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

Victoria Gold Corp. Sept. 14 announced the first analytical results from the 2023 exploration campaign at Raven, a deposit within its already gold-producing Dublin Gulch project in central Yukon.

Discovered with soil sampling and trenching in 2018, Raven is a large, near-surface gold target associated with Nugget, the second-largest known intrusive body on Victoria Gold's Dublin Gulch property.

Located roughly 15 kilometers (nine miles) east of the Eagle Gold Mine, trenching in 2018 and 2019 quickly began to reveal the potential of Raven to host a large gold deposit that is higher grade than what is currently being mined at Eagle. Highlights from this trenching included 124 meters averaging 3.51 grams per metric ton gold, 50 meters averaging 4.15 g/t gold, and 12 meters averaging 7.91 g/t gold.

Through dogged exploration, the company announced a maiden inferred resource for Raven in late 2022 of 19.96 million metric tons of pit-constrained inferred mineral resource averaging 1.67 g/t (1.07 million ounces) gold.

Raven was the primary focus of Victoria's 2023 exploration efforts, with over 13,200 meters of diamond drilling completed in 39 holes. The drilling consisted of systematic fence drilling to the east of the current deposit bounds coupled with exploratory drill holes around the promising high-grade mineralization identified last season in NG22-155C (14.5 meters averaging 20.24 g/t gold).

Assays for 16 of the 39 drill holes collared have been received; highlights include:

• 38 meters averaging 1.77 g/t gold and 3.81 g/t silver from a depth of 203.5 meters in hole NG23-167C.

• 58.1 meters averaging 0.82 g/t gold and 3.91 g/t silver from 209.5 meters in NG23-168C.

• 70.9 meters averaging 0.82 g/t gold and 14.03 g/t silver from 222.5 meters in NG23-170C, including 53.8 meters averaging 1.01 g/t gold and 16.78 g/t silver.

• 78.4 meters averaging 1.4 g/t gold and 3.01 g/t silver from 224.8 meters in NG23-172C, including 27.5 meters averaging 3.45 g/t gold and 1.35 g/t silver, and an even smaller subsection that cut half a meter of 135.3 g/t gold and 8.4 g/t silver.

• 144 meters averaging 0.81 g/t gold and 10.58 g/t silver from 159 meters in NG23-179C, including several smaller subsections of very high-grade gold – 54 meters averaging 1.5 g/t gold, 24.57 g/t silver; 22 meters averaging 3.01 g/t gold, 58.06 g/t silver; 18.5 meters averaging 3.47 g/t gold, 66.63 g/t silver; and 3.5 meters averaging 13.68 g/t gold, 216.08 g/t silver, all within an almost 15-meter span starting at 167 meters deep.

Victoria says that the results of NG23-172C and NG23-179C, together with NG22-155C (6.9 meters averaging 7.18 g/t gold from 128.1 meters), demonstrate an emerging high-grade trend.

Victoria Gold Corp.

"A busy 2023 exploration program served to validate and expand the mineralized footprint of Raven while increasing overall confidence in the Raven deposit," said Victoria Gold President and CEO John McConnell. "With each successive season, Raven has grown in size and 2023 should prove no different as we focused exploration towards growth of the deposit along strike – particularly to the east where 2023 results underscore the development of a high-grade trend."

In conjunction with focused drilling of the Raven deposit, a suite of exploration targets across the Dublin Gulch Gold Camp, including Lynx, was advanced through surface trenches, soil geochemical surveys, and geological mapping and prospecting throughout the year.

Due to the success of the received assays, Victoria anticipates releasing an updated Raven mineral resource estimate once all assays from the 2023 season have been received and reported.