Tudor Gold's 539 g/t Ag With 2.82 g/t Au and 1.97% Zn Electrum Project Bulk Sample
CARDSTON - American Creek Resources Ltd. reported that Tudor Gold Corp. has released the final results of the 2016 exploration program conducted at the Electrum Project JV located in northwest BC's "Golden Triangle" near Stewart. The Electrum project is a 60:40 joint venture between Tudor (as operator) and American Creek. The Electrum property is located directly between the past producing Silbak Premier mine some 25 Km south and Pretium Resources' Brucejack deposit some 20 Km to the north (currently under development with production targeted for 2017). Within that same area are several other past producing mines as well as new projects undergoing exploration. One small area of the Electrum property itself includes the site of the historic East Gold mine which was mined by hand between 1939 and 1965, and which produced 3,816 oz of gold and 2,442 oz of silver from 45 tons of hand selected ore (BC Ministry of Mines Assessment Report 30206); mining operations ceased with the unfortunate and untimely death of the mine operator. More recently, the Scottie Gold mine operated from 1981 to 1985 approximately five kilometers from the Electrum property. The current owners of the Scottie Gold mine, Rotation Mine rals Ltd., note on their website that the mine "milled vein material averaging 16.20 g/t gold, producing 2,967,748 grams of gold (95,426 ounces gold) from 183,147 tonnes of mineralization.”
The complexity of both the fault structures and the vein networks make it very difficult to specifically target the veins of gold and silver bearing materials using conventional surface-based exploration techniques such as diamond drilling or magnetotelluric surveys. With that in mind, Tudor set out to develop an exploration program which includes sub-surface exploration techniques and which targets mineralization rather than just vein structures. In this way, Tudor will gain a better and more useful understanding of the overall geology of the property.
The success of the East Gold mine demonstrates that the mineralized fault material is accessible using conventional underground mining systems and practices. The cost of either rehabilitating the East Gold mine or opening new adits is, however, prohibitive at this stage of the project's development. Tudor is instead focused on a scalable bulk sampling program which would, if warranted, conclude with the development of an open-cut mine of sufficient size to generate both a return for shareholders and financing for further exploration on the property. As with other properties in this area of the "Golden Triangle", an open-cut mine could be carried out in association with related conventional underground mining.
Tudor's exploration programs and long-term planning take into account two of the key economic advantages of the Electrum property; it is within 4 kilometers of a power-line, and the property is adjacent to an established haul road leading to the bulk terminal and deep-water port at Stewart.
The exploration program achieved the following three goals set for the 2016 field season: Diamond drilling aimed at furthering the exploration work previously carried out by American Creek; Trench sampling of a newly discovered mineralized surface exposure in what is now referred to as the "New Blast Zone”; and Collection and analysis of a 4 tonne bulk sample from the New Blast Zone.
In addition to the work aimed at achieving these goals, work carried out during the 2016 field season included the construction of temporary (removable) bridges and the stabilization and improvement of road access to ensure safe and efficient access to the property.
Nineteen drill holes totaling 1,406 meters were completed. A total of 1492 core samples were collected and assayed. The 2016 drilling program was carried out to extend and expand on the drilling programs carried out by American Creek in previous years. One of the key goals of both the American Creek and Tudor drilling programs was to confirm that mineralized exposures visible on the surface carried on at depth below the surface. The results of these drilling programs do suggest that, as expected, mineralization carries on at depth.
Of particular interest, holes TG16-13-UTM, TG16-14-UTM, and TG16-15-UTM reveal sub-surface mineralization in the area generally below the newly identified "New Blast Zone". Because of the complexity of the fault structures in this area, however, Tudor is currently unable to state with the certainty required by NI 43-101 that the sub-surface mineralization confirms the presence of an unbroken, continuous zone of mineralization linking these drill holes with the surface mineralization.
A trenching program was carried out on the New Blast Zone. The program targeted a vein system which is infilled with a fine-grained blackish, blue-grey mineralization. The structure includes wide sharp edged quartz fragments in a foliated sulphide-quartz-carbonate matrix; the sulphides are pyrite, pyrrhotite, with thin galena/silver seams. Twelve representative specimens were collected across the vein structure. Assays of those specimens yielded averages of 3,461.92 grams (111.30 oz) silver per tonne and 2.24 grams gold per tonne.
Following the success of the trench sampling program, a 4 tonne bulk sample was collected from the New Blast Zone. The sample was collected utilizing localized blasting resulting in an exposed face of approximately 120 square meters, and a total rubble pile of approximately 600 cubic meters, from which was selected approximately 4 tonnes of representative material.
The collected bulk material was then crushed to a size of "3 inch minus" using a crusher at a quarry in Mission, British Columbia. The crushed material was then provided to ALS Global's metallurgical laboratory ('ALS') in Kamloops, BC for metallurgical processing and testing. The processing included the use of rod and ball mill grinding followed by both floatation and gravity separation. The resultant material was then analyzed in four separate test runs over four consecutive days.
2017 Exploration Program; Tudor is satisfied that the results of the 4 tonne bulk sample program, together with all previous exploration work on the property, justifies scaling up the exploration program on the Electrum property. Tudor is satisfied that all of these results justify long-term planning based on an assumption that currently known mineralization on the property has the potential to support a modest sized open-cut mine that can be scaled up as further exploration dictates.
Subject to obtaining all necessary permits and financing, the current plan for the 2017 field season is to carry out the largest possible bulk sample program along with an as yet to be determined amount of diamond drilling.
The anticipated bulk sample program will utilize commercially available mining equipment commonly used in open-pit mining. Blasting will be carried out with the use of track-mounted drills, and on-site crushing will be carried out with the use of track-mounted crushers. It is anticipated that crushed, mineralized material will be hauled to Stewart and from there it will be transported to an appropriate smelter for final processing.
Walter Storm, Tudor President and CEO, stated: "We are very pleased with the results of the work on the Electrum this summer. Not only have we confirmed and increased the known mineralized gold and silver zones, we have also begun to develop a much better understanding of the geology of the property and we are satisfied that we have a proper basis for expanding our exploration program."