White Gold Corp. (TSX.V: WGO, OTC – Nasdaq Intl: WHGOF, FRA: 29W) (the “Company”) is pleased to announce it has commenced its $13 million fully funded 2019 exploration program on its extensive 439,000 hectare land package, representing over 40% of the prolific White Gold District in Yukon, Canada. A total of 17,000m of diamond drilling and 7,500m of Reverse Circulation (“RC”) drilling is expected this season as part of the Company’s systematic data driven exploration plan backed by partners Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (TSX: AEM, NYSE: AEM) and Kinross Gold Corp (TSX: K, NYSE: KGC). Exploration activity has commenced on the JP Ross property focusing on expanding the footprint of the recent Vertigo discovery and other newly identified high priority targets along the 14km Vertigo Trend.
A map outlining the targets on the JP Ross property can be found at http://whitegoldcorp.ca/investors/exploration-highlights/.
Highlights Include:
- Detailed soil sampling performed in 2018 has proven effective to highlight known mineralization on the Vertigo discovery and also identified several new targets on the Vertigo Trend and across the JP Ross property associated with regional scale structures, demonstrating the potential for multiple mineralized systems. These areas and will be followed up with the GT Probe and other work to further assess the size and intensity of the anomalies and define 2019 drill targets.
- GT Probe sampling has commenced on the road accessible Vertigo focused on expanding the footprint of the discovery. The GT Probe will also be testing the other targets recently defined on the JP Ross property which demonstrate strong similarities to Vertigo.
- RC drilling scheduled to commence in early May on the JP Ross property focused on expansion of the Vertigo along strike. An additional 4 to 5 target areas are expected to have RC drilling as follow up to the GT Probe program.
- Diamond drilling is anticipated to commence in June on the Vertigo discovery. 10,000m of diamond drilling is planned on the Vertigo to evaluate geometry as well as the lateral and vertical continuity of mineralized structures discovered in 2018.
“2018 was a very successful year for White Gold, producing multiple brand-new discoveries including the Vertigo, which returned some of the most significant drill intercepts ever encountered in Yukon.” stated David D’Onofrio, Chief Executive Officer. “We are very excited to have kicked off our 2019 program deploying the GT Probe which has proven to be highly effective in defining drill targets and was instrumental in all four of our discoveries in 2018. We are eager to follow up on the Vertigo, and test other nearby targets defined late last season through detailed soil sampling, which demonstrate similar geochemical and structural signatures to the Vertigo. We are equally as excited to continue expanding both our flagship Golden Saddle deposit and the recently acquired VG deposit, and to follow up on our other 2018 discoveries, and to test our new high priority regional targets for the first time in 2019. Our recent successes have provided us further confidence in our highly specialized exploration methodologies, and we believe this could be our most exciting program to date.”
Vertigo Exploration
The Company has deployed the GT Probe on the new high-grade, road accessible, Vertigo discovery on its JP Ross property – one of four new gold discoveries made in 2018. The Vertigo consists of a series of W-NW trending, steeply south dipping structures identified over a 650m wide corridor that was traced over 300m through RAB/RC drilling in 2018. The overall system has been traced a further 1,700m to the west through soil sampling, prospecting and geophysical surveys. The GT Probe work will initially focus on the western extension of the Vertigo and is designed to evaluate the footprint of the system and define high priority targets for follow up RC drilling, which is expected to initiate in early May. The GT Probe is a proprietary track-mounted rig designed to take samples from the soil-bedrock interface, resulting in sampling that is both cost effective and with minimal environmental impact.
The combination of GT Probe sampling and detailed infill soil sampling led the Company to the discovery of the Vertigo in 2018. Furthermore, it highlighted the potential for previously unrecognized narrow (<10m) zones of high-grade material (>10 g/t Au) that would have been overlooked using traditional exploration methodologies.
The Vertigo is one of the Company’s most significant discoveries from the 2018 exploration season, with drilling highlights including, Hole JPRVERRAB18-014/JPRVERRC18-013 intersecting 22.47 g/t Au over 30.46m from surface ending in mineralization; Hole JPRVERRAB18-001 intersecting 56.25 g/t Au over 3.05m within a broader intercept of 17.34 g/t Au over 10.67m from 3.05m depth; Hole JPRVERRAB18-006 intersecting 103.90 g/t Au over 1.53m within a broader intercept of 31.35 g/t Au over 6.10m from surface. Multiple high-grade grab samples were also encountered including 304.3 g/t, 156.2 g/t and 139.9 g/t among others.
New Targets on the JP Ross Property
The GT Probe will be also utilized across the JP Ross property to follow up on several high priority targets defined through detailed soil sampling in 2018. Results from the GT Probe and other specialized exploration activity completed on the targets will guide follow up RAB/RC drilling. Details regarding the initial high priority targets to be tested is outlined below:
Topaz
- Located immediately south of the Vertigo and road accessible.
- Consists of a series of NE and NW trending gold in soil anomalies over a 500m x 1,500m area with values ranging from trace to 284ppb Au.
- Similar geochemical signature to the Vertigo (Au-Ag-Bi-Pb+/-As).
- Rock samples from area returned grades up to 2.79 g/t Au.
Sabotage Trend
- Located 7.5km northwest of the Vertigo.
- Consists of multiple zones of anomalous Au in soils over a 1.5km x 5km NE trending area with values from trace to 1,908.3 ppb Au.
- Detailed infill soil sampling focused on a 450m x 500m area within the Sabotage area in 2018, and returned discreet E-NE and NW trending gold in soil anomalies with values from trace to 295.3 ppb Au.
- At least 12 other target areas along the Sabotage trend will be detail soil sampled in 2019 with follow up GT Probe and other exploration work as warranted.
Frenzy Trend
- Located 8.5km north of the Vertigo and road accessible.
- Consists of a series of gold in soil anomalies over a 1.5km x 3.5km N-NE trend with values ranging from trace to 1,141.6 ppb Au.
- Detailed infill soil sampling focused on two areas along the Frenzy Trend in 2018. The first covered a 450m x 500m area near the southern end of the trend and returned both NE and NW trending gold in soil anomalies with values from trace to 623.4 ppb Au. The second was at the northern end of the trend covering a 400m x 450m area and returned a N-S trend gold in soil anomaly over the length of the grid with values from trace to 492.8 ppb Au.
- Detailed soil sampling to be completed on at least 6 other target areas along the Frenzy Trend in 2019, with follow up GT Probe and other work as warranted.
Additional detailed soil sampling will also be conducted on multiple other target areas on the JP Ross property including Suspicion (4.5km SE of Vertigo), Stage Fright (9.5km NW of Vertigo; adjacent to Sabotage), Psycho (6km NE of Vertigo), and Xman (12km N-NE of Vertigo) with follow up GT Probe sampling, geophysical surveys, prospecting, and trenching as warranted.
About White Gold Corp.
The Company owns a portfolio of 22,040 quartz claims across 35 properties covering over 439,000 hectares representing over 40% of the Yukon’s White Gold District. The Company’s flagship White Gold property has a mineral resource of 960,970 ounces Indicated at 2.43 g/t Au and 282,490 ounces Inferred at 1.70 g/t Au as set forth in the technical report entitled “Independent Technical Report for the White Gold Project, Dawson Range, Yukon, Canada”, dated March 5, 2018, filed under the Company’s profile on SEDAR. Mineralization on the Golden Saddle and Arc is also known to extend beyond the limits of the current resource estimate. Regional exploration work has also produced several other prospective targets on the Company’s claim packages which border sizable gold discoveries including the Coffee project owned by Goldcorp Inc. with a M&I gold resource(1) of 3.4M oz and Western Copper and Gold Corporation’s Casino project which has P&P gold reserves(1) of 8.9M oz Au and 4.5B lb Cu. For more information visit www.whitegoldcorp.ca.
- Noted mineralization is as disclosed by the owner of each property respectively and is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization hosted on the Company’s property.
Qualified Person
Jodie Gibson, P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration for the Company is a “qualified person” as defined under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Information
This news release contains “forward-looking information” and “forward-looking statements” (collectively, “forward-looking statements”) within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as “expects”, or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, “plans”, “proposed”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “forecasts”, “estimates”, “believes” or “intends” or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results “may” or “could”, “would”, “might” or “will” be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, the Company’s objectives, goals and exploration activities conducted and proposed to be conducted at the Company’s properties; future growth potential of the Company, including whether any proposed exploration programs at any of the Company’s properties will be successful; exploration results; and future exploration plans and costs and financing availability.
These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include:; expected benefits to the Company relating to exploration conducted and proposed to be conducted at the Company’s properties; failure to identify any additional mineral resources or significant mineralization; the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, including to fund any exploration programs on the Company’s properties; business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold, silver, base metals or certain other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations pressures, cave-ins and flooding); inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining and mineral exploration; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); the unlikelihood that properties that are explored are ultimately developed into producing mines; geological factors; actual results of current and future exploration; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated; soil sampling results being preliminary in nature and are not conclusive evidence of the likelihood of a mineral deposit; title to properties; and those factors described in the most recently filed management’s discussion and analysis of the Company. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information, or the material factors or assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information, will prove to be accurate. The Company does not undertake to release publicly any revisions for updating any voluntary forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities law.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange (the “Exchange”) nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
Contact Information:
David D’Onofrio
Chief Executive Officer
White Gold Corp.
(647) 930-1880
ir@whitegoldcorp.ca