Our next company is a well-funded mineral exploration company focused on exploring economically viable mineral deposits.
Sitka Gold has four projects, but today we will dive into the RC Gold Project in the Yukon and the Alpha Gold Property in Nevada to see what’s new.
Here with us is Mike Burke, who just got back from PDAC in Toronto. Burke is the Director and VP of Corporate Development for the company.
TMH: Since PDAC just finished, and I heard we were back to pre-pandemic numbers, how was the experience for Sitka? Was there any aspect that was different compared to last year?
MB: Yeah, absolutely. The conference was great and what helped us out was we were invited to participate in the Core Shack at PDAC. So, on the Sunday and Monday we were able to display drill core from our discovery in the Yukon on our RC Gold project, where we’ve announced a discovery of two gold deposits. We also had our booth in the investor exchange for the four days. So what that really did was it helped bring a lot of technical people by the Core Shack both from majors and juniors who were really interested in learning more about the mineralization and deposits and the Tombstone Gold belt in our project in particular. So that was great to have that feedback and then also investors, shareholders and people coming by the investor exchange booth to learn more about Sitka Gold and what we’re doing and get an update on our plans for the future.
So it really expanded our audience a bit. We’re very happy to have those folks. The sentiment was very high as it always is at PDAC and any conference that involves a lot of geologists frankly, but everybody’s really buoyed by the strong prices of metals that we’re looking for. They’re buoyed by the outlook for the markets and they’re really waiting to see the stock markets and the financial markets start to align with Sitka Gold and the success that we’ve been having in our last couple years of exploration in the Yukon, Nevada and elsewhere.
TMH: Recently, Sitka filed a technical report for the Blackjack and Eiger gold deposits in the Tombstone Gold Belt area, and I hear future mine developments at RC Gold are looking good, can you explain why?
MB: Yeah, just a bit of history, I guess in about 2019 when Victoria Gold was starting to open up the Eagle mine that’s hosted in that same belt of rocks, same type of mineralization, Cor Coe our CEO recognized that that would de-risk this belt of rocks that’s known to host gold mineralization. So he started looking and assembled a land package in the Clear Creek area that’s to the east of Victoria Gold by about 50 kilometers, contains nine known intrusive bodies and brought that package together. We now have 374 square kilometers in that district and so what we’ve done then started drilling in 2020 just to test a couple of the known occurrences, that was successful in 2021 and 2022. We’ve drilled just 13,000 meters in under 40 holes and outlined the Blackjack and Eiger deposits put out an initial mineral resource of 1.34 million ounces of gold at 0.68 grams per ton gold.
We’re really excited about the Blackjack because it displays higher grades. It’s 900,000 ounces at a grade of 0.83 grams per ton. So that compares very favorably to Victoria Gold. Their mine just recently updated their resources, and their reserve grade is 0.57 grams per ton gold. So we’re really excited about the grades that we’re encountering on our project and the fact that in two short years on just two of the known occurrences we’ve been able to outline and publish an initial mineral resource. We have done some metallurgical work as well that demonstrates that the project is amenable to heat bleaching. So as far as de-risking we’re very similar to the Eagle mine.
TMH: In mid-February, the company secured Kluane Drilling to complete winter and summer diamond drilling at the RC Gold Project. How has this been unfolding?
MB: Yeah, well they’re up there right now, we’ve cleared the road into site, so we’re going to start our winter drilling program very shortly here. Less snow this year in the Yukon, so it’s gone very smoothly. So we’re planning on 10,000 meters of drilling obviously with an initial mineral resource on the Blackjack and the Eiger. We’re just getting started. So we’re going to focus on expanding the resources and those two deposits. They’re kind of anchored in an extensional belt that’s underlaying by other gold mineralization. We have a couple holes in the middle that hit grades that are you know, 80 meters of 0.59 grams per ton gold. So there’s a lot of potential to expand both the Blackjack and the Eiger deposits as well as potential to find other mineralization in that belt. So that’s what we’re going to focus on in 2022 as well as looking at some other areas on the property.
TM: And by 2022, you mean 2023, correct?
MB: That’s what I meant, 2023.
TMH: To dive into that further, I know the 2022 results from the Blackjack Deposit, Eiger Deposit, and the Saddle Zone were quite successful. Has recent work been achieving the same great results or is it undecided currently?
MB: Yeah, we haven’t started doing physical work except we’re getting ready to do this winter drill program and we’re into the property now but what we’ve been doing obviously is working with the independent qualified person who produced that resource, the 43-101 compliant resource. So working with him to help get that done. Then doing our own internal 3D modeling to look at our upcoming drill program, plan that out and so it’s a matter of following up on the great results that we had in the last year and carrying on and expanding those resources this year.
TMH: Switching to your other project, the Alpha Gold Project in Nevada, I know when we spoke with you in February, drilling was reported as very successful to date. The company is permitted on many different drill holes. Has more work been completed since then?
MB: Yeah, we completed that drill program in October and we haven’t done any more drilling or anything but the results from that program were really good. We add our highest grade intersects to date on the project. I think to put Alpha in context, a bit of history there too, it’s in the Cortez trend in Nevada. So we’re only 40 kilometers south of Nevada Gold Mines, Cortez Hills deposits, that’s Pipeline, Gold rush and one other one, sorry, that escapes me right now but these are 10 to 20 million ounce deposits. So we’re really an elephant country. This property, the Alpha was a geological concept that suggested that the right rocks that host those deposits to the north also existed in the Alpha area. So geological mapping work that our geologists down there done was validated by our drilling in the last few years, we’ve drilled down through those cap rocks and intersected the reactive carbonate rocks that host those deposits to the north. So with our drilling in the last year intersecting 21 meters of 1.2 grams with a peak value of 4.62, it’s really validated the model and we’re quite pleased that we’ve intersected not only the right rocks but they have gold mineralization in them.
TMH: Based on past results, there was leakage from a potential Carlin-type gold system at depth. What does Sitka hope to do with that information?
MB: Yeah, so a little geology lesson for you, Brieanna and anybody else. These systems especially in this Cortez trend with those deposits I mentioned, what happens is these goal bearing fluids come up from depth and they travel up steep structures and when they encounter these carbonate, which are very reactive rocks they do bleed out horizontally but they mineralized those vertical structures as well as bleed out horizontally. So these are pretty narrow target zones. In fact, Barrick gave a talk at the Roundup conference on their four mile deposits to the north of us and they had one drill hole that hit no gold at all and 40 meters away, they hit very high grade mineralization, part of their deposit discovery. So it said that these are difficult targets but for us to be intersecting Carlin style mineralization and alteration in these drill holes is really encouraging. Each drill hole adds to our geological knowledge and we feel that we’re very close to a more structurally complex vertical structure with an anti decline that can form a trap for these fluids. So our next round of drilling will use this knowledge that we’ve acquired as we kind of target this high grade mineralization that is such an attractive target, especially in this belt of rocks.
TMH: Is there any other news you can tell investors before we part today?
MB: Yeah, I mean really Sitka Gold has a very technical management team. Cor Core our CEO is a geologist, I’m a geologist, Donald Penner and so as geologists, we hate working on boring projects. It happens to a lot of people. So we get quality projects and we advance them, we’re focused on discovery. That’s what we want to do. We want to discover mineral deposits and with the discovery of the Blackjack and the Eiger deposits in the Yukon and with the success we’re seeing at Alpha that’s exactly what we’re doing. So we’re delivering to our shareholders and we’re happy about that. We have other projects in the pipeline, really excited about the Yukon Project being that it’s a two hour drive from Dawson City, 35 kilometers from a power line. It’s a very accessible area. We’re starting to drill there now in the winter so we can work year round and the Alpha project as we gain knowledge on there, we’re really vectoring in onto what we hope as an extremely exciting season coming up there. It really justifies us spending more money and doing bigger programs on both these projects. So yeah, just keep an eye on Sitka. We are true to our word. We’re out there looking for significant deposits to add value and we’re looking forward to 2023.
TM: It’s been a pleasure; thanks for speaking with us today, Mike.
Again, we’ve been speaking with Mike Burke, Director, and VP of Corporate Development of Sitka Gold. To stay up to date on the company, head to sitkagoldcorp.com or track them down on the CSE under the ticker symbol, ‘SIG’.
A special thanks to you, our viewers, for joining us today…I’m Brieanna McCutcheon for The Market Herald, and thanks for watching The Top Line.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is sponsored content issued on behalf of Sitka Gold, please see full disclaimer here.
