Sitka Gold has acquired a 100% interest in the Alpha Gold Property, located along the southeast projection of the prolific Cortez Gold Trend in Eureka County, approximately 135 kilometres southwest of Elko, Nevada. The Property is comprised of 239 contiguous claims covering an area of approximately 4,780 acres and is accessible via a dirt road, approximately 2km west of Nevada State Highway 278.
The Property was staked after the location was recognized as the intersection of the regional-scale Pine Valley anticline with northeasterly fold trends exposed in the Roberts Mountains. Of primary importance at the Alpha Gold location is that the rocks have been down-dropped significantly by late extensional faulting. Prior to extension, and during the critical 36 – 42 Ma Carlin-type mineralization event, the fold crest at Alpha Gold would have been a regional highpoint among nearby mountain ranges. This is an ideal scenario for producing and preserving a Carlin-type gold deposit, and is exactly what happened at the Pipeline (20 Moz), Cortez Hills (15 Moz), and Goldrush (15 Moz) gold deposits in the Cortez district. Well exposed ‘lower plate windows’ near Alpha Gold have been extensively explored for Carlin-type gold deposits with a number of smaller deposits found along the limbs.
Phase 1 drilling testing the NW target area was successful in intercepting the targeted Webb/Devil’s Gate contact zone and encountered Carlin-type mineralization and alteration analogous to existing gold deposits along the Cortez Trend.
Key Points Regarding Recent Developments at Alpha Gold
- Five drill holes were completed during during the Summer 2021 drill program for a total of 1,553 metres.
- An additional 125 claims were also staked to cover high-priority target areas more than doubling the Project’s land holdings to 239 claims totalling approximately 1,934 hectares.
- Excellent results from the Summer 2021 drill program pointed exploration to examine structures and areas of strong Carlin-type alteration along a NNW-SSE structural trend that required additional permitting and bonding.
- Additional permitting was approved in March 2022 which allowed Sitka to continue testing NNW-SSE trending structures in the new claim block
- Four drill holes (AG22-09 to AG22-12) targeting these NNW-SSE structures were completed during the Summer 2022 season for a total of 1,374.65 metres (see Figure below)
- Drilling has progressively returned larger intervals with better gold grades
- AG22-09 and AG22-10 have returned the best results to date with values up to 21.3 m of 1.21 g/t Au including 1.5 m of 4.62 g/t Au and 10.7 m of 0.51 g/t Au respectively
- Mineralization and alteration observed in AG22-11 and AG22-12 has significantly expanded the known footprint of this Carlin-type gold system with their step-outs of 940 m and 5,600 m respectively SSE from AG22-10, adding to the exceptional tonnage potential of this district-scale target (see figure below). The intercept of 12.2 m of 0.50 g/t gold including 1.5 m of 2.32 g/t gold in AG22-11 is particularly exciting as it expanded the extent of known Carlin-type gold mineralization an additional 940 metres from Hole 10 and suggests proximity to a potential high-grade core zone.
- A follow up drill program was completed at the end of 2023 that was designed to test the inferred hingeline target zone in the Alpha NW area and test for higher grades where the prior drilling mentioned above showed gold mineralization was open and strengthening (see figure below).
- Geological modelling has determined the hingeline zone as the most probable location to host peak gold grades within this Carlin-type gold system.
- Four drill holes targeting the hingeline zone and totalling 1027.3 m were completed in 2023 (AG23-13 to AG23-16) with each drill hole encountering significant intercepts of strong alteration and mineralization consistent with known Carlin-type gold deposits (see table below). Results for these drill holes are pending as of January 9, 2023.
| HoleID | Azimuth (°) | Dip (°) | Total Depth (m) | Alt./Min. Zone (m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AG23-13 | 240 | -65 | 169.2 | 85.3 – 167.6 |
| AG23-14 | 270 | -60 | 379.5 | 345.9 – 362.7 |
| AG23-15 | 300 | -60 | 245.4 | 114.3 – 167.6 |
| AG23-16 | 285 | -60 | 233.2 | 123.4 – 173.7 |
