the apparent size and geological setting of Cali," he observed.

Regional exploration work also has produced several new discoveries and prospective targets on White Gold's claim package, he added.

White Gold Corp.

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