Jun 9 2017
StrikePoint Gold Inc. is pleased to announce the engagement of Groundtruth Exploration and their ‘Drones to Drill’ program to execute the 2017 exploration program on the Yukon portfolio of properties.
Groundtruth are a Yukon-based company that specialize in exploration activities within the Territory, offering full service programs. StrikePoint has negotiated a dedicated drill and crew to the 2017 work plan, which includes around 7,500m of drilling across three core projects.
The ‘Drones to Drills’ technology allows efficient exploration while having a much lower environmental impact than traditional methods, which is ideal for the current target assessment stage of the StrikePoint portfolio.
The aerial drone surveys capture images which are combined to provide project scale imagery at ultra high resolution, allowing exploration teams to identify outcrops, lithology, structures, access and even environmental data that would have previously been unobtainable.
The Rotary Air Blast (RAB) drill is a remotely controlled track-mounted platform that is pneumatically and hydraulically operated, a 70% reduction compared to diamond drilling costs. Although RAB drills produce chips, this lack of core is overcome by the production of a downhole televiewer that produces a strip log of the hole to compliment the samples. Chips are analyzed by XRF gun at the drill site and information updated to the team each evening. This constant flow of information gives real time data that can be used to guide the drill program on a day to day basis, thus adding to the efficiency.
The Groundtruth methodology can all be completed under ‘Class 1’permits as it requires no water usage or major line cutting / pad building, which is much friendlier to the environment; an important consideration in this stage of drill testing a target.
StrikePoint has begun exploration activities in the Yukon, and drilling will commence in within days, initially starting on the Mahtin property close to Mayo. The rig and crew will then move to Pluto and then on to Golden-Oly.