Jan 6 2016
TerraX Minerals Inc. has received and interpreted final results from the summer surface exploration program on its Yellowknife City Gold Project ("YCG"), immediately north of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories.
Highlights from this program, which focused on the Core Gold Area, include:
- Visible gold in a newly discovered vein approximately 200 m southeast of the Pinto structure (Pinto South). Assays from grab sampling include 108.00 g/t Au, 65.7 g/t Au and 35.2 g/t Au.
- Numerous quartz veins in the JED area west of the Barney Shear returned assays of 133.5 g/t Au, 30.4 g/t Au and 20.6 g/t Au.
- Mineralization in the felsic portion of the Ryan Lake pluton returned polymetallic assays of up to 12.35 g/t Au, 45 g/t Ag, 3.23% Pb, 1.31% Zn, and 0.53% Mo in separate samples. Assays up to 6.32% Mo had been obtained in this area previously (News Release August 19, 2014).
- Sampling at the Shear 17/18 intersection that revealed polymetallic veining similar to the Ryan Lake East area reported above. Assay values include up to 4.94 g/t Au, 51.9 g/t Ag, 1.24% Cu and >1.0% Mo (over detection limit assays pending) in separate samples. This sampling expands to the north and east the area of polymetallic mineralization associated with the Ryan Lake pluton.
- Three new areas were identified as having alteration, structure and stratigraphy that are similar to the Hebert-Brent area (11.0 m @ 7.55 g/t Au in channel samples and 10.26m @ 3.69 g/t Au in drill hole TNB15-024) (news release November 18th, 2015). With the success of the Hebert-Brent discovery, these areas are priority targets for continued exploration. These three new areas are:
Hebert-Brent Southern Fault Offset - Structural interpretation indicates that the southern extension of the favourable Hebert-Brent stratigraphy (altered mafic volcanics, felsic dykes, gabbros and sediments) is offset approximately 500 meters northeast along the Daigle Lake Fault, a prominent feature extending through the Barney Deformation Corridor. The Southern Offset contains all the favourable rock types, and is transected by mineralized structures that include gold assays up to 19.7 g/t Au in grab sampling. Importantly these samples contain anomalous levels of antimony (up to 188 ppm) and arsenic, which are characteristic of the Hebert-Brent replacement style gold mineralization.
Sericite Zone - Located approximately 1 km northeast of Hebert-Brent the Sericite Zone was first identified as a large (300 m by >500 m zone of intense sericite alteration, similar to alteration identified at Hebert-Brent. The Sericite Zone is a much larger area of alteration (5 times greater in area than Hebert-Brent) and also contains the favourable Hebert-Brent stratigraphy. Sampling in this area has returned spatially extensive low grade gold (up to 1.24 g/t Au), with anomalous silver up to 54 g/t Ag. Sampling in this area has also returned highly anomalous antimony (up to 708 ppm Sb). Favourable geology, alteration, and geochemistry make the Sericite Zone a top priority target for exploration.
Townsite Formation - The Townsite Formation is a package of felsic, intermediate, and mafic volcanics; felsic intrusive; and sediments that has been identified proximal to both the Con and Giant deposits and appears similar to the Hebert-Brent geology. It has its largest areal extent in the Yellowknife camp on the Northbelt property of TerraX's YCG. Here the north-northeast orientation of the main mineralizing system in the Yellowknife Gold Belt intersects the northeast trending Townsite Formation as it abuts the Jackson Lake Formation to the east. The Jackson Lake Formation is equivalent to the Temiskaming Formation in the Abitibi gold belts and, like the Temiskaming, defines the 'Major Break" in the Yellowknife Gold Belt. The Townsite Formation has extensive sericitic and carbonate alteration with associated gold mineralization. Grab sampling in 2015 returned large areas of anomalous gold up to 6.57 g/t Au, base metals (up to 1.00% Cu) and silver (up to 25 g/t Ag). Importantly the sampling in the Townsite has returned highly anomalous antimony (up to 1905 ppm Sb). Surprisingly, this area has received very little exploration attention over the years; TerraX intends to carry out detailed mapping and sampling of the Townsite Formation in the 2016 field season.
A map showing the areas described in this news release is available under "2015 Field Exploration" on our web site at www.terraxminerals.com.
In addition, six areas had minor channel sampling and included:
- a narrow (5-20cm) quartz vein located 300 meters north of Hebert-Brent and trending north-south which assayed 1 m @ 9.67 g/t Au, 1 m @ 4.32 g/t Au, and 1 m @ 3.68 g/t Au over 10 m of exposed strike length;
- two polymetallic quartz vein areas north of Shear 18 that were chip sampled and assayed 2m @ 0.17 g/t Au, 20 g/t Ag, 0.10% Cu, 0.20% Pb, 0.34% Zn and 0.053% Mo and 2 m @ 0.56 g/t Au, 5 g/t Ag, 0.44% Cu; and
All the areas mentioned above will receive follow-up exploration during 2016. In addition TerraX will soon be announcing multiple high priority targets for its 2016 winter drill program, scheduled for start up in mid January. TerraX is fully funded to carry out all its budgeted exploration programs in 2016.
A total of 501 grab samples, 60 channel and chip samples were taken. Results ranged from below detection to a high of 133.5 g/t Au. Sampling included insertion of certified standards and blanks into the stream of samples for chemical analysis. Samples were prepared at ALS Chemex's laboratory in Yellowknife and shipped to their Vancouver facility for gold analysis by fire assay and other elements by ICP analysis. ALS is a certified and accredited laboratory service. It should be noted that, due to their selective nature, assay results from grab samples may not be indicative of the overall grade and extent of mineralization on the subject area. The technical information contained in this news release has been approved by Alan Sexton, Project Manager YCG for TerraX, who is a Qualified Person as defined in "National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects."
About the Yellowknife City Gold Project
The Yellowknife City Gold Project now encompasses approximately 116 sq km of contiguous land immediately north and now south of the City of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. Through a series of acquisitions, TerraX now controls one of the six major high-grade gold camps in Canada. Being within 15 km of the City of Yellowknife, the YCG is close to vital infrastructure, including transportation, service providers, hydro-electric power and skilled trades people.
The project lies on the prolific Yellowknife greenstone belt and the combined Southbelt and Northbelt properties cover 23 km of strike length on the southern and northern extensions of the shear system that hosts the high-grade Con and Giant gold mines. The project area contains multiple shears that are the recognized hosts for gold deposits in the Yellowknife gold district, with innumerable gold showings and high grade drill results on the Northbelt property this past year that serve to indicate the project's potential as a world-class gold district. Since February 2013, TerraX has consolidated the project area by acquiring, optioning and staking numerous properties, including: Northbelt, Goodwin, Ryan Lake, Walsh Lake, U-Breccia and Southbelt, as well as staking additional contiguous lands.
For more information on the Yellowknife City Gold Project, please visit our web site at www.terraxminerals.com.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
Joseph Campbell, President