Core Assets Corp. March 5 reported that its 2023 drilling has encountered significant gold mineralization that seems to have overprinted the silver-zinc-lead-copper massive sulfides at the Silver Lime project on the company’s Blue property in Northern British Columbia.
Covering 111,650 hectares (275,890 acres) alongside the Alaska border in B.C.’s Atlin Mining District, Blue hosts Laverdiere, a high-grade iron-copper-gold skarn target in the southeastern area of the land package, and Silver Lime, a carbonate replacement deposit (CRD) and porphyry project about 15 kilometers (nine miles) to the west.
Most of Core Assets’ exploration has focused on a 6.6-kilometer (4.1 miles) mineralized corridor of conductive anomalies at Silver Lime that appears to be interconnected at depth by vertical conductive features.
• Highlights from 2022 and 2023 drilling at the Sulfide City, Jackie, Grizzly, Pete’s, and Gally targets along a 2,400-meter-long trend at Silver Lime include:
• 1.25 meters averaging 215 grams per metric ton silver, 9.9% zinc, 8.9% lead, and 0.36% copper in hole SLM22-001 (Jackie).
• 5.64 meters averaging 254 g/t silver, 4.8% zinc, 5.1% lead, 0.11% copper, and 0.12 g/t gold in hole SLM22-011 (Grizzly).
• 6.4 meters averaging 159 g/t silver, 7.7% zinc, 8.7% lead, and 023% copper in hole SLM23-028 (Pete’s).
• 2.2 meters averaging 187 g/t silver, 10.2% zinc, 13.7% lead, and 0.53% copper in hole SLM23-038 (Jackie).
• 4.55 meters averaging 116 g/t silver, 4.9% zinc, 6.7% lead, and 0.41% copper in hole SLM23-042 (Jackie).
• Eight meters averaging 139 g/t silver, 2.3% zinc, 1.2% lead, and 0.18% copper in hole SLM23-048 (Gally).
Core Assets reports that its 2023 drilling has also encountered significant gold grades at the Pete’s, Amp, Falcon, and Jackie target areas. Highlights from the more gold-dominant drill intercepts include:
• 1.64 meters averaging 3.64 g/t gold and 64 g/t silver from a depth of 10.4 meters in hole SLM23-029 (Pete’s).
• Two meters averaging 1.26 g/t gold and 13 g/t silver from a depth of seven meters in hole SLM23-030 (Pete’s).
• Two meters averaging 5.42 g/t gold and 5.6 g/t silver from a depth of 335 meters in hole SLM23-041 (Jackie).
“We are thrilled to have intersected gold-rich zones at the Silver Lime Porphyry-CRD project,” said Core Assets President and CEO Nick Rodway. “We continue to uncover evidence for a district-scale example of the full mineralization spectrum.”
This spectrum is centered on a molybdenum-copper porphyry hub at Sulphide City and extends out through zinc-lead-silver-copper massive sulfides and on to late-staged gold mineralization at more distal reaches at Silver Lime.
Based on the geological evidence, the company has interpreted that late gold-bearing fluids utilized the same structural pathways that focused the earlier massive sulfide-bearing ore-fluids, making these newly discovered, steep conduits excellent drill targets for both high-grade massive sulfide and later gold mineralization.
“In 2023, multiple shallowly dipping drillholes intersected these steep gold-rich conduits,” said Rodway. “These gold zones remain open for exploration, and we look forward to providing continued updates as we prepare for our fully funded 2024 exploration program.”
Core Assets also reports that surface samples with comparable gold and silver grades as those encountered with drilling at the Silver Lime project have been discovered in massive sulfide and quartz-carbonate veins as far as 3.2 kilometers (two miles) northwest of Pete’s, indicating a potential 7.7-kilometer (4.8 miles) trend of late-staged gold mineralization at Sulfide City.