On November 15, White Gold Corp. (V.WGO) put out a press release further detailing the major new discovery at its “Vertigo” target. MotherlodeTV recently interviewed White Gold Corp. CEO, David D’Onofrio, about this discovery in the White Gold District, Yukon.
What were the recent drilling results from the Vertigo target?
As we continue to receive assay results, Vertigo continues to demonstrate itself to be a very exciting new high-grade gold discovery! The latest assays returned results such as 3.21 g/t Au over 82.3m, including 31.4 g/t Au over 6.1m, including 103.9 g/t Au and 400.0 g/t Ag over 1.52m from surface, and three deeper mineralized zones including 4.92 g/t Au over 6.1m from 36.58m.
These are just the latest results of Vertigo, which has proven to be one of the highest-grade gold discoveries ever in the White Gold District. To date at least 12 mineralized structures have been recognized at Vertigo, with the discovery holes from earlier this year including 56.25 g/t Au over 3.0m, over a broader intercept of 17.34 g/t Au over 10.7m from 3.0m depth, and 23.44 g/t Au over 24.38m from surface ending in mineralization.
Many of these and other drill holes are ending in mineralization near surface, which further demonstrates the strong potential economics of our find here. These high-grade results have been achieved over a strike length of 300m x 250m, with high-grade surface results extending strike over 1.5km, along a 14km structural trend. These are outstanding results from one of our newest discoveries, and we’ve only scratched the surface on what we have here; 2019 is going to be a very exciting year for White Gold!
How was the Vertigo target located?
Vertigo is located on our JP Ross property and is another success of our regional exploration strategy. It is a methodical approach designed by our Chief Technical Advisor and legendary prospector Shawn Ryan, which consists of analyzing each piece of our land package step-by-step with advanced geotechnical techniques. Techniques including analyzing our database of thousands of soil samples, helicopter-based LIDAR and geologic mapping of faults, using the proprietary low-environmental impact GT probe to sample the bedrock, and then when the target is well defined, drilling!. With Vertigo and our other two discoveries this year (Ryan’s Showing and GS West), Shawn Ryan’s exploration strategy has continued to prove its effectiveness, and we are now gaining even more confidence for the possibilities of additional new discoveries on our very large land package which is in excess of 40% of a prolific emerging gold camp.
In the release you talk about a 14 kilometer “structural trend”. What are the characteristics of that trend?
Our exploration work around Vertigo has produced multiple surface samples with over 130 g/t gold being encountered, defining a very long strike length over 1.5 km, all of this along a greater trend that looks to extend over 14km. This trend is structurally controlled as observed through geophysical analysis with high-grade mineralization at surface, and with such an extended structure, we have noted multiple other possible targets that have yet to be tested. This season we focused on performing soil sampling to identify new targets along the trend. We can’t wait for next year’s drilling season to test these additional targets further.
Is Vertigo remotely located? Will the future government-funded infrastructure spending benefit the target?
Vertigo is about 75km south of Dawson City, and about 20km north of our flagship gold resource Golden Saddle. It is very favourably situated only 2km away from the main road to Dawson, which means we can basically drive right to the property, which is practically unheard of for most sites in new exploration jurisdictions. This is part of the road system which is currently being upgraded by the government.
White Gold is positioned to benefit greatly from the government’s infrastructure investments which is being done to advance mining and exploration in the territory for which they are very supportive. The Federal and Territorial Governments announced last year that they are investing over $300 million to upgrade many of the roads in the Yukon to haul-grade to facilitate mining exploration and development. With the majority of these roads going to Goldcorp’s Coffee deposit which is on schedule to start production in 2021, many of the roads are going right through our properties as well. The exploration of Vertigo, the rest of our land package, and the entire Yukon region benefit greatly from continued pro-mining support received from all levels of government.
How many holes are left to report and does White Gold plan to go back to this area next season?
There are still many drill holes from Vertigo the Golden Saddle and some of our other targets with assay results pending. We expect to receive these in the coming weeks and are looking forward to the results.
Vertigo is a major new discovery and we will definitely be testing it further as we did this year and with diamond drilling as well. For next year’s drilling season, we are planning to continue our strategy of splitting our exploration work between expanding our existing major discoveries, such as Golden Saddle and now Vertigo, and for growing our portfolio of targets through regional exploration.
We are also very pleased with the rest of our exploration from this year and still have many exciting untested targets that we will be testing the coming years.
If all works out, we could be speaking about another one or more new Vertigo-type discoveries before long.