HighGold Mining Inc. ("HighGold" or the "Company") announces the acquisition (the "Acquisition") of mining claims located adjacent to the Company's Munro-Croesus gold property, Timmins region Ontario. The acquired ground totals approximately 320 acres and includes two parcels of fee simple lands consisting of 8 patented mining claims (the "Acquired Property").
Government reports document underground exploration and small-scale gold mining operations on the claims prior to 1916, focused on two narrow quartz veins that could be traced for hundreds of feet. The Acquired Property was held privately for many decades with no work reported on the claims since the early 1930s.
HighGold, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, entered into an agreement of purchase and sale (the "Agreement") with an arm's length vendor (the "Vendor") to acquire the Acquired Property. In consideration of the Acquisition and subject to TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") acceptance, the Company has agreed to make a cash payment of C$150,000 to the Vendor and to issue that number of common shares (the "Consideration Shares") having an aggregate cash value equal to C$200,000, calculated on the 20-day volume weighted average trading price per share of the Company's common shares on the TSXV for the 20 consecutive trading days ending on the date of receipt of conditional approval for the issuance of the Consideration Shares. Pursuant to the Agreement, the Acquired Property is subject to a net smelter returns royalty in favour of the Vendor, which may be bought back by the Company.
Updated Technical Report
HighGold also announces that it has filed an updated National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") technical report for the Johnson Tract polymetallic Gold Project ("Johnson Tract" or the "Project") in Southcentral Alaska, USA.
The technical report (the "Updated Technical Report") titled "Updated Technical Report for the Johnson Tract Project, Alaska" is dated August 9, 2021 and dated effective June 1, 2021, and was prepared by Ray C. Brown, CPG, and James N. Gray, P.Geo. The Updated Technical Report is available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.highgoldmining.com.
The Updated Technical Report updates and replaces the previous technical report dated June 15, 2020 and incorporates new exploration completed since the effective date of the June 15, 2020 report up to and including June 1, 2021, and presents updated recommendations. The Company is intending to follow the Updated Technical Report's recommendations in designing and carrying out continued exploration of Johnson Tract.
Johnson Tract Exploration Program Update
The Company also announces an update to its planned 20,000-meter drill program, which was initiated at the Johnson Tract project in late June (see news release dated June 23, 2021). Three drill rigs are active on site with approximately 10,000 meters of drilling completed to date. A first set of assay results is expected shortly and will be reported in a subsequent news release pending their receipt.
About the Johnson Tract Gold Project
Johnson Tract is a poly-metallic (gold, copper, zinc, silver, lead) project located near tidewater, 125 miles (200 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, USA. The 21,000-acre property includes the high-grade Johnson Tract Deposit ("JT Deposit") and at least 9 other mineral prospects over a 12-kilometer strike length. HighGold acquired the Project through a lease agreement with Cook Inlet Region, Inc. ("CIRI"), one of 12 land-based Alaska Native regional corporations created by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. CIRI is owned by more than 9,100 shareholders who are primarily of Alaska Native descent.
Mineralization at Johnson Tract occurs in Jurassic-age intermediate volcaniclastic rocks and is characterized as epithermal-type with submarine volcanogenic attributes. The JT Deposit is a thick, steeply dipping silicified body (20m to 50m average true thickness) that contains a stockwork of quartz-sulphide veinlets and brecciation, cutting through and surrounded by a widespread zone of anhydrite alteration. The Footwall Copper Zone is located structurally and stratigraphically below JT Deposit and is characterized by copper-silver rich mineralization.
The JT Deposit hosts an Indicated Resource of 2.14 Mt grading 10.93 g/t gold equivalent ("AuEq") comprised of 6.07 g/t Au, 5.8 g/t Ag, 0.57% Cu, 0.80% Pb and 5.85% Zn. The Inferred Resource of 0.58 Mt grading 7.16 g/t AuEq is comprised of 2.05 g/t Au, 8.7 g/t Ag, 0.54% Cu, 0.33% Pb, and 6.67% Zn. For additional details see the Updated Technical Report. Gold Equivalent is based on assumed metal prices and 90% recovery and payabilities for Au, Ag, Cu, Pb, and Zn. Assumed metal prices for the Resource are US$1350/oz for gold (Au), US$16/oz for silver (Ag), US$2.80/lb for copper (Cu), US$1.00/lb for lead (Pb), and US$1.20/lb for zinc (Zn) and are based on nominal 3-year trailing averages as of April 1, 2020. Historical metallurgical testing on drill core samples has indicated that good gold and base metal recoveries and marketable concentrates can be expected.
Prior to HighGold, the Project was last explored in the mid-1990s by a mid-tier mining company that evaluated direct shipping material from Johnson to the Premier Mill near Stewart, British Columbia.