White Gold Corp. Announces Fully Funded $13M Exploration Program Focused on Vertigo Discovery, Further Increasing Golden Saddle and VG Gold Resources and New Gold Discoveries
TORONTO, March 14, 2019 - White Gold Corp. (TSX.V: WGO, OTC – Nasdaq Intl: WHGOF, FRA: 29W) (the "Company") is pleased to announce its fully funded 2019 exploration program on its extensive 439,000 hectare land package, representing over 40% of the prolific White Gold District in Yukon, Canada.
The 2019 exploration program, budgeted at approximately $13M, has been designed to follow up on the Company’s new high grade Vertigo discovery on its JP Ross property (the “JP Ross Program”), expand the Golden Saddle and Arc resources with diamond drilling on the GS West discovery and other nearby targets (the “White Gold Program”), increase the recently acquired 230,000 oz VG resource (4.4 million tonnes grading 1.65 g/t gold Inferred resource at a cut-off of 0.5 g/t gold) on its QV property, as well as to identify and test high priority regional targets (the “Regional Program”). Backed by partners Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (TSX: AEM, NYSE: AEM) and Kinross Gold Corp. (TSX: K, NYSE: KGC) the 2019 exploration program is planned to commence in the coming weeks.
A map outlining the Company’s 2019 work program can be found at http://whitegoldcorp.ca/investors/exploration-highlights/.
Shawn Ryan, Chief Technical Advisor stated, “2019 will be one of the most exciting seasons for White Gold and has the potential to be a transformative year for us. Our systematic regional exploration approach is working exceptionally well and resulted in four new discoveries last year (the Vertigo, GS West, Ryan’s Surprise and Betty Ford). This year’s program will also feature diamond drilling on the Vertigo discovery to expand this new unique style of high-grade gold mineralization. Concurrently, the regional program on the JP Ross Property will follow up on multiple other highly anomalous gold targets near the Henderson Creek drainage system where placer gold mining has been taking place since the turn of the century, and will continue to utilize detailed soil sampling, GT probe and RAB drilling to hone in on high-probability targets, which we anticipate will lead to more new discoveries. The Golden Saddle deposit will be moved along with more diamond drilling on the GS West and Ryan’s Surprise discoveries. The recently acquired VG deposit will undergo drilling to expand the known resources and we will be applying our proprietary regional exploration program to advance some of our other priority targets. All and all this should be our best season yet.”
Highlights Include:
- Vertigo Target: 10,000m diamond drill program designed to evaluate geometry as well as the lateral and vertical continuity of mineralized structures discovered in 2018. Additional reverse circulation (“RC”) drilling to evaluate strike potential of mineralization based on field mapping, geochemistry and geophysics.
- JP Ross regional activity to include evaluation and initial drill testing of 4 to 5 additional target areas on 14km trend.
- Golden Saddle deposit to be expanded with 4,500m of diamond drilling conducted on GS West discovery, with 1,500m of infill and step-out drilling on Arc deposit.
- Regional activity on the White Gold property to include evaluation and initial testing of 3 to 4 additional regional targets with RC/RAB drilling.
- Regional exploration activities on other properties to include over 15,000 soil samples, 1,000 GT probe samples, geologic mapping and prospecting, IP-Resistivity, LiDAR and other baseline exploration work for the continued identification and building of targets.
- Initial work including GT Probe sampling set to commence in April 2019 with diamond drilling anticipated to commence in May 2019.
The JP Ross Program
Exploration on the Vertigo discovery is expected to include over 7,500m in diamond drilling across the entire currently defined 2km Vertigo trend to define the geology, geometry and continuity of the system, with an additional 2,500m for follow up drilling on key zones identified within the system to test plunge lines and alternative geometries. An RC drill will also be used to test the continuity of mineralization along strike to build additional targets for future diamond drilling.
Additional exploration is expected to be conducted along the 14km Vertigo Trend and JP Ross property at large, with the focus of this work to build up several additional target areas through soils, GT Probe, geophysics, other exploration activities and first pass RAB/RC drill testing as warranted.
Initial work including GT Probe sampling is set to commence in April with diamond drilling anticipated to commence in mid-to-late May, with a full camp to be built on site to support the program.
The Vertigo target is a new, road accessible, discovery on the JP Ross property which is comprised of 2,850 quartz claims covering over 57,000 hectares with at least 14 known target areas and numerous placer gold bearing creeks
To date, at least 12 mineralized structures are recognized on the Vertigo target over a 1500m x 650m area, and consist of W-NW trending, steeply dipping zones of quartz veining, brecciation, and fracture-controlled mineralization with disseminated to vein-controlled pyrite-arsenopyrite-galena and, locally, visible gold mineralization.
Highlights from 2018 include, Hole JPRVERRAB18-014 intersecting 23.44 g/t Au over 24.38m from surface ending in mineralization; Hole JPRVERRAB18-001 intersecting 56.25 g/t Au over 3.05m within a broader intercept of 17.34 g/t Au over 10.67mfrom 3.05m depth; Hole JPRVERRAB18-011 intersecting 45.00 g/t Au over 3.05m from 1.52m depth, within a broader intercept of 9.65 g/t Au over 15.2m and surface grab samples of 139.9 g/t, 134.6 g/t and 132.9 g/t over a 685m strike length.
The White Gold Program
Exploration activities on the White Gold property are planned to include over 6,000m in diamond and an expected 25 holes of RC/RAB drilling, with diamond drilling focusing on the GS West discovery area with minor infill and step-out drilling on the Arc deposit based on updated geological modelling, while RC/RAB drilling will test high priority targets on the White Gold for potential future diamond drilling. Other exploration activities will include LiDAR, GT Probe, soil sampling, geophysics and geologic mapping, all conducted to evaluate and define additional drill targets on the property.
Reopening of the Thistle camp is currently underway with drilling activities anticipated to commence by mid-May.
The White Gold property has a current mineral resource of 960,970 ounces Indicated at 2.43 g/t Au and 262,220 ounces Inferred at 1.70 g/t Au, with mineralization on both the Golden Saddle and Arc known to extend beyond the limits of the current resource estimate and believed to remain open in multiple directions.
Golden Saddle highlights from 2018 include, Hole WHTGS18D0175 intersecting 4.6 g/t Au over 44.9m from 218m depth, including 8.57 g/t Au over 17m from 223m depth and Hole WHTGS18D0193 intersecting 3.95 g/t Au over 68m from 210m depth, including 5.42 g/t Au over 47.3m.
The GS West discovery is a shallow mineralized zone open at depth and along strike, located 750m to the west of the Golden Saddle deposit along the structural trend. All three holes drilled in 2018 hit Golden Saddle style alteration and mineralization with the most significant results from WHTGS18D0184 returning 1.92 g/t Au over 24m from 117m depth, including 2.97 g/t Au over 10m from 118m depth, and 8.12 g/t Au over 1.95m from 121.05m depth.
The Regional Program
The 2019 Regional Program will focus on high priority targets that have been identified in the 2018 and prior seasons, and will include over 1,000 GT Probe samples and 15,000 soil samples. Additional exploration activity to prepare and better understand the Company’s other targets will include airborne magnetic surveys, LiDAR surveys, drone surveys, IP-Resistivity surveys, geologic mapping and prospecting. The regional exploration will be conducted across multiple of the Company’s properties.
QV Property – VG Zone
Included in the Company’s Regional Program is 1,000m of diamond drilling focused on testing strike extensions of the historically underexplored VG resource located on the QV property, recently acquired from Comstock Metals.
Large portions of the property remain unexplored, which leaves a strong potential for the discovery of additional zones of structurally-controlled and/or intrusion-related mineralization, with several currently unexplored known targets with similar characteristics to the Golden Saddle and Vertigo. Approximately 4,300m of diamond drilling over 23 holes has been conducted on the VG to date. Of these, only 17 diamond drill holes formed the basis of a 2014 maiden resource estimate(1) of 230,000 oz of gold (4.4 million tonnes grading 1.65 g/t Au) in the Inferred category at a cut-off of 0.5 g/t Au.
The VG resource is open along strike and at depth, and has similar mineralization and structural control to the nearby Golden Saddle deposit. The QV property is 16,335 hectares (40,000 acres) and contiguous to the Company's White Gold property which hosts its Golden Saddle and Arc deposits, 20 km southwest of the Vertigo discovery on its JP Ross property and 44 km northwest of Goldcorp Inc.'s (TSX: G, NYSE: GG) Coffee project. The resource and property were acquired by White Gold Corp. from Comstock Metals in early 2019.
For further details regarding the acquisition of the VG resource and QV property, please refer to the press release of the Company dated March 1, 2019 available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
- See Comstock Metals Ltd. technical report titled “NI 43-101 TECHNICAL REPORT on the QV PROJECT”, dated August 19, 2014, available on SEDAR
Regional Exploration Program activities are anticipated to include exploration activity on the following targets:
Betty Property
The Betty property covers the eastern extension of the Coffee Creek fault, which hosts the Coffee deposit owned by Goldcorp Inc., and hosts a 12km trend of anomalous gold in soils (trace to 7,288 ppb Au); intrusion-related and structurally controlled styles of mineralization. Highlights of drilling completed at the Betty Ford target include Hole BETFRDRAB18-002 returning 1.08 g/t Au over 50.29m from 4.57m depth, including 2.24 g/t Au over 9.41m from 19.81m depth with the top 25.91m of the hole showing oxidized mineralization and additional shallow mineralization encountered in other holes along trend. Highlights at the Betty White target included gold mineralization intersected in every hole, with individual results ranging from trace to 3.61 g/t Au. Gold mineralization encountered across multiple target areas highlights the large-scale potential of the mineralized system, with additional targets remaining undrilled.
Black Hills Property
Road accessible property located adjacent to the JP Ross Property on the east. There exist numerous untested gold in soil anomalies that are coincident with the regional-scale structures that cut through the property, with soil assays ranging from trace to 1,594 ppb Au.
Dime Property
Located 70km to the south-west of Dawson City, YT, with the claims bordering numerous historic mineral occurrences and placer gold bearing creeks. At least 3 untested gold in soil anomalies are known (Dime West, Dime Central, & Polaris) on the property that warrant follow up work; with soil values ranging from trace to 6,082 ppb Au. The targets are associated with a regional scale structure and the overall geologic setting and geochemistry of the area is very similar to the Vertigo discovery, located 40km to the SE.
Nolan Property
Located 50km west of Dawson City, YT with claims covering multiple placer gold bearing creeks. Numerous gold in soil anomalies on the southern end of the property that have yet to be investigated; with soil values ranging from trace to 968 ppb Au. This includes the Hart Mt. area, which contains two robust targets, including Hart South a 2,000m by 400m trend with soil values ranging up to 539 ppb Au, as well as Hart East which measures 2,500m by 900m and yielded values ranging up to 399 ppb Au. Additionally, prospecting in the Hart area returned grab samples of epithermal-style quartz veins that returned from trace to 0.172 g/t Au, trace to 1,467 g/t Ag, and trace to 10.63% Pb.
About White Gold Corp.
The Company owns a portfolio of 22,040 quartz claims across 35 properties covering over 439,000 hectares representing over 40% of the Yukon’s White Gold District. The Company’s flagship White Gold property has a mineral resource of 960,970 ounces Indicated at 2.43 g/t Au and 282,490 ounces Inferred at 1.70 g/t Au as set forth in the technical report entitled “Independent Technical Report for the White Gold Project, Dawson Range, Yukon, Canada”, dated March 5, 2018, filed under the Company’s profile on SEDAR. Mineralization on the Golden Saddle and Arc is also known to extend beyond the limits of the current resource estimate. Regional exploration work has also produced several other prospective targets on the Company’s claim packages which border sizable gold discoveries including the Coffee project owned by Goldcorp Inc. with a M&I gold resource(2) of 3.4M oz and Western Copper and Gold Corp.’s Casino project which has P&P gold reserves(2) of 8.9M oz Au and 4.5B lb Cu. For more information visit www.whitegoldcorp.ca.
- Noted mineralization is as disclosed by the owner of each property respectively and is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization hosted on the Company’s property.
Qualified Person
Jodie Gibson, P.Geo. and Vice President of Exploration for the Company is a “qualified person” as defined under National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”) and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Information
This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", “proposed”, "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, the Company’s objectives, goals and exploration activities conducted and proposed to be conducted at the Company’s properties; future growth potential of the Company, including whether any proposed exploration programs at any of the Company’s properties will be successful; exploration results; and future exploration plans and costs and financing availability.
These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include:; expected benefits to the Company relating to exploration conducted and proposed to be conducted at the Company’s properties;; failure to identify any additional mineral resources or significant mineralization; the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, including to fund any exploration programs on the Company’s properties; business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold, silver, base metals or certain other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining and mineral exploration; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); the unlikelihood that properties that are explored are ultimately developed into producing mines; geological factors; actual results of current and future exploration; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated; soil sampling results being preliminary in nature and are not conclusive evidence of the likelihood of a mineral deposit; title to properties; and those factors described in the most recently filed management’s discussion and analysis of the Company. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information, or the material factors or assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information, will prove to be accurate. The Company does not undertake to release publicly any revisions for updating any voluntary forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities law.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange (the “Exchange”) nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
Contact Information:
David D’Onofrio
Chief Executive Officer
White Gold Corp.
(647) 930-1880
ir@whitegoldcorp.ca