Trailbreaker Resources Announces Staking of the Swan Property, Formation of the Atsutla Gold Project, and Plans for 2021 Exploration
VANCOUVER, March 22, 2021 - Trailbreaker Resources Ltd. (TBK.V) (Trailbreaker) is pleased to announce the recent staking of the Swan property in northwestern British Columbia (BC) and its inclusion in the newly formed Atsutla Gold Project.The Swan property covers a historically drilled molybdenum porphyry prospect that has never been assayed for gold. It is situated just 20 km northeast of the recent high-grade gold discoveries at Trailbreaker's Willie Jack property. Together, the Willie Jack and Swan properties form the 100%-owned Atsutla Gold Project, covering over 14,000 hectares of ground. The project, named after the Atsutla mountain range, is located 70 km south of the Yukon-BC border and 130 km northwest of Dease Lake, BC.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7206ae1c-b1fb-4049-b575-6ead0f5aafed
Willie Jack
In March of 2020, the Trailbreaker team generated the Willie Jack target and conducted a first pass reconnaissance program. The program lead to the discovery of widespread gold mineralization across 6 kilometres with rock grab samples assaying up to 164 g/t (4.78 oz/ton) gold (Au) and soils sample results exceeding 800 ppb (0.8 g/t) Au (see Willie Jack news released dated October 19th, 2020). Rock grab samples also returned assays up to 257 g/t silver (Ag) and 1.7 % copper (Cu). The mineralization discovered to date is related to the Mesozoic intrusive batholiths that comprise the Atsutla mountain range, and shares characteristics of both Cu-Au porphyry-type and intrusion-related gold deposits.
Swan
Due to the success of the first pass results at the Willie Jack property, Trailbreaker generated and staked the Swan property which covers almost 4,300 hectares. The Swan property is 100%-owned by Trailbreaker, with no underlying payments or royalties. The Swan property overlies the regional scale Teslin-Thibert strike-slip fault system that extends over 700 km across the Yukon Territory and BC and marks the boundary between the Quesnel and Cache Creek terranes.
The Swan claims cover a historical molybdenum (Mo) porphyry prospect that was discovered in the late 1960s and periodically explored during the past 50 years. Despite more than 500 soil and rock surface samples and almost 1,000 meters of shallow diamond drilling, no geochemical analysis for gold was ever completed. Historical geological mapping and drill hole logs have shown a complex intrusive system with widespread quartz-feldspar porphyritic monzonite cut by a variety of felsic and mafic dikes. Molybdenite-pyrite mineralization is closely associated with sheeted quartz veins, quartz stockwork and breccia zones. The historical drilling at Swan intersected broad, low to mid-grade molybdenite mineralization, returning up to 0.06% Mo over 73m, including 0.97% Mo over 19m, as well as several significant silver intercepts including >26 g/t Ag over 3 meters.
Historical work also included a detailed soil geochemical survey completed in 2007 which outlined a large, open-ended copper-silver-arsenic (Cu-Ag-As) soil anomaly that lies outside of the drilled Mo prospect. Furthermore, a 1972 induced polarization (IP) survey outlined a chargeability anomaly which coincides with this soil anomaly and is interpreted to potentially represent a pyritic halo above a buried copper porphyry deposit.
Trailbreaker's team believes the Swan and Willie Jack property areas were previously overlooked for gold potential due to low gold prices at the time. Trailbreaker plans to conduct a thorough first-pass evaluation program in 2021.
Atsutla Gold Project
The Willie Jack and Swan properties represent Trailbreaker Resources' investment in an underexplored area of British Columbia which has been historically overlooked for district-scale gold mineralization. To consolidate exploration plans, Trailbreaker has termed this area the "Atsutla Gold Project".
Geologically, the project is centered on the regional-scale crustal Teslin-Thibert fault system marking the boundary between the Quesnel and Cache Creek tectonic terranes. The Quesnel terrane hosts numerous Cu-Au porphyry deposits along the length of British Columbia, including the Copper Mountain, Highland Valley, New Afton, Mount Polley, Mount Milligan, and Kemess deposits and mines. The Cache Creek terrane hosts a variety of mineralization styles, and includes the Gibraltar Cu-Mo-Au porphyry deposit.
The combination of this favourable geologic setting with the recent gold discoveries by Trailbreaker at Willie Jack, supported by historic Mo porphyry results at Swan and widespread placer gold documented in the project area, indicates strong potential for multiple styles of gold mineralization.
New Trailbreaker Resources website and presentations
Trailbreaker Resources' new company website can be found at www.TrailbreakerResources.com. An updated corporate presentation, presentations for each of Trailbreaker's properties, as well as photos, maps and more, can be found there. See below for further contact details and social media links.
Message from the President
"The Trailbreaker team has identified an area with untapped potential and, in under one year, has brought forth encouraging results and compelling evidence that the Atsutla Gold Project area can be developed into a new gold district. We are greatly looking forward to exploring the new ground at the Swan property and seeing what historical work may have been missed. At the same time, we will be exploring and advancing our Plateau, Willie Jack, Skelly, and McMurdo properties and closely following our royalties in our third-party projects that are being drilled this year."
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Daithi Mac Gearailt
President and Chief Executive Officer
Carl Schulze, P. Geo., Consulting Geologist with Aurora Geosciences Ltd, is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 for Trailbreaker's BC and Yukon exploration projects, and has reviewed and approved the technical information in this release.
For new information about the Company's projects, please visit Trailbreaker's website at TrailbreakerResources.com and sign up to receive news. For further information, follow Trailbreaker's tweets at Twitter.com/TrailbreakerRes, use the 'Contact' section of our website, or contact us at (604) 681-1820 or at info@trailbreakerresources.com.
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Forward-Looking Statements
Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "Forward-Looking Information") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-Looking Information includes, but is not limited to, disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or financial performance that is based on assumptions about future economic conditions and courses of action; expectations regarding future exploration and drilling programs and receipt of related permitting; and the plans for completion of the contemplated transactions with Newmont as set out above. In certain cases, Forward-Looking Information can be identified by the use of words and phrases such as "anticipates", "expects", "understanding", "has agreed to" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "would", "occur" or "be achieved". Although Trailbreaker has attempted to identify important factors that could affect Trailbreaker and may cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward-Looking Information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, if any, Trailbreaker has applied several material assumptions, including the assumption that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner. There can be no assurance that Forward-Looking Information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. Except as required by law, Trailbreaker does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to Forward-Looking Information contained in this news release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.