Getchell Gold intersects 1.82 g/t Au over 107 meters at the North Fork Zone of Fondaway Canyon

2022.09.29

Getchell Gold (CSE:GTCH, OTCQB:GGLDF) continues to pull up spectacular drill intercepts from its Fondaway Canyon Project in Nevada, this week releasing the results from drill hole FGC22-19 that successfully extended the North Fork Zone.

The third drill hole of the 2022 campaign followed up on the high-grade gold discovered by hole FCG21-16, which in 2021 returned 10.4 g/t Au over 25.0m within a broader interval grading 6.3 g/t Au over 50.7m. Hole 19 was drilled vertically from the same drill pad as hole 16 (Figure 1), targeting the North Fork Zone as a 30-meter step out to the southwest.

The hole intersected multiple significant intervals of gold mineralization along a 145.1m drill length, from 105.8 to 250.9 meters down hole with a core mineralized zone grading 1.8 g/t Au over 107.5m from 120.0 to 227.5m down hole (detailed in Figure 2 and Table 1).

“The North Fork zone continues to produce remarkable grades and thicknesses as we step out from our discovery hole,” says Getchell Gold President Mike Sieb, in the Sept. 27 news release. “The North Fork zone is developing into a major region of concentrated gold mineralization, and I expect will contribute greatly to the gold model currently being generated.”

So far in 2022, eight holes have been completed in the Central Area of the property, totaling 3,260m. Assay results have been released for three holes, with assays remaining for holes FCG22-20 to 25.

Drilling continues to expand the North Fork Zone, which remains open in most directions. Assay results from holes FCG22-16, 17, 18 and 19 will be incorporated into a new resource estimate, expected this fall.

Fondaway Canyon

Fondaway Canyon is an advanced-stage gold property located in Churchill County, Nevada. Since gold was first discovered there in 1977, the project has been the subject of multiple exploration campaigns along a 3.5-kilometer east-west mineralized corridor, totaling over 700 reverse circulation and core drill holes, small-scale open pit mining of the oxidized zone at surface, and underground development for exploration and bulk sampling.

2022 drilling

Getchell earlier released results from hole FCG22-17, which hit shallow mineralization starting at 66.1 meters down hole. In hole FCGC22-18, the drill encountered extensive gold-mineralized intervals.

The company says that, combined with FCG22-17 that intersected 3.8 g/t Au over 85.9 m (Figure 2) and FCG22-18 that intersected 2.5 g/t Au over 43.4 m and 2.1 g/t Au over 46.5 m, with respective step-outs of 15 meters to the northwest and 50m to the east, FCG22-19 represents the third successful step-out hole from the 2021 North Fork high-grade discovery.

The FCG21-16 interval had the greatest “gold grade x thickness” value in the 40+ year history of gold exploration and mining on the property, and likely represents a major conduit for the gold mineralizing system at Fondaway Canyon. The higher-grade section of 10.4 g/t over 25.0m contained 12 samples reporting over 10 g/t, revealing consistent high-grade gold.

Holes FCG22-17, 18, 19, 22, 23, and 25, collared on the same pad as FCG21-16, were designed as step outs to test the extent of the North Fork mineralization encountered in hole 16. Holes FCG22, 23 and 25 tested the extent of the lower North Fork Zone discovered in FCG22-18 that graded 1.9 g/t Au over 72.6m.

FCG22-20, a vertical drill hole, tested the mineralization directly below the Colorado Pit in an area that has seen little drilling.

FCG22-21, stationed midway up the north slope of Fondaway Canyon, crosscut the Colorado SW zone of mineralization to assist with modelling and to test the extents of the mineralization to the northwest. 

FCG22-26, stationed near the canyon floor on the same pad as FCG21-12 and 15, is in progress and is designed to target the eastern extent of the Colorado SW Zone.

Drilling is ongoing with plans to drill through to the end of the 2022 field season.

Pediment Area

A second drill rig has started drilling the Pediment target zone at Fondaway Canyon with hole FCG22-24. The Pediment is the western-most known gold mineralized occurrence along the 3.5 km long E-W trending Fondaway Canyon gold corridor. The area is completely blanketed by a broad alluvium cover, which is typical of the range and basin geomorphology.

Visualize a heat source millions of years ago squeezing boiling-hot magma from west to east through the fissures and faults of the Earth’s crust, depositing gold and silver minerals all the way from the westerly range-front, several kilometers up into the hills as far as the Hamburger Hill and Silica Ridge zones. 

Two vertical drill holes, completed in 2002 and collared 185 meters apart, were designed to test potential gold mineralization beneath the sediment cover on trend with the Fondaway Canyon E-W gold corridor. Both holes successfully intersected thick lower-grade intersections, with hole 02FC-10 cutting 27.4m grading 0.82 g/t gold, and 02FC-11 intersecting 36.6 m grading 0.52 g/t. 

Resource estimate

Results from the four holes that have reported assays so far, FCG22-16, 17, 18 and 19, will be incorporated into an upcoming new resource estimate at Fondaway Canyon. The revised estimate should significantly improve upon the 2017 RE, which showed 409,000 oz indicated gold resources grading 6.18 g/t Au and 660,000 oz inferred grading 6.4 g/t Au, for a combined 1.1 million oz. Up to 80% of these ounces are within the Colorado, Paperweight and Halfmoon zones, with the remainder found in parallel veins or splays off the main veins.

Getchell Gold has carried out three drill programs, in 2020, 2021 and 2022. The aim is to significantly upgrade the 2017 resource estimate into a new resource, that will combine the drill results from all three drill programs.

Two consecutive years of field work have resulted in significant discoveries, expanded gold zones and consistently successful drill results. Mineralization within the Central Area’s delineated envelope has been considerably expanded; to date, it ranges 600 meters E-W along strike, 800m down-dip to the SW, and is approximately 100m thick.

Within this envelope, substantial high-grade shear vein structures with significant depth extents contribute to the potential. The drilling has yet to test the full extent of the gold mineralization, which remains open in most directions.

A compelling aspect of Fondaway Canyon is the open-pit/ high grade potential, as demonstrated by the 2021 drill results, and the results so far in 2022.

Our reasons for believing a new resource estimate will improve substantially on the previous (2017) one, are as follows:

• Getchell has discovered three new zones within the Central Area which included Colorado SW; a really high-grade zone close to surface called the Juniper Zone; and the North Fork Zone.

• Getchell’s 16 drill holes from 2020 and ‘21 all hit mineralization. New zones and higher-grade mineralization have been found, and a bigger drill program was executed this year.

• The 2017 resource didn’t include some very significant assay results from at least seven holes drilled by a former operator, so Getchell is missing some significant drill hole intercepts.  

• The cut-off grade used to come up with the 1.1Moz resource was 3.4 grams per tonne. Lowering the cut-off grade would, in my opinion, add a lot of ounces.

• Most of the +700 holes drilled at Fondaway were quite shallow; a previous operator was looking for heap-leach gold oxide deposits. But there are a lot of deeper holes that have mineralization shot through them, that are in the 0.5 to 3.0 g/t range. None of those intercepts made the 3.4 g/t cut-off, so they were excluded from the 2017 resource.

• Highlights of intercepts that never would have been included in the previous resource, include: hole 3 had 2 grams per tonne over 49m, hole 5 had 1.8 grams over a 90m intercept, that included 3 grams over 45m. In hole 8 Getchell reported 2.8 grams over 24.5m, another intercept lower in the hole had 1.4 grams over 30m. These intercepts are not only really decent grades, they’re over monster-sized widths.

• If we start to look at Fondaway Canyon from a bulk-tonnage perspective, all of the sub 3 g/t intercepts, and there are literally thousands of them, are going to play a role in delivering ounces into a new, much bigger global resource.

Conclusion

I’m expecting more news flow from Getchell for the duration of the second half and into 2023, as assays roll in from holes FCG22-20 to 25, and from drilling at the Pediment Area. Results are also expected from a maiden drill program at nearby Star, a copper-gold-silver project where multiple priority drill targets have been identified.

Getchell Gold Corp.
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Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com
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