Sep 13 2016
ATAC Resources Ltd. ("ATAC") announces results for the first three completed diamond drill holes of the planned ten hole program at its Orion Zone, located within the Nadaleen Trend at the eastern end of ATAC's 100% owned Rackla Gold Project, Yukon Territory.
Highlights
- Diamond drill hole AN-16-010 intersected 61.29 m of 2.75 g/t gold and successfully twinned and extended the 2015 Rotary Air Blast ("RAB") Orion discovery hole (ARB-15-026) which intersected 47.24 m of 3.79 g/t; and,
- Step-out holes AN-16-011 and -012 returned 14.89 m of 1.01 g/t gold and 5.85 m of 1.09 g/t gold respectively, and confirmed additional gold mineralization along strike and within the regional-scale gold bearing Anubis Fault corridor.
Orion Zone Diamond Drilling
Exploration at the Orion Zone in 2016 began with a Phase I RAB drill program to better delineate gold mineralization surrounding the 2015 Orion discovery RAB hole in preparation for diamond drilling. The ongoing Phase II diamond drill program has confirmed gold mineralization proximal to the Anubis Fault through improved sample recovery over the Phase I RAB drill program.
Holes AN-16-010, 011 and 012 are the first diamond drill holes completed at the Orion Zone, which is one of nine gold exploration targets within the 18 km² Anubis Cluster. Gold mineralization within these holes is developed adjacent to the Anubis Fault, one of two regional northwesterly trending graben-bounding structures that delineate the Anubis Fault corridor. Locally, gold mineralization occurs within strong hydrothermally altered pyritic siltstones in the fault hanging wall and a highly fractured and intermittently oxidized reefal limestone unit in the footwall.
"The confirmation of the 2015 Orion discovery RAB hole by diamond drilling is important as it provides definitive results to further vector in on gold mineralization at Orion and confirms significant gold exploration potential exists within the Anubis Fault corridor," states Graham Downs, President and CEO of ATAC. "The Anubis Fault corridor is a highly prospective area that contains significant surface gold and pathfinder element geochemical anomalies that reflect the strong potential for gold mineralization throughout the 18 km2 Anubis Cluster."
18 km² Anubis Cluster and Fault Corridor
The Anubis Cluster is an early-stage exploration target area that is currently defined by nine gold occurrences at the Orion and Anubis zones and Ana, Corona, Columba, Dorado, Draco, Hydra and Zodiac exploration targets. These have been sampled by shallow pits and in outcrop with values ranging from below detection to 139 g/t gold. Previous diamond drilling from 2012 at the Anubis Zone, 300 m to the southeast of the Orion Zone, returned 8.51 m of 19.85 g/t gold (AN-12-001) and 16.76 m of 9.08 g/t gold (AN-12-003). Mineralization at the Orion and Anubis zones are associated with the intersection between the Anubis Fault and later stage cross faults.
The Anubis Fault is one of two northwesterly trending graben-bounding structures and is strongly anomalous over its length for Carlin pathfinder elements (arsenic, antimony, mercury and thallium). Near-surface gold mineralization at Orion occurs in both variably calcareous siltstone and shales that form the hanging wall of the Anubis Fault as well as within breccias developed in a massive limestone unit in the footwall of the fault. Diamond drilling has confirmed that the Anubis Fault displays favourable extensional fault textures with angular siltstone breccia clasts contained within a strongly oxidized matrix. This is indicative of a high fluid flow environment. Local stratigraphy also indicates that favourable Middle Devonian limestone debris flow beds underlie the gold-bearing near-surface rocks intersected to date at the Orion Zone.
The Anubis Fault corridor is anomalous for gold and pathfinder elements over an 8 km long cumulative strike length. The anomaly defined by the Anubis Fault corridor is similar in size and magnitude to the nearby 12 km2 Osiris Cluster, where significant gold mineralization has been defined in the Conrad, Osiris, Sunrise and Ibis zones. The vertical extent of gold mineralization in these zones is 1.2 km and all are open to expansion with additional drilling. Please see ATAC's website for updated Orion and Anubis Fault corridor figures.
QA/QC
Diamond drill samples were forwarded to ALS Minerals in Whitehorse, Yukon or North Vancouver, British Columbia where they were fine crushed before a 250 gram split was pulverized to better than 85% passing 75 microns. Pulps were then analyzed at ALS Minerals in North Vancouver, B.C. where gold determinations were carried out. Splits of the pulverized fraction were dissolved using a multi-acid digestion and analyzed for 49 elements using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) together with mass spectrometry (MS) and atomic emission spectroscopy (AES). Gold analyses were by the Au-AA26 procedure that involves fire assay preparation using a 50 gram charge with an atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) finish.
Rigorous procedures are in place regarding sample collection, chain of custody and data entry. Certified assay standards, duplicate samples and blanks are routinely inserted into the sample stream of diamond drill samples to ensure integrity of the assay process. All diamond drill samples included in this news release have passed the QA/QC procedures as described above.
RAB drill hole intervals are drilled thicknesses and true widths are unknown.
The technical information in this news release has been approved by Julia Lane, P.Geo., Vice-President of Exploration for ATAC and a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101.