TDG Gold Corp. Outlines 2023 Field Program at the Mets Mining Lease, Toodoggone
WHITE ROCK, March 16, 2023 - TDG Gold Corp. (TSXV:TDG) (the "Company" or "TDG") is pleased to provide an overview of the proposed 2023 exploration field program at its two square kilometre ("sq.km"), road accessible Mets Mining Lease located ~23 km from TDG's Baker mill. Mets is classified as a "developed prospect" having previously had a historical mineral resource and reserve1 estimate and ~350 metres ("m") of underground development completed in 1992.
The key objectives of TDG's 2023 field program at Mets are (a) confirmation drilling in the A-zone, (b) targeting potential extensions to the A-zone, and (c) to begin gold deportment studies on materials collected during the proposed drilling program as a prelude to additional metallurgical studies.
Highlights of the proposed 2023 field program at Mets include (Figure 1):
- Opening of the historical A-zone portal.
- Removal of the of formerly extracted development rock that was reportedly backfilled into the excavation, allowing access for underground survey work.
- Potentially, analytical tests on the extracted development rock, which historical records indicate could grade around 6.5 grams per tonne2 ("g/t") gold ("Au").
- 1,000 m of diamond HQ, oriented confirmation drilling within the A-zone, to bring the drill database to NI43-101 standards. Given the historical drilling was small diameter, larger diameter cores would provide more representative samples.
- Ground magnetic and Very Low Frequency ("VLF") geophysics across the entire Mets mineral lease, focusing on tracing the magnetic and conductive features associated with the A-Zone mineralization south, beyond current survey boundaries, and potentially identifying additional structural corridors.
- Geological mapping, prospecting, and trenching, bolstering the geological model, in anticipation of drilling potential extensions of the A-Zone to the north and south, as well as the N75 Fault Offset and the Kramar Zone.
- In parallel, TDG will undertake further studies of TDG's existing 200 tonne per day Baker mill and the ~300,000 tonnes of tailings located at TDG's Baker project to determine their suitability to be incorporated into future development scenarios.
Fletcher Morgan, TDG's CEO, commented: "The more we've progressed the recompilation of the historical data and information from Mets, the more we've begun to prioritize Mets for exploration this year. The road accessibility and the potential to take advantage of our mill at Baker located ~23 km along the Baker mining road (which is predominantly downhill from Mets) are also attractive features that could provide some early development opportunities."
2023 Work Program
TDG has continued to recompile the available historical data and information at Mets, which included 8,215 m of drilling2,3 and 3,176 m of trenching2. This data and information have been passed to Moose Mountain Technical Services ("MMTS"), TDG's independent resource modeller, which has begun to develop an initial geological model4 for the A-Zone at Mets including the high-grade Au intercepts encountered historically.
The Mets mining lease has developed into a priority project for TDG because of the high-grade2 gold within a well drilled target area (the A-zone), which is open to the north and south, with only limited drilling beyond the core of the A-Zone. Extension potential exists to the north and south of the A-zone, which can be traced along a structural lineament, and that is mirrored by geophysical surveys, formed between the contact of tuffaceous dacite (footwall) and porphyritic andesite (hanging wall). The objectives of the 2023 exploration program are to advance Mets using a science-based approached utilizing modern data and techniques to build off the robust historical database.
Figure 1 - Proposed Mets 2023 Exploration Activities.
Exploration Target Range
In November 2022, TDG received the complete archive of exploration and development work undertaken at Mets 1985-19922, including original assay certificates. Drilling in the Mets A-Zone has identified a continuous zone of high-grade gold dominant intercepts. Table 1 presents high-grade Au intercepts across approximately 130 m of strike across the A-Zone. In December 2022, TDG published a high-grade gold Exploration Target Range5 ("ETR") for Mets (see TDG news release of December 21, 2022) based on ~1.2 km of the ~2.2 km total potential strike length identified on Mets from historical drilling2,3, trenching2 and sampling2 in combination with a ground magnetic survey completed by TDG in 2021 (Figure 2). In January 2023, TDG identified a new bulk tonnage exploration target area4 (the "Kramar Zone") at the northern extent of Mets, based on a combination of historical drilling2,3 and sampling work on the Mets mining lease conducted by Thesis Gold Inc. in 2022 (see TDG new release January 19, 2023).
Table 1. Significant Results from historical drilling2,3 at the Mets Mining Lease.
Zone | Drillhole | From | To | Length | Au | Ag | AuEq6 |
(m) | (m) | (m) | (g/t) | (g/t) | (g/t) | ||
A-Zone | MT87-55 | 64.6 | 87.0 | 22.4 | 7.53 | 2 | 7.55 |
A-Zone | MT87-49 | 41.2 | 53.2 | 12.0 | 5.84 | 3 | 5.88 |
A-Zone | MT87-48 | 69.2 | 120.8 | 51.6 | 2.84 | 4 | 2.89 |
incl. | 79.7 | 95.0 | 15.3 | 8.42 | 2 | 8.44 | |
A-Zone | MT86-05 | 70.1 | 95.0 | 24.9 | 5.84 | 4 | 5.88 |
A-Zone | MT85-03 | 47.2 | 69.3 | 22.1 | 3.24 | 2 | 3.26 |
A-Zone | MT86-02 | 25.9 | 50.3 | 24.4 | 1.88 | 2 | 1.90 |
A-Zone | MT86-08 | 22.0 | 47.9 | 25.9 | 9.52 | 2 | 9.54 |
incl. | 28.8 | 31.9 | 3.1 | 59.13 | 2 | 59.16 | |
A-Zone | MT86-13 | 41.9 | 63.9 | 22.0 | 3.61 | 3 | 3.64 |
A-Zone | MT87-23 | 22.9 | 28.7 | 5.8 | 0.38 | 1 | 0.39 |
and | 31.4 | 44.4 | 13.0 | 5.18 | 1 | 5.20 | |
incl. | 35.8 | 38.3 | 2.5 | 21.66 | 2 | 21.69 | |
South Extension | MT87-31 | 87.0 | 88.0 | 1 | 8.03 | 3 | 8.07 |
Footwall | MT87-50 | 164.7 | 165.4 | 0.7 | 19.30 | 4 | 19.35 |
Kramar | MT87-21 | 31.1 | 60.1 | 29 | 0.16 | 1 | 0.17 |
and | 85.1 | 93.6 | 8.5 | 0.37 | 1 | 0.38 | |
Kramar | MT87-22 | 154.6 | 161.2 | 6.6 | 0.24 | 0 | 0.24 |
*Composite results were built using a 0.1 g/t AuEq cut-off, although there are intervals within the composites below 0.1g/t AuEq.
** Intervals are core-length weighted. True width and recovery are unknown.
***Calculated composites are truncated to significant 2 digits for Au/AuEq and the nearest whole number for Ag.
****In cases where assay data was missing from historical records, concentrations were assigned a 0.00 value
Figure 2 - Mets Mining Lease with historical A-Zone Development and potential strike extensions.
Qualified Person
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Steven Kramar, MSc., P.Geo., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
1Historical Mineral Resource/Reserve: TDG has not reported the historical mineral resource/reserve estimates prepared by prior owners as the confidence in the estimates is insufficient to allow meaningful application of technical and economic parameters to support an assessment of reasonable prospects for economic extraction as required for public disclosure. There is no assurance that historical mineral reserves/resources will be converted into mineral resources/reserves prepared in accordance with the requirements of NI43-101. Historical mineral reserves/resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral resources/reserves in accordance with NI43-101, however, it is reasonably expected that the majority of the historical mineral reserves/resources could be upgraded 43-101 compliant resources with continued exploration.
2Historical Data: This news release includes historical information that has been reviewed by TDG's qualified person (QP). TDG's review of the historical records and information reasonably substantiate the validity of the information presented in this news release; however, TDG cannot directly verify the accuracy of the historical data, including (but not limited to) the procedures used for sample collection and analysis. Therefore, any conclusions or interpretations borne from use of this data should be considered too speculative to suggest that additional exploration will result in mineral resource delineation. TDG encourages readers to exercise appropriate caution when evaluating these data and/or results.
3Historic Drill Core Sampling & Assay Methodology: Historical core was geologically logged with lithologies identified and notable geological features recorded. Historical core was cut in half (and in rare cases sawn in half) along sample intervals (lithology and mineralization dependant) generally less than 3 m. Chemical analysis was performed dominantly for precious metal analysis (Au, and Ag), and infrequently for base metals (Pb, Zn, Cu), and rarely for major elements and trace elements. Historically, different commercial third-party laboratories were utilized. These lab facilities may or may not have had accreditation and in all cases accreditation (if applicable) pre-dated current ISO standards. Over that period, a variety of digestion and assay methods were used, including atomic absorption, fire assay atomic absorption, aqua regia atomic absorption and aqua regia ICP with varying detection limits. Reference materials (if any) were inserted at the lab and thus were unblind to the facility processing the samples.
4Mineral Exploration and Exploration Target Area(s): TDG is a mineral exploration focused company and the Company's Projects are in the mineral exploration stage only. The degree of risk increases substantially where an issuer's properties are in the mineral exploration stage as opposed to the development or operational stage. Confidence in an exploration target area(s) is insufficient to allow meaningful application of the technical and economic parameters to enable an evaluation of economic viability sufficient for public disclosure, except in certain limited circumstances set out in NI 43-101. There is no assurance that exploration target area(s) will be converted into mineral resources or reserves. Exploration Targets and/or Exploration zones are speculative and there is no certainty that any future work or evaluation will lead to the definition of a mineral resource.
5Exploration Target Range (ETR): This News Release contains information on an Exploration Target Range for the Mets Project prepared in 2023 (the "ETR") prepared internally by TDG and reported TDG's news release December 21 (2022). A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the ETR as current mineral resources or mineral reserves under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and TDG is not treating the ETR as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. There can be no certainty, following further evaluation and/or exploration work, that the ETR can be upgraded or verified as mineral resources or mineral reserves in accordance with NI 43-101. Further, the assays values used to calculate the gold and silver content in the ETR are total gold and silver, and thus not all metal content reported may be recoverable (if any). Any ETR described herein can be considered an 'in situ' calculation.
6Gold equivalent (AuEq): AuEq is used for illustrative purposes, to express the combined value of Au and Ag as a percentage of Au. Calculations are uncut and no allowances have been made to accommodate potential recovery losses that would occur in a mining scenario. AuEq is calculated using 80:1 silver to gold ratio.
About TDG Gold Corp.
TDG is a major mineral claim holder in the historical Toodoggone Production Corridor of north-central British Columbia, Canada, with over 23,000 hectares of brownfield and greenfield exploration opportunities under direct ownership or earn-in agreement. TDG's flagship projects are the former producing, high-grade gold-silver Shasta, Mets and Baker mines, which are all road accessible, produced intermittently between 1981-2012, and have over 65,000 m of historical drilling. The projects have been advanced through compilation of historical data, new geological mapping, geochemical and geophysical surveys, and at Shasta, over 13,000 metres of modern HQ drill testing of the known mineralization occurrences and their potential extensions. In May 2022, an initial Mineral Resource Estimate was published for Shasta (see TDG news release May 17, 2022). In January 2023, TDG defined a larger exploration target area adjacent to Shasta (Greater Shasta-Newberry; see TDG news release January 25, 2023) with drill-ready targets that TDG aims to undertake follow-up exploration activity in 2023.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Fletcher Morgan
Chief Executive Officer
For further information contact:
TDG Gold Corp.,
Telephone: +1.604.536.2711
Email: info@tdggold.com
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the Company's current expectations and estimates. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "expect", "project", "objective", "plan", "intend", "believe", "proposed", "anticipate", "estimate", "suggest", "indicate" and variations of such words, as well as other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "could", "may" "will" or "would" occur. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results implied or expressed in such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: the ability to reopen the Mets portal, whether or not the core and/or development rock are actually stored underground, the reliability of the historical drilling, assaying and other information on Mets, TDG's ability to replicate the prior A-Zone intercepts, the potential for extensions to the Mets A-Zone and other zones, the conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans to continue to be refined; possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing; and fluctuations in metal prices. There may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement whether, as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein.
SOURCE: TDG Gold Corp.
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