Rebounding from setbacks during 2022, Grande Portage Resources Ltd. enlisted the help from a heavyweight to aid in its drilling and recoup lost time that would position the company back on track toward expanding the high-grade resources at its Herbert Gold project in Southeast Alaska.

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.

This project consists of several prospective targets that Grande Portage has been advancing for over a decade, the most extensively explored and more advanced are the Goat, Main and Deep Trench, with various others that have been discovered but not as deeply developed.

According to the calculation completed in 2021, 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.

Due to hiccups in 2022, Grande Portage enlisted the drilling expertise of NISS (Nasco Industrial Services and Supply) Global, whose clients include Hecla Mining, Rio Tinto, Barrick, and Newmont Gold, to drill up to 20,000 feet at Herbert Gold.

Starting in early June, the subcontractor utilized a single rig between six pads targeting approximately 15 and 20 holes. These were designed to test numerous targets and satellite structures and was considered a continuation of the rather incomplete drilling from two years prior.

"We are very excited to start this season's drill program. The 2023 drill program will continue to test a mix of infill and new targeted areas," said Grande Portage Resources President and CEO Ian Klassen. "We have prioritized and will target many geologically promising high value targets at the Main, Goat, Deep Trench, Ridge, and Sleeping Giant veins from multiple locations. Our geologists have gone to great lengths to ensure that this upcoming program targets the type of success we have enjoyed over many years building the high-grade Herbert Gold project."

The first hole of the season was exactly that, a continuation of 2022's DDH 22AB-5, whereby the company reentered the previous collar and drilled to the south. This intersected a four-meter hydrothermally altered structure roughly 150 meters beyond the Goat Vein – which Grande Portage geologists interpreted to be the Sleeping Giant Vein.

Meticulously moving from pad to pad, each section was completed to fill in gaps of the known mineralization at its more advanced targets.

Highlights from the 2023 program include:

• 1.2 meters averaging 7.83 g/t gold in hole 22/23AB-5.

Grande Portage Resources Ltd.

Grande Portage enlisted NISS (Nasco Industrial Services and Supply) Global to drill roughly 6,100 meters at Herbert Gold.

• 2.95 meters averaging 17.4 g/t gold in 23M-1.

• 2.83 meters averaging 7.75 g/t gold in 23P-2.

• 3.39 meters averaging 9.9 g/t gold in 23P-4.

"Drilling this season certainly assists to fill in certain gaps within the established resource and adds to the confidence leading into a new resource estimate that will include the added drilling completed over the recent three-year period," said Klassen.