The first ever diamond drill holes by Sitka Gold (TSXV: SIG) at the Rhosgobel intrusion at its RC Gold project in western Yukon have returned high grades from relatively shallow depths. Shares rose.
Hole DDRCRG-24-001 cut 164.8 metres grading 0.82 gram gold per tonne from 9.1 metres depth, including 119 metres at 1.05 grams gold, 38 metres at 2.05 grams gold and 11.5 metres grading 4.32 grams gold, Sitka reported on Monday.
“The results of the first two diamond drill holes ever drilled at the Rhosgobel intrusion target have exceeded our expectations,” Car Coe, Sitka CEO and director, said in a news release.
“Rhosgobel is the largest intrusion target within the Clear Creek Intrusive Complex and these holes have confirmed that robust gold mineralization persists here to a vertical depth of at least 300 metres.”
The assay results follow initial reports of visible gold at Rhosgobel in early October, when the diamond drill program started.
Sitka shares gained 16% to C$0.40 apiece on Monday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at C$127.3 million. Its shares traded in a 52-week range of C$0.13 to C$0.57.
Drill hole DDRCRG-24-002 returned 173.3 metres at 0.6 gram gold from 97 metres depth, including 28.4 metres grading 1.37 grams gold, 12.4 metres at 2.43 grams gold, and 1.1 metres at 8.99 grams gold.
The results also confirmed that gold mineralization is laterally open in all directions, Coe said. The mineralization sits inside a 2-km by 1.5-km gold-in-soil anomaly with values ranging from 100 parts per billion (ppb) to 500 billion ppb.
Rhosgobel is the largest and southernmost exposed intrusion within the Clear Creek Intrusive Complex (CCIC), where intrusions are inside an area of about 8 by 15 km and which Sitka says likely share a common magmatic source at depth.
The gold mineralization in all of the intrusions suggests the CCIC forms a large system which potentially hosts several gold deposits.
Rhosgobel is located about 5 km south of the Blackjack deposit within Sitka’s RC gold project. RC, located 100 km east of Dawson City, comprises 423 sq. km and hosts 1.3 million inferred oz. of gold contained in the Blackjack and Eiger gold deposits, according to an initial resource released in January 2023.
The company plans to continue with its diamond drilling program as it advances various targets at RC.
