Mining News: Northern Neighbors: Drills turn at Klondike’s Lone Star

Klondike Gold Corp. Aug. 18 reported the start of a 1,000-meter drill program at its Lone Star gold property about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Dawson City, Yukon. The company said roughly 12 holes will test various areas of quartz veining containing visible gold on the property, including the Nugget zone. Bulldozer trenching in the early 1990s and excavator trenching in 2005 have identified quartz veins containing visible gold at the Nugget zone. Limited follow-up included three diamond drill holes in 2007 which missed the target because they were drilled precisely parallel (down-dip) to the veining. Earlier this year, Ground Truth Exploration Ltd. completed roughly 1,000 meters of induced polarization along three lines spaced 50 meters apart across this target. The IP results show features attributable to southwest dipping bedrock as well as to northeast dipping quartz veining and associated fault structures along the 100-meter strike length surveyed. Klondike gold completed detailed representative chip sampling perpendicular to veining across 14 individual lines over 38 meters strike length of outcropping quartz veins and adjacent host rock. Of 38 chip samples collected, 13 were of wall rock and 25 were of quartz veins. Only six samples had gold values under 0.1 gram per metric ton gold, suggesting gold-enriched wall rock. Thirteen samples had values between 5 g/t and 30.5 g/t gold. One sample chip sample returned 8 g/t gold over 4.3 meters.

- Shane Lasley