On January 14, White Gold Corp. (V.WGO) put out a press release detailing its acquisition of the QV Project from Comstock Metals Ltd.
White Gold Corp. CEO, David D’Onofrio, was recently interviewed about this acquisition.
What makes this acquisition a good fit for White Gold?
There are a few aspects of the QV Gold Project that make it an excellent complement to our portfolio of properties in the White Gold District.
First, the 230,000 ounce gold deposit is a good addition to our existing resource at Golden Saddle & Arc and is the same style of mineralization as the Golden Saddle and only 10km away. Second, the property has had extremely limited exploration work to date, and the existing targets share many similarities with our assets including Golden Saddle and Vertigo. Additionally, our team already has extensive experience with the property, including Shawn Ryan, our Chief Technical Officer, who originally staked the property and optioned it to Comstock back in 2010; and Jodie Gibson, our VP of Exploration, who oversaw the discovery drilling of the VG zone deposit!
When the opportunity came up to acquire the property, we immediately jumped on it, and now we are very excited to expand the existing deposit, further advance the other known targets on the property, and deploy our experienced team on this underexplored property.
What kind of work has been completed on the QV property to date?
Most of the exploration to date has been on the VG Zone deposit, which is on the southern end of the property. The VG deposit has only seen approximately 4,300 metres of diamond drilling across 23 holes. 17 of the holes produced the original resource estimate in 2014 of 230,000 ounces of gold, and the remaining 6 holes were drilled in 2017 and were not included in the resources. The 2017 drilling included 1.42 g/t gold over 45.5m, which expanded the mineralization 125 metres down dip from previous drilling, and 1.48 g/t gold over 51.2m, which expanded the mineralization 45m west of previous drilling. Based on these results we are confident that there is significant unrealized potential to add ounces to this deposit.
Additional exploration work on the property has included soil sampling, trenching, geological mapping/prospecting, minor RAB drilling, and a mix of other only grass-root stage activities. The property still remains vastly underexplored and we’re looking forward to letting our exploration team get to work on maximizing the potential of this property.
What kind of drilling results have been produced on the project to date?
Despite the minimal drilling on the property to date, there have been some very significant results, with consistent intervals of 40 to 50 metres of over 1.0 g/t; and one hole up to 78 metres! Highlights include holes QV12-001: 1.03 g/t Au over 78m, including 6.15 g/t Au over 5.6m; QV12-004: 2.23 g/t Au over 42m; QV12-006: 1.45 g/t Au over 60m; and QV13-012: 1.76 g/t Au over 42.3m.
As mentioned, the 2017 drill program also had strong results which weren’t included in the resource, with QV17-018 producing 1.42 g/t gold over 45.5m, growing the mineralization 125 metres down dip from previous drilling. Also, QV17-019 with 1.48 g/t gold over 51.2m, which grew the mineralization 45m west of previous drilling.
What has really grabbed our attention is the similarities between targets on the property, such as the VG Zone deposit and Shadow target, and our existing properties. The VG Zone deposit shares the same structural setting and mineralization style as our nearby Golden Saddle deposit. Additionally, the exploration targets on the north of the property we’re acquiring have the same style of mineralization we saw at our recent Vertigo discovery. There are major opportunities for us to leverage these similarities to maximize the value of this new property.