Mineral Mountain Target Results At Goldstrike Project
VANCOUVER, BC – Liberty Gold Inc. reported drill results from the Mineral Mountain Target at the 100% controlled Goldstrike Oxide Gold Project in southwestern Utah. Mineral Mountain is located in the northwest corner of the project area, approximately 6 km from the Main Zone. The Company has and continues to focus its exploration attention at the Main Zone in order to define a district-scale, oxide gold system. Results have been received from the first Liberty Gold drill hole program at Mineral Mountain, where historical drill results indicated the presence of gold mineralization.
Highlights from the Mineral Mountain Target include: 1.02 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au) over 13.7 meters (m) and 0.74 g/t Au over 10.7 m in PGS253; 1.16 g/t Au over 25.9 m including 3.48 g/t Au over 4.6 m in PGS255; 0.58 g/t Au over 6.1 m and 0.51 g/t Au over 7.6 m in PGS264; 0.79 g/t Au over 29.0 m including 1.97 g/t Au over 4.6 m in PGS265; 0.39 g/t Au over 19.8 m and 0.53 g/t over 6.1 m in PGS268; 0.53 g/t Au over 10.7 m in PGS273 and 1.78 g/t Au over 67.1 m including 3.14 g/t Au over 32.0 m in PGS277.
Additional field and geophysical work will be carried out in order to fully understand this area before resuming drilling. The 13-drill hole program is spread out along 1 km of strike of exposed Claron Formation and felsic intrusive rocks. Additional drill results are pending. The interpretative model Taat Mineral Mountain is similar to the rest of the Goldstrike project area. Mineralization starts at surface in holes PGS255 and PGS277. The mineralized zone in these holes is open to depth and to the south. The Mineral Mountain target is located 1.5 km south of a granitoid intrusion, with a skarn and hornfelsed aurole extending up to 1.5 to 2 km from the intrusion margin. The higher-grade intercepts are partially hosted within felsic dykes related to the intrusion. Areas of oxidized jasperoid marginal to the dykes, in association with the preferred Claron Formation, also contain gold. The Mineral Mountain intrusion, or buried intrusions related to it, may be drivers of gold mineralization on a region-wide scale, as a source of heat and hydrothermal fluids.
Liberty Gold has staked additional claims to the southeast of the intrusion to link the Live Oak target to the contiguous Goldstrike Property.Several other targets with gold mineralization are located in the vicinity of Mineral Mountain, including Black Canyon, a 2 km by 500 m northwest - southeast target area with gold-bearing Claron Formation jasperoid at surface, and the Live Oak target, 2 km to the north of the Mineral Mountain gold target and immediately south east of the intrusion, which contains gold-bearing skarn alteration on surface and in historical drill holes. The Live Oak area is marked by 2 x 1 km gold in soil anomaly, and was tested by a few gold-bearing historic drill holes. Field work and geochemical sampling will be carried out in these areas prior to further drill testing. Induced Polarization (IP) geophysical surveys, currently in progress in the Main Zone, will be extended into this area later in the year.
Both Mineral Mountain and Black Canyon are covered under the Goldstrike Plan of Operations received in June 2017.
Since acquisition, Liberty Gold has compiled a digital database of drill holes (+1,500), blast hole samples (+100,000) and historic rock and soil samples, and has constructed a 3D model of geology and mineralization. 2014 and 2015 fieldwork included collection of an additional 1,384 soil samples and 294 rock samples, staking of additional claims, detailed mapping and a successful ‘proof of concept’ reverse circulation drill program comprising 18 holes.
The 2016 infill and step-out drilling program was completed with the objective of targeting unmined and/or undrilled areas between and around the historic pits. The program also drill tested down-dip to the north of, and laterally beyond the 7 km long ‘Historic Mine Trend’ into areas where gold has been confirmed but not systematically drilled off. The drill program consisted of both reverse circulation (163 holes) and core drilling (10 holes). The ten core holes were used to provide sample material for metallurgical studies (including column testing) and provide samples for density measurements, which are needed for accurate resource estimation.
Goldstrike is located in the eastern Great Basin, immediately adjacent to the Utah/Nevada border, and is a Carlin-style gold system, similar in many ways to the prolific deposits located along Nevada’s Carlin trend. Like Kinsley Mountain and Newmont’s Long Canyon deposit, Goldstrike represents part of a growing number of Carlin-style gold systems located off the main Carlin and Cortez trends in under explored parts of the Great Basin. Gold mineralization was discovered in the district in the late 1890’s with early mining (1900 – 1920) focused on gold-bearing, limonitic calcite veins and “quartz ledges (jasperoids) that outcropped in and around the present mine workings. Modern exploration began in the 1980’s with the identification of Carlin-style gold mineralization and deposit models. Surface and near surface deposits were defined and total production was on the order of 209,000 ounces of gold and 198,000 ounces of silver. Tenneco mined oxidized, disseminated, sediment-hosted gold ore with an average grade of approximately 1.2 gram/tonne (0.035 ounce/ton) from 12 distinct pits along a northeast-striking trend that covers a distance of approximately 6.5 kilometers (4 miles). The property was sold to USMX in 1993 and the mine was closed in 1996 and fully reclaimed.