Program Completed At Toiyabe, Turquoise Canyon, And East Saddle

VANCOUVER - Westward Gold Inc. has completed an expansive rock chip and soil sampling program at its Toiyabe, Turquoise Canyon and East Saddle Projects in Lander County, Nevada. A total of 353 surface rock chip samples were collected and visually logged: Toiyabe Project: 29 samples collected; Turquoise Canyon Project: 182 samples collected; and East Saddle Project: 142 samples collected.

A total of 606 soil samples with 100-meter spacings were also collected at the East Saddle Project and southern extent of the Toiyabe Project, covering the exposed lower-plate carbonate window. All rock chip and soil samples will be analyzed for gold and multi-element pathfinders. Assay results received in conjunction with field observations will be used to prioritize areas for future mapping with detailed Anaconda-style folios. These folios will compliment the existing Anaconda-style maps previously completed on high-priority areas of the Toiyabe Project. Geochemical anomalies – in particular gold, arsenic, mercury, and antimony – will be plotted and analyzed to further vector in on zones with elemental signatures typically associated with Carlin-type gold deposits.

Notable Turquoise Canyon rock chips include a sample of chrysocolla and lazurite taken from a historical turquoise prospect, a strongly-hematitic/oxidized sample taken near a fault in quartzite, brecciated, oxidized, kaolinite-bearing chert near the eastern property boundary, tectonic fault breccia with pervasive hematite and limonite + barite, and a hematitic brecciated chert sample from a historical turquoise prospect.

Robert Edie, Vice President Exploration, said, “I’m very pleased to have discovered an array of specimens on the property which exhibit features consistent with Carlin-type gold deposition. Strong, surface-level oxidation is an important characteristic of these deposits and relates to the abundance of pyrite formed, a key component of gold-hosting systems. Tectonic breccia speaks to the structural preparation of host rocks; the gold-bearing Carlin fluid uses these structural pathways to rise from depth where it interacts with the meteoric water table and geochemically precipitates gold – preferentially into carbonate rocks. Decalcification and silicification of carbonate rocks is a distinct marker of Carlin-type gold deposition. It occurs when gold-bearing Carlin fluid dissolves calcium carbonate from limestone host rocks and deposits silica pervasively. In addition to silica, the process also deposits gold and other pathfinder elements. The discovery of decalcified, silicified limestone at East Saddle suggests that the area has experienced a Carlin-type mineralizing event.”