Maiden Diamond Drill Program At The Healy Project In Alaska
VANCOUVER - Kenorland Minerals Ltd. reported on the maiden diamond drill program at the Healy Project, located within Alaska's prolific Goodpaster Mining District, and held under joint venture with Newmont Corporation. Wide-spaced drilling was designed to test three target areas (Bronk, Thor, and Spike) defined by extensive gold-in-soil geochemical anomalies. Assays from all 14 drill holes completed during the program, including 5,247 meters.
Along the southern end of the Bronk target area, 21HDD011 intersected multiple intervals of broad low-level gold mineralization within a steeply dipping shear zone including 37.68m at 0.12 g/t Au, 36.80m at 0.33 g/t Au, 20.55m at 0.16 g/t Au, and 21.90m at 0.22 g/t Au. 21HDD024 stepped out 800 meters along strike to the north of 21HDD011, also intersecting multiple intervals of low-level gold mineralization along the same structure including 11.82m at 0.12 g/t Au, 32.76m at 0.13 g/t Au, 35.56m at 0.26 g/t Au, and 26.41m at 0.19 g/t Au. 21HDD012 stepped out a further 600 meters along strike to the north of 21HDD024, intersecting 53.64m at 0.16 g/t Au and 21HDD013, a further 300-meter step-out along strike to the north of 21HDD012, intersected 34.86m at 0.19 g/t Au, extending the total strike length of mineralization at Bronk to over 1700 meters with a mineralized footprint of up to 500 meters wide, open in multiple directions.
At Thor, located approximately two kilometers to the west of Bronk, 21HDD017 intersected 11.90m at 1.29 g/t Au within the hanging wall of a low angle structure along the contact between the augen gneiss and paragneiss units. 21HDD019, a 250-meter step out along strike to the south of 21HDD017, intersected 13.38m at 1.22 g/t Au within the hanging wall of a similar low angle structure within the augen gneiss unit. 21HDD015 drilled along the same fence as 21HDD019, intersected 24.16m at 0.25 g/t Au, also within the hanging wall of a low angle structure on the contact between the augen gneiss and paragneiss units. The known mineralized footprint at Thor is currently 500 meters by 500 meters and remains open.
Broadly disseminated and vein-hosted low-level gold mineralization encountered in all targets areas confirm the presence of a kilometer-scale gold system. The alteration, mineralization, and geochemical signature suggest a distal environment of an intrusion related system with widespread fluid flow permeating along low angle thrust faults and high angle shear zones.
High-power Titan™ IP and MT surveys completed towards the end of the drill program support the geological interpretation and highlight significant untested geophysical anomalies associated with mineralization, controlled by structural and lithological traps.
Zach Flood, CEO, said, "The maiden diamond drill program confirmed the presence of a large-scale gold system at Healy evidenced by broad mineralization encountered throughout the wide-spaced drilling across multiple target areas. While there are many indications that Healy represents a significant greenfields gold discovery within Alaska's prolific Goodpaster Mining District, it will require additional drill testing to fully evaluate the economic potential. We will provide an update on our exploration plans going forward after we have completed a detailed review of the results and targets with Newmont Corporation, who currently holds a 30% participating interest in Healy."
The 2021 diamond drill program was designed to test three target areas; Bronk, Thor, and Spike, all defined by kilometer-scale coherent Au-As+/-Sb soil geochemical anomalies within a package of dominantly metamorphic rocks including schist, paragneiss and augen gneiss. All drill holes intersected broad low-level gold mineralization with associated widespread disseminated sulphides, alteration and veining. Mineralization is controlled by both early, low-angle east-verging thrust faults, high-angle northeast striking shear zones and major lithological contacts. The structural setting of the Healy gold system is analogous to other major deposits in the region.
Geophysical imaging of the Healy property was achieved with deep-seeing Titan™ IP and MT surveys (induced polarization and magnetotellurics), transecting five kilometers across the three target areas where drilling was conducted. The surveys were carried out towards the end of the field season due to contractor availability. The IP and MT surveys, which imaged up to 800 meters and 4 kilometers depth respectively, support the presence of shallowly dipping, east-verging architecture with mineralization occurring along low angle thrust faults and steeper cross-cutting fault corridors. Broad zones of disseminated sulfide and strong alteration are well-defined in the chargeability and resistivity data with zones of combined high chargeability and low resistivity (high conductivity) correlating well with mineralized intercepts from the 2021 drill program. The imaging of additional strongly conductive and chargeable zones, between drilled prospects, highlight significant exploration targets which warrant follow-up drill testing.
Mineralization styles at Healy include disseminated sulphide, vein-hosted sulphide, and breccia-fill sulphide including arsenopyrite, pyrite, and stibnite with rare sphalerite. Pervasive alteration is dominantly sericite, carbonate with lesser fuchsite associated with structural features. Veins typically occur as sheeted to stockwork cm-scale quartz-carbonate. Gold-silver and arsenic-antimony ratios are highest within disseminated mineralization at the Thor prospect in the west while the sulphide breccia-fill mineralization at Bronk has distinctly higher silver and antimony, representing a broad geochemical zonation from more proximal to distal setting. Gold mineralization and alteration occurs over a four-kilometer by two-kilometer footprint demonstrating extensive fluid flow associated with a significant gold system.