Rackla Options King Solomon's Dome Target from Kestrel; Begins Drilling
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Sep 10, 2013) - Mr. Simon Ridgway, the President of Rackla Metals Inc. (TSX VENTURE:RAK), is pleased to announce that the Company has optioned the King Solomon's Dome ("KSD") property from Kestrel Gold Inc. ("Kestrel") and has begun a short drill program at the property.
The project is drill ready, road accessible, and located in the heart of the Klondike goldfields, roughly 30 km southeast of Dawson City in the Yukon Territory.
KSD is the highest topographical point in the historic Klondike placer gold district. Dominion, Sulphur and Gold Bottom Creeks drain away from KSD and were some of the richest placer gold creeks in the Klondike with historic production believed to exceed 3.5M oz of gold*.
The property is underlain by chlorite schist of the Carboniferous to Permian Klondike Schist with a relatively shallow dipping foliation. Kestrel's work between 2010 and 2013 identified surface quartz veins, and a gold-in-soil anomaly underlain by an induced polarization (IP) geophysical anomaly. Drilling is now underway to test the IP anomaly. The property has not been drilled other than five historic shallow reverse circulation and percussion drill holes.
Recent academic work suggests a clear link between the placer gold and the widespread lode gold occurrences across in the vicinity of KSD: they appear to represent a single, zoned eroded orogenic hydrothermal system. Gold grains from the upper portions of these 3 creeks exhibit grain shapes and sizes that indicate that the degree of gold transportation is likely to be minimal. Importantly, the elevation of the largest IP response in the recent survey roughly coincides with the upper limits of placer mining on most of the surrounding creeks.
Kestrel acquired the property from the underlying claim holders in December 2010 and carried out soil and rock sampling, IP surveys and some mechanized trenching and geological mapping. Kestrel also applied for and received a Yukon Class 3 Mining Land Use permit.
* Placer depositional settings and their ages along Dominion Creek, Klondike area,Yukon. In: Yukon Exploration and Geology 2000, D.S. Emond and L.H. Weston (eds.), Exploration and Geological Services Division, Yukon, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, p. 159-169.
Property Background
No one truly knows the amount of gold that has been extracted out of the placer creeks in the last 116 years. The Yukon government estimates that about 20 million ounces has been removed. This large placer production was derived from a relatively small area (<1500 sq km). Unlike most large gold placer areas around the world, the 'mother-lode' source has never been found and only around 14,000 oz of gold has ever been recovered by hard-rock mining in the area.
An orogenic gold geological model is proposed for the genesis of mineralization on the property. Orogenic deposits are typically formed in fault and shear systems in metamorphic rocks spatially associated with large-scale tectonic structures and syntectonic plutonism.
Three main vein systems have been recognized on the KSD property: Sheba, Mitchell and Orekon. These gold vein systems can be traced for several hundred metres and cut through the relatively flat lying and also folded Klondike Schists along moderately to steeply dipping fractures.
Kestrel's trenching program defined a gold bearing quartz vein system over a strike length of over 1.7 km and at least 0.4 km wide with gold values from trace up to 17 g/t Au and several values of silver greater than 50 g/t. Altered pyritic-sericitic wall rocks of Klondike Schist also contain good gold values up to several metres from the main veins.
The main gold in soil anomaly at the KSD property is centered over the Sheba and Mitchell vein system. It is approximately 1.6 km x 1 km (using a threshold level of 30 ppb Au) with a corresponding zonation of silver, arsenic, lead copper and zinc anomalies within and around the main gold bearing zone.
Kestrel's 2011 geophysical survey identified a large IP chargeability anomaly over a distance of 1.2 km parallel to the main Sheba and Mitchell gold bearing vein systems. Follow-up work in 2012 identified a large IP chargeability anomaly at depths to around 350 m below the topography extending over a width of over 1 km to beyond the Orekon vein system to the east of the Dome. The anomaly is relatively shallow dipping and may represent the potential source of the metals that were ultimately emplaced in the NNW trending (D4) vein systems at higher structural levels at and around KSD. This IP chargeability anomaly is Rackla's drill target.
The reader is referred to Kestrel's website, www.kestrelgold.com, for additional information on the KSD property.
Option Terms
Rackla has the option to acquire a 50% interest in the KSD property by incurring $1.5 million in exploration expenditures on the property, and making cash payments to Kestrel totalling $75,000, over a two-year period.
Qualified Person
Mr. David Clark, M.Sc., P.Geo. (APEGBC), a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has verified that the technical information contained in this news release is an accurate summary of the information provided to Rackla by Kestrel and has approved its disclosure.
About Rackla
Rackla Metals controls a portfolio of promising gold projects across Yukon Territory, including two extensive claim blocks in the Rackla belt - an emerging trend of Carlin type gold systems in east-central Yukon - and the Sixty Mile project near Dawson City.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Simon Ridgway, President and CEO
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statement
Some of the statements in this news release contain forward-looking information that involves inherent risk and uncertainty affecting the business of the Company. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statement.
Contact
Rackla Metals Inc.
Ralph Rushton
(604) 801-5432
(604) 662-8829
info@goldgroup.com
www.racklametals.com