Acquisition Of 3 Aces Project Completed
TORONTO - Seabridge Gold has completed the acquisition of a 100% interest in the 3 Aces gold project in the Yukon, Canada from Golden Predator Mining Corp. Chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk said, “The 3 Aces Project is a first rate exploration play with the potential to host a high grade commercially-viable ore body. "We think 3 Aces is a worthy addition to the three outstanding exploration opportunities we already own in British Columbia, Nevada and the Northwest Territories. Golden Predator has done an excellent job of demonstrating the exploration potential at 3 Aces, confirming the project's positive metallurgy and establishing excellent relationships with local First Nations and communities. Our current plan is to assemble and evaluate the wealth of data developed by GPY for the targets in the Central Core Area with a view to initiating an aggressive drill program next year.”
3 Aces is a district scale, orogenic-gold project consisting of 1,536 claims covering approximately 350 km² located in a readily accessible part of southeastern Yukon (see map). The target concept for this project is consistent with some of the biggest and richest gold deposits in the world, including the California Mother Lode Belt, Juneau Gold Belt, Murentau in Uzbekistan and Obuasi in Ghana. Historical work has identified a broad area of gold-in-soil extending more than 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) along strike and recent drilling in the Central Core Area has progressed to a point where, with additional exploration drilling, the property could potentially advance to an initial resource with exceptional grade.
The Property is on the eastern margin of the Selwyn Basin, a thick package of sedimentary rocks extending across the Yukon and host to several enormous base metal deposits (Howard's Pass District). Hyland Group host rocks, the basal unit of the Selwyn Basin, are interbedded clastic and carbonate sedimentary rocks exposed near a regional tectonic boundary. Polyphase fold and fault systems overprint the stratigraphy, creating ideal traps for gold-bearing fluids expressed as quartz veins. At 3 Aces, discrete quartz veins containing arsenopyrite-pyrrhotite-pyrite and free gold are found within a broad zone of gold-bearing iron carbonate-clay alteration envelopes which will be targeted in our exploration.
Past drilling has encounter a significant number of gold rich zones on the stratigraphic/structural contacts at 3 Aces. By early 2019 the project had completed about 300 holes; 37% of these encountered +5.0 g/t gold intersections and 27% have returned +8.0g/t gold. Many of these holes were close-space off-sets on high-grade veins that crop out, but all veins identified in the Central Core Area have encountered high grade intersections. Significant effort was expended by Golden Predator to ensure that sampling of these high grade, nuggety intervals produced reliable and repeatable assay results. A sampling protocol is now in place to achieve reliable results.