Atac defines new orogenic gold system at Airstrip in the Yukon

Canadian Mining Journal Staff | September 14, 2020 | 5:47 am Exploration Canada Gold

ATAC Resources’ fire station at its Rackla Gold Project in the Yukon. (Image from archives)

Results from the first-phase exploration program at Atac Resources’ 11.5-sq.-km Airstrip target, part of the 1,700-sq.-km Rackla gold property in east-central Yukon, have defined an orogenic gold system. Drilling has outlined mineralization over an area of 1,000 metres by 500 metres and across 300 vertical metres.

To date, Atac has completed 12 rotary air blast (RAB) holes, in addition to prospecting, trenching, mapping and trail building at this portion of Airstrip.

RAB drill results include both broad intervals of mineralization, such as 36.6 metres of 0.51 g/t gold from 39.6 metres, as well as higher-grade intervals, which include 1.5 metres of 3.11 g/t gold starting at 32 metres.

Atac holds 100% of the 1,700-sq.-km Rackla gold project, made up of the Rau, Orion and Osiris properties

Rock samples from the area returned up to 6.39 g/t gold.

“The identification of an orogenic gold system at the Airstrip target is very exciting. These types of systems have the potential to host significant bulk-tonnage gold deposits, and this is the first identification of this style of mineralization in the area,” Graham Downs, Atac’s president and CEO, said in a release.

Downs added that diamond drilling at Airstrip is now underway – two diamond rigs and one RAB unit are drilling this area. As the Airstrip anomaly covers over 6 km of strike, additional RAB drilling is also planned to “evaluate the target at the kilometre-scale.”

Airstrip is an 11.5-sq.-km gold-in-soil anomaly, with values of up to 2.36 g/t gold, currently interpreted as a Phanerozoic-age orogenic gold system. The three drills are expected to continue working through to the end of September.

Atac holds 100% of the 1,700-sq.-km Rackla gold project, made up of the Rau, Orion and Osiris properties. Rau includes the Tiger carbonate replacement deposit, with measured and indicated resources of 4.5 million tonnes grading 3.19 g/t gold, for a total of 464,000 gold oz. Airstrip also sits within the Rau portion of the property. Earlier this year, Atac tabled an updated preliminary economic assessment for Tiger.

Osiris, with the first discovery of Carlin-type gold in Canada, features total inferred mineral resources, across four zones, of 12.4 million tonnes, at 4.23 g/t gold, containing 1.69 million oz. of gold.

(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)