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

Snowline Gold Corp. Aug. 3 announced the next set of analytical results from the ongoing drill program at Valley on the company's Rogue project in Yukon, Canada, with its latest holes including its newest best-ever, cutting 553.8 meters averaging 2.48 grams per metric ton gold from surface, and ranking as one of Yukon's highest graded holes ever.

Aiming for 10,000 or more meters of drilling at Valley, Snowline has already cranked out at least 9,500 meters with two drill rigs, with 22 holes completed and another two in progress. Separating the first three reported and the latest two in this announcement, the remaining results are still pending.

You can read about the first three holes of Snowline's season at Snowline drill hole ends up second-best, covering the first hole, and Valley gold assays continue to impress for the second and third, reported in the July 7 and July 21 editions, respectively, of North of 60 Mining News.

"Drill hole V-23-039 is the best drill hole reported at the Rogue project's Valley target to date, and it ranks among the best drill holes ever drilled for gold in the Yukon," said Snowline Gold CEO Scott Berdahl. "Along with V-23-037 – which would have otherwise been the target's best hole-it confirms and builds upon the strong continuity and grade of the Valley gold discovery across significant distances beginning at surface."

Collared within the Valley intrusion, V-23-039 was aimed to test a large gap from previous drilling on the near-surface gold corridor discovered at Valley last year.

Positioned roughly 64 meters east of hole V-22-010 (318.8 meters averaging 2.55 g/t gold from surface) and 117 meters west of V-22-007 (410 meters averaging 1.89 g/t gold from surface), 23-039 has taken the title as best drill hole for Snowline – although recent trend suggests this may change in the future.

As with previous drill holes in this area, V-23-039 intersected abundant sheeted quartz veins in granodiorite with multiple generations of gold-bearing quartz veins.

The company says mineralization is continuous throughout the top 553.8 meters downhole from surface, averaging 2.47 g/t gold across this length, with two zones of higher-grade mineralization present within this interval: 183.3 meters averaging 4.34 g/t gold from bedrock surface 2.6 meters downhole, and 233 meters averaging 2.03 g/t gold from 287 meters, separated by a zone of lower grades between 101 meters to 186 meters downhole and averaging 0.83 g/t gold.

"The grades are exceptional for a reduced intrusion-related gold system, where resource grades for most known deposits are well below one g/t gold," said Berdahl. "With high gold recoveries from non-refractory metallurgy, a conducive geometry for a low strip ration, and its location in a favourable mining jurisdiction, the Valley target is emerging as one of the top recent gold discoveries on a global scale."

Without the results from 23-039, V-23-037 would have taken the limelight.

Collared similarly within the Valley intrusion, and 115 meters northeast of 23-039. As with nearby 23-034 (the first hole of the 2023 season, which cut 418.3 meters averaging 1.88 g/t gold from surface), 23-037 was targeted 34 meters to the east to provide information on small-scale variances within the system, it intersected abundant sheet quartz veins within the intrusion, in places carrying trace amounts of visible gold.

Snowline Gold Corp.

Gold grades and distribution in the two holes are quite similar, except that in 23-037, higher grades begin at surface and continue to greater downhole and vertical depths than in V-23-034 – which was touted as the second-best drill hole ever just a month ago.

The hole ends in patchy lower-grade mineralization within a fine-grained, porphyritic phase of the granodiorite.

Cutting 383.8 meters averaging 2.47 g/t gold from bedrock surface, 6.2 meters downhole, mineralization at 23-037 is robust and consistent.

Given the extreme success of the season, Snowline intends to continue drilling at Valley until the end of the exploration season in early October; whether this includes expanding the meterage drilled was not reported but can be presumed due to the significant returns on assays so far.