MINING NEWS: Yale options Dawson area property, to test high-grade, bulk tonnage gold

Patricia Liles

Mining News editor

Vancouver, British Columbia-based Yale Resources Ltd. announced its option on the Golden Revenue property in southwestern Yukon Territory, accessible by a secondary highway branching off of the Yukon Highway.

In a May 17 press release, Yale said it is currently planning its drilling program to test both high-grade and bulk tonnage gold occurrences on the property in June and July. The company plans to spend a minimum of $400,000 on the property in 2004, and has already obtained exploration permits, according to Yale’s website.

The 1,800-acre property consists of three contiguous claim blocks, called Nucleus, Revenue and Big Creek in the Dawson Creek mining district, the company said.

Two types of mineralization exist at the Golden Revenue property. One is a vein structure with high-grade gold and variable copper values. The second is gold stockwork and breccia zones with bulk-tonnage potential. Ten different prospects have been identified to date, two of which have some past exploration work, the company said.

The Nucleus Zone contains a swarm of subparallel porphyry dykes that cover an area 1,400 meters long and 500 meters wide. Drilling to date has been confined to a 200-meter square area. The best individual diamond drill intervals include 49.5 meters of 1.76 grams of gold per ton of rock, 36 meters of 1.36 grams of gold and 57.76 meters of 1.32 grams of gold.

High-grade gold structures were tested using a percussion hole drilling program. The best intercepts included a 13.72 meter intercept grading 34.86 grams of gold per ton, 16.77 meters grading 4.58 grams per ton and 6.1 meters grading 11.15 grams of gold per ton of rock.

The Discovery Zone prospect hosts both high-grade veins and stockwork zones with bulk tonnage potential, the company said. Three main vein structures have been identified, but they are poorly defined and have not been systematically drilled with modern equipment and technology, the company said. High grades of gold and copper were reported in an old adit and in trenches.

Yale can earn up to 70 percent interest in the property, subject to a 2 percent net smelter return applicable to two of the three property blocks.