May 16 2017
Goldstrike Resources Ltd. is pleased to announce that it is mobilizing to the Plateau Property in central Yukon with its new strategic partner, a Canadian subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation (News Release March 6, 2017), to execute the most extensive exploration campaign ever carried out on the property.
Goldstrike and Newmont will execute an extensive program utilising many of Newmont's proprietary exploration tools that have a proven record of success. Airborne and ground geophysical surveys, geochemistry, geological mapping, detailed sampling and extensive diamond drilling are all aimed at discovering additional zones of gold mineralization while better defining known zones of high grade gold mineralization. Goldstrike has allocated 100% of the proceeds from the recent C$6,200,000 equity investment by Newmont to its exploration program at Plateau.
The Plateau Property represents an entirely new and undeveloped district scale gold mineralized system in Canada's Yukon, 130 kilometres southeast of Mayo. Through its brief history, starting in 2011 with the initial discovery by the Goldstrike team, the Plateau Property has year over year revealed an ever-expanding gold mineralized system that has reached 50 kilometres in length and remains open for expansion in all directions. Based on new information and guidance by Newmont, the company has recently expanded the claim block from approximately 350 square kilometres to 2,733 claims encompassing some 571 square kilometres. Goldstrike's Yukon land holdings, including those in the White Gold District, now total 4,704 claims covering over 1,000 square kilometres.
Prospecting and mapping crews have consistently discovered high grade gold mineralization in quartz veins, stockworks and breccias at Plateau that often carry visible gold. The team discovered multiple new gold mineralized zones in the final days of the 2016 field season: most notably Bonanza, Goldbar, Bullion and Big Bang. The "Big Bang" is made up of numerous quartz veins and breccias occurring across a 3 kilometre by 2 kilometre area. Fifty reconnaissance rock grab samples taken from the Big Bang zone over an 8 day period returned assays ranging from below detection level to 21.2 grams per tonne (gpt) gold by screen fire metallics assay, including 14 samples that returned over 1 gram per tonne gold. Two initial channel samples from the Big Bang zone returned 2.17 gpt gold over 1 metre and 3.46 gpt gold over 0.5 metre (News Release, October 3, 2016).
Drilling to date has confirmed the depth potential of previously discovered zones, with one 2016 drill hole in the Goldstack Zone returning 6.05 gpt gold over 45.5 metres, including 12.5 gpt gold over 20.65 metres, including 21.13 gpt gold over 12.25 metres, including 34.35 gpt (1 ounce per ton) gold over 6.75 metres (News Release September 6, 2016). The Goldstack zone remains open for expansion in all directions.
"This will prove to be a defining season for the Plateau Property," said James Moors, P.Geo., Chief Geologist for Goldstrike. "Our recent partnership with Newmont allows us to advance to the next stage of development by committing the resources and technical expertise necessary to further focus our efforts and understand the nature of the extensive new gold system. We are in the enviable position of having an entire suite of high grade gold mineralized showings that merit detailed follow-up sampling, mapping and drilling, and we also have vast areas of very prospective unexplored ground with strong potential to host new gold bearing zones. Year after year our exploration has continued to expand the known extent of this new district scale gold system and produce exciting results."
Commencing in early June, a multi-faceted 2017 program will focus on outlining the full extent of numerous newly identified gold mineralized showings with the tools best suited to successfully advance them in preparation for diamond drilling.
- Intensive geological mapping and sampling over 60 kilometres2 will increase the resolution of information and allow crews to vector into key areas with the strongest potential for additional discoveries.
- Proprietary Newmont geochemistry surveys, ground geophysics and detailed geological mapping along the interpreted trend of showings will help define the extent of mineralization both on surface and at depth.
- Property scale geophysics and detailed surface modelling will refine understanding of the geology and structural framework that control the high-grade gold mineralized zones across the district and identify key areas having strong potential to host additional gold mineralization.
- Trenching and channel sampling of multiple discovery areas will further define the geologic controls on mineralization at each location in preparation for drilling.
- The most extensive diamond drilling program to date will focus on those targets that provide the most compelling results.
Bill Chornobay, Goldstrike's COO commented: "Newmont's accomplished team of technical personnel and their full suite of proprietary exploration tools have achieved great success on both Greenfield and brownfield projects worldwide. When combined with Goldstrike's history of discovery on the Plateau Property, this year's work program has an unprecedented capacity to fully realize the potential of this new gold district."
LUCKY STRIKE PROJECT - WHITE GOLD DISTRICT
Goldstrike has completed the expansion of its holdings of key ground in the White Gold camp from 780 claims to 1,970 claims covering approximately 430 square kilometres over four properties. All four properties, Lucky Strike, BRC, Kings Ransom and Goldsource, are 100% owned by Goldstrike with no underlying property payments or royalties.
The Lucky Strike Property will see the largest exploration campaign in its history as recent geology, geochemistry and trench sample results all show strong similarities to those reported at the nearby Kinross Golden Saddle and Gold Corp Coffee Creek deposits. An advanced exploration permit is in progress to facilitate intensive diamond drilling of several surface discoveries as well as extensive trenching across the five gold in soil anomalies identified along a 10 kilometre long structural corridor at Lucky Strike. The recently discovered Monte Carlo zone, an anomaly measuring 1,400 by 350 metres and open for expansion in all directions, is one of the largest known undrilled gold in soil anomalies in the White Gold District. Trenching of this anomaly in 2016 produced bedrock samples assaying 0.42 gpt gold over 154 metres, including 0.76 gpt gold over 78 metres, including 3 gpt gold over 8 metres (Sept. 26, 2016 news release). All trenches on Monte Carlo to date contain gold mineralization. The bedrock gold mineralization is planned to be drilled during the upcoming drill program.
The other four large gold in soil anomalies along trend at Lucky Strike are: the Belmont Zone, measuring 1500 by 800 metres, the Samson Zone, measuring 600 by 300 metres, the Boss Zone, measuring 1,000 by 1,000 metres, and the Maverick Zone, measuring 150 by 200 metres. These anomalies all remain open for extension along trend with further trenching and sampling (Sept. 26, 2016 news release).
James Moors, P.Geo., Chief Geologist, commented: "As with the program at our Plateau Property, this season's program at Lucky Strike will investigate a full suite of targets: exposed strong bedrock gold mineralization and Induced Polarisation anomalies ready to be drilled; a 10 kilometre corridor of anomalous gold mineralized zones that can be quickly advanced to the drill-ready stage; and large areas of prospective untested ground that offer further excellent potential for additional discoveries."
James Moors, P. Geo., Chief Geologist, is a qualified person, as defined by National Instrument 43-101, for Goldstrike's Yukon exploration projects and supervised the preparation of, and has reviewed and approved, the technical information in this release. All drill intersections and assay values included in this release have been reported in previous Goldstrike news releases.