Golden Predator Mining Corp. (TSX.V:GPY) (OTCQX:NTGSF) (the “Company” or “Golden Predator”) announced today that its technical team has completed an assessment of data from the Sprogge property, acquired late last year. The Sprogge property occupies the southernmost extent of the Company’s 100%-owned 3 Aces Project. Golden Predator has concluded that the numerous high-grade gold showings at Sprogge conform well to the geologic model for 3 Aces which has emerged from the 2017 exploration program and confirms a multi-kilometer-long district-scale exploration opportunity to be drilled this year.
The 2018 program will focus on exploration and drilling along an 8 km stretch of gold-bearing stratigraphic and structural features as identified from geochemistry and mapping that connect Sprogge to the 13.5 km2 Central Core Area where the Company successfully drilled high grade gold intercepts last year. It is now believed that nearly all of the gold in bedrock and soils found to date throughout the 3 Aces Project occur along or adjacent to persistent, through-going, structural-stratigraphic contacts, commonly occupied by quartz veining, between softer shales (phyllites) and conglomerates (sandstones) along the limbs and crests of folds. Numerous high grade (>10 g/t gold) rock chip samples from the Sprogge area make this an especially high priority target for 2018 and beyond. The 8 km long segment of favorable contacts connecting the Central Core Area with Sprogge is considered highly prospective because of the structural preparation generated by folding and an abundance of high-grade assays at both Sprogge and the Central Core Area.
The 2018 exploration program will be announced shortly, with a winter drill program scheduled to commence next month. Funding for this program was obtained within an $8.38 million financing which closed on February 13, 2018.
To view the 3 Aces Project map and conceptual model figures please visit: http://www.goldenpredator.com/_resources/maps/3Aces_Maps_20180222.pdf
Sprogge Highlights
- Sprogge has the same geological setting as the 3 Aces Central Core Area and is likely the strike extension of the same favorable structural-stratigraphic contacts that host gold occurrences in the Central Core Area of 3 Aces. These contacts can be traced from Sprogge through the Central Core Area and projected to the Reef and Hy-Jay gold occurrences more than 35 km to the north (see Figure 1).
- Sprogge, like the Central Core Area, has evidence of folding of the stratigraphic package that created suitable ground preparation for concentrated gold deposition in the prospective stratigraphy.
- Work by previous operators found multiple high-grade gold occurrences including a 1.4km by 0.8km zone defined by bedrock chips with numerous samples in excess of 10 g/t gold (see Figure 4).
Golden Predator Chief Executive Officer Janet Lee-Sheriff said “Closing out 2017, we made a significant breakthrough that enables us to explain nearly all the gold occurrences in the 3 Aces area using a single unifying conceptual model. Our team realized some time ago that there was a common thread uniting the many seemingly isolated gold showings in the 3 Aces area and they have been working to integrate our exploration results to find the common links. Our next step is to prove this concept through wide-spaced drilling to establish district-scale mineralized features. As we suspected, all of the key elements (host rocks, structural controls and gold) associated with high grade mineralization at the Central Core Area are also found at Sprogge. With the acquisition of Sprogge we are now positioned to aggressively test our model and explore the potential for a district-scale mining camp along 3 Aces’ prospective 35 km strike length.”
2017 Results: Developing the Model
Geological mapping, soil sampling, rock sampling and drilling conducted by Golden Predator have identified and delineated a package of prospective rock types and a set of favorable structural controls that host high grade gold mineralization in the upper units of the Proterozoic Yusezyu Formation of the Hyland Group. Field mapping shows a distrcit-scale anticline with coherent stratigraphy, and associated structural ground preperation, trending north-south along the length of Golden Predator’s property. Both the stratigraphy and folding are believed to be integral controls for localizing gold mineralization at 3 Aces.
Results from the 2017 exploration program led to developing and refining an orogenic gold exploration model that links gold occurrences to one another in a systematic and predictive manner. Gold showings at 3 Aces are consistently found along contacts between phyllite and conglomerate or coarse sandstone. The phyllite acted as a soft and ductile rock while the conglomerate and coarse sandstone acted as hard and brittle rock. The contacts of these contrasting rock types produced zones of differential stress as the stratigraphy was deformed and/or faulted and the subsequent open space was occupied by gold-bearing quartz veins. A regional fold has been identified as a probable key feature of the deformation process that developed the sites for gold deposition in the district. This fold can be traced along the more than 35 km length of this prospective new gold camp.
The best illustration of the exploration model is found in the Sprogge area at the southern end of the property where both limbs of the fold are observed to be intact and crop out in close proximity to one another across the projected hinge zone to the fold (see Figure 2). Further to the north, the fold may be tilted more dramatically to the west such that all of the gold occurrences in the Central Core Area would occur in the eastern or upper limb. (see Figure 3). The western limb of the fold, if it exists north of Sprogge, has not been encountered in drilling to date but may be present at depth.
A very large body of data was generated in 2017 which led to the unifying model. Stream sediment and soil geochemistry have proven very effective tools in highlighting patterns of mineralization; 9,706 soil geochemical samples and 970 rock chip samples were collected during 2017. More than 19,000 meters of drilling in 200 holes, 15km of new roads and 8km of new trenching also contributed to developing the unifying geologic model of gold deposition.
3 Aces Project, Yukon
The 3 Aces Project consists of 1,734 claims covering 357 km² (35,700 ha) in southeast Yukon. The current exploration concepts on the 3 Aces Property are based on the models developed for orogenic gold deposits supported by an extensive exploration data set. Orogenic gold deposits are among the world’s largest and richest. The Company has to date focused exploration on the 13.5 km2 Central Core Area, a broad gold-in-soil anomaly where numerous orogenic gold-bearing quartz veins have been discovered. Exploration over the past 2 years has systematically advanced the project by establishing: (1) high gold grades can be reliably sampled; (2) gold mineralization is in predictable stratigraphic locations; (3) gold grades have robust continuity within the recognized controlling features; (4) gold-bearing zones are on the limbs of a regional fold that predicts extensive lateral and vertical continuity of the 3 Aces mineral system; and (5) about 80% of the gold can be recovered on site by gravity and water processing alone.
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mark Shutty, CPG, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and an employee of the Company.
Stock Option Grant
The Company has granted 585,000 stock options to directors and and officers of the Company. The stock options are exercisable for a term of three years at an exercise price of $0.75 per common share. Vesting will occur over a period of two years, with an initial 25% of the stock options vesting 6 months from the date of grant, followed by an additional 25% of the stock options every six months thereafter until fully vested.
Golden Predator Mining Corp.
Golden Predator Mining Corp. is a gold exploration company focused on advancing key projects with significant exploration upside, good infrastructure and community support. The Company is actively exploring on its 3 Aces Project in Canada’s Yukon, and holds 100% of the advanced Brewery Creek Project in Yukon, Canada, a past-producing brownfields project with a 2014 Preliminary Economic Assessment prepared in accordance with NI 43-101.
For additional information:
Janet Lee-Sheriff
Chief Executive Officer
(604)260-0289
info@goldenpredator.com
www.goldenpredator.com
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. This press release contains forward-looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties regarding future events. Such forward-looking information can include without limitation statements based on current expectations that the private placement will complete as described herein, that the Project will advance through permitting and feasibility. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking information are based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information should circumstances or management’s estimates or opinions change.