Getchell Gold preparing two-front drill campaign at Fondaway Canyon and Star, Nevada properties

2021.07.14

Getchell Gold (CSE:GTCH, OTCQB:GGLDF) just doubled its chances of making a discovery this summer.

Drilling at Getchell’s flagship Fondaway Canyon gold project is well underway and a second project, Star, is slated to be drill-tested in the coming weeks.

In a July 13 exploration update, the company says two holes of the 4,000-meter drill program at Fondaway Canyon have been completed, with assay results pending. Also, Getchell has received permits for more drill pads at Fondaway, and for its inaugural drill program at the Star copper-gold-silver project, situated about 60 kilometers north of the flagship.

Fondaway Canyon

Fondaway Canyon is an advanced-stage gold property located in Churchill County, NV. The project has been the subject of multiple exploration campaigns in the late 1980s and early ‘90s.

Records show 591 holes totaling nearly 50,000 meters have been drilled on the property. The project area covers 12 known veins, including five mineralized areas — Colorado, Halfmoon, Paperweight, Silica Ridge and Hamburger Hill. A 2017 technical report showed an estimated 409,000 oz of indicated 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.

Seventy to 80% of the ounces are within Colorado, Paperweight and Halfmoon, with the remainder found in parallel veins or splays off the main veins. Mineralization is contained in a series of steeply dipping en-echelon quartz-sulfide shears outcropping at surface and extending laterally over 1,200m, with drill-proven depth extensions to greater than 400m.

Drilling at Fondaway Canyon in late 2020 demonstrated the identification of thick zones of gold mineralization, interpreted as a down-dip continuation of surface mineralization; and high-grade mineralized structures with notable widths within the mineralized system. To follow up on these promising results, Getchell is executing an even bigger drill program this year.

Up to 4,000 meters is slated for the Central Area of Fondaway Canyon, where the objective is to conduct infill and step-out drilling to further delineate and expand on the mineralization discovered in 2020.

“The stellar results from the 2020 drill program blew the potential of the Fondaway Canyon Gold Project wide open,” said Getchell Gold President Mike Sieb, in the June 1 news release. “The revised geological interpretation represents more than a doubling in the projected down-dip extent of the gold mineralization from previous geological models and has provided ample target areas for the 2021 drill program to further delineate and expand upon our recent discoveries.”

The hope, Getchell says, is that sufficient infill drilling will be done to increase confidence in the geological model to support a revised resource estimate (from the 1.1Moz identified in 2017). A second goal is to continue stepping out from known gold intercepts to expand the geological model.

The first target is the Juniper Zone, shallowly located down-dip of the Colorado Pit. It was here in 1989, when the drill hit one of the highest gold intersections in the project’s history, returning 17.6 g/t over 15.2 meters, within a larger 44.2m interval grading 8.1 g/t Au. Last year, drill hole FCG20-02 came back with a respectable 6.2 g/t Au over 21.9m. The zone is interpreted as striking to the northwest and dipping fairly vertical. A number of historical gold intercepts lie within the strike plane and potentially form part of the Juniper Zone.

According to Getchell, Both [2021] drill holes were drilled southwest from the Colorado Pit to expand on the high-grade gold Juniper zone and the thick Colorado SW Extension zone recently intersected by holes FCG20-02 and FCG20-03…

FCG21-07 and FCG21-08 were designed as 40m respective lateral and vertical step-outs to the Colorado SW Extension interval intersected in FCG20-02. Both drill holes similarly functioned as a step-out to the high-grade Juniper zone. The two 2021 holes reached their targeted depths and the assay results are expected in late July to early August.

As previously planned, the drill will commence a series of holes targeting the North Fork Zone, starting with FCG21-09, before circling back to continue expanding on the Juniper and Colorado SW Extension zones.

Three new drill pads will be added, to continue defining the Central Target Area for the foreseeable future, and to allow for one drill hole at the Pediment Target Area, located at the far western end of the east-west trending Fondaway Canyon gold corridor.

As Getchell states, The permitted Central Target Area is host to a sizable historic resource and is where the 100-metre-thick Colorado SW Extension and the North Fork zones were discovered in late 2020. The newly permitted Pediment Target Area is the site of two historic drill holes that each intercepted broad gold bearing intervals in 2002 and has yet to be properly characterized (refer to Company news release dated Jan. 27, 2021). As the drill campaign at Fondaway progresses, additional drill pads and access roads will be permitted as required.

Star

Getchell Gold’s Star copper-gold-silver project, located 60 km north of Fondaway Canyon, contains two main mineralized occurrences (Star Point and Star South), including a past-producing copper mine, with multiple priority drill targets identified. A geophysical survey last year delineated four additional anomalies exhibiting characteristics of porphyry-style mineralization on the property that will be included in this year’s drill testing.

The Star Point near-surface, high-grade copper oxide (tenorite) mine operated from the late 1940s through the mid-1950s.

Previous development focused on a 300 x 300-meter area at the southern edge of a north-south trending promontory. The surface area is covered with various pits, portals, shafts, open cuts and associated dumps. Underground development consists of several short shafts, winzes and tunnels of varying lengths, leading to a series of stopes and drifts.

Drilling is expected to commence at Star upon completion of the lone drill hole at Fondaway Canyon’s Pediment Target Area.

According to Getchell, The Company has now received an exploration permit to commence building drill pads and access routes for the three initially planned holes. Targets of the 2021 drill program include a highly prospective geophysical target located beneath the historic Star Point Copper Mine and a strong geophysical response located near the Star South high-grade Copper-Gold-Silver occurrences.  

An induced polarization (IP) geophysical survey, completed in 2020, covered both the Star Point mine and the Star South artisanal mining site. High-grade surface mineralization was observed at both areas.

At Star Point, of the 79 grab samples collected, 13 returned a grade better than 0.5% Cu, with the highest grades reported at 4.25, 3.00 and 2.35% Cu.

Fast forward to 2018, when a magnetic geophysical survey and a limited (one line) IP survey was conducted over the Star Point area. This revealed that the surface mineralized expression at Star Point is underlain by coincident magnetic anomalies that are interpreted as potential copper sulfide mineralization, possibly intrusion-related. They present a compelling drill target for the company.

Star South artisanal mining dumps returned a high proportion of well-mineralized samples with one sample grading 2.45% Cu, 9.26 g/t Au and 310.0 g/t Ag.

According to Getchell, Star South has a prominent low resistivity anomaly that directly underlies the main high-grade Cu-Au-Ag showing and is considered a priority target. Located 600m northwest is a high resistivity anomaly bounded by chargeability anomalies that is potentially indicative of an intrusion fringed by sulphide mineralization.

Upon completion of this year’s drilling at Star, Getchell says it will move the drill back to Fondaway Canyon, where there are plans to drill through to the end of the year.

Conclusion

At Fondaway Canyon, the planned 4,000-meter drill program doubles the scope of last year’s highly successful drilling.

Getchell also plans to initiate a maiden drill program at its Star copper-gold-silver project located 60 km north of Fondaway. Though much earlier-stage than Fondaway Canyon, we like the recent IP survey results showing four porphyry-type anomalies. This is a great place to start investigating with the drill.

A previous sampling program yielded high copper content, as well as gold and silver. While most of Getchell’s hopes will be pinned on Fondaway Canyon, Star just might surprise shareholders with a discovery hole.

Getchell Gold
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Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com
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