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

Grande Portage Resources Ltd. Sept. 14 announced an interim update on its 2023 drill program at the company's Herbert Gold project in Southeast Alaska, which has accrued roughly 3,050 meters of drilling in eight holes.

"Our plan in 2023 was to fill in gaps in the established resource to allow for higher level of confidence in any new resource estimate and to have valuable incremental step outs in areas that had demonstrated mineralization in the past that might be open for expansion," said Grande Portage President and CEO Ian Klassen.

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.

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 first hole drilled for the season was a continuation from 2022, whereby Grande Portage reentered DDH 22AB-5, drilling to the south and intersected a four-meter hydrothermally altered structure roughly 150 meters beyond the Goat Vein – which geologists interpret to be the Sleeping Giant Vein, which contained a 1.2-meter intercept averaging 7.83 g/t gold.

The company anticipated 22/23AB-5 to extend the established resource by extending that zone to depth by approximately 60 meters. Furthermore, 23AB-5 also cut 0.52 meters averaging 19.7 g/t gold in the footwall of Main Vein.

After completing drilling on Pad AB, Grande Portage moved the rig to Pad M, where it collared four new holes to test the western Goat Vein and the Goat Hanging Wall targets. All drill holes intersected mineralization in the targeted Goat Vein, with hole 23M-1 cutting 2.95 meters averaging 17.4 g/t gold.

Designed to fill in a gap in the Goat Vein mineral resource, the company hopes results will assist in upgrading the confidence in the resource of this area.

23M-1 was drilled 45 meters west of the company's historical DDH 18M-6 (1.2 meters averaging 61.83 g/t gold), 80 meters above DDH 18M-7 (two meters averaging 3.25 g/t gold), 40 meters below DDH 17L-2 (no significant value), and 50 meters east of DDH 17L-4 (6.3 meters averaging 5.90 g/t gold).

Assays are currently pending on the other holes.

Afterward, the company said it moved the drill rig to Pad P, where three of the four planned holes have already been drilled, with initial results confirming quartz mineralization having been encountered in all three.

DDH 23P-3 extended southward past the Goat Vein and intersected the Sleeping Giant Vein.

Intercept sample analyses from these holes are also pending.

Once drilling is completed at Pad P, Grande Portage says the rig will be moved to Pad BB, the easternmost pad on the property, where it will drill at least four more holes to test the eastern end of Sleeping Giant Vein and test the eastward projection of a higher-grade section of the Goat Vein into open territory.

The company plans to continue its 2023 program at Herbert Gold until November.