Epithermal quartz-carbonate veins mineralized with gold and silver
Paved highway and well maintained logging roads
The latest National Instrument ("NI") 43-101 Inferred Resource estimate for the mineralized veins on the 3Ts Project incorporates results from the 2019-2022 diamond drill programs. The 3Ts Project is in the prospective Nechako Plateau region of central British Columbia, 16 km south of Artemis Gold's Blackwater Gold Deposit.
The Tommy and Ted-Mint veins combined contain a NI 43-101 inferred resource estimated to be 4,469,297 tonnes grading 3.64 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 96.26 g/t silver, at a cutoff grade of 0.4 g/t gold equivalent (AuEq) in-pit and 2.01 g/t AuEq underground , containing 522,330 ounces of gold and 13,831,415 ounces of silver.
The 2023 winter drill program has been completed, with a total of 4,000 metres of drill core recovered from 33 drill holes. All drill holes completed to date have been sent to SGS in Vancouver for sample preparation and analysis. Robotic sample preparation is used to ensure reproducibility; samples are pulverized to greater than 85% passing 75 microns. All samples are submitted for four acid digest with an ICP finish. Gold grades are obtained by fire assay with AAS finish. Samples which return greater than 10 parts per million gold and 100 parts per million silver are resubmitted for fire assay with a gravimetric finish.
The 2022 winter drill program has been competed, and results are currently pending. A total of 17 holes were completed for a total of 4,185 metres. Drilling was distributed across the project area, with ten holes into the Ted-Mint target, five into the Tommy target, and the remaining two holes drilled into the newly identified “Balrog” target. The drill program was designed to infill previously intersected gold-silver mineralization within the Ted-Mint and Tommy vein systems and to define the strike extensions of the mineralized veins. Final results from the drill program were used to update the 43-101 inferred resource (an updated resource is available to download from the gallery below).
In 2021, the Company commenced a 4,500 metre drill program, with targets selected with the intention of filling in the known gaps of the previous drilling. Upon review of the drill results, the Company re-analyzed data from the 2020 drill program in order to identify other elements of economic interest, notably copper, lead, molybdenum and zinc. Based on alteration studies, geochemistry and geological work, the Company has now identified the potential for a porphyritic system underlying the 3Ts Property. A deep 3D IP and resistivity survey and a magnetic tellurics ("MT") survey was also completed during 2021, with the goal of imaging the geology beneath the microdiorite sill. The results from this survey showed a strong correlation between high resistivity anomalies of the known vein system both on surface and at depth. Several previously undiscovered vein systems and drill targets were also outlined near surface, as well as a large resistive and conductive anomaly at depth.
In 2020, a 10-hole diamond drill program totaling 2,000 m was conducted, based on the extensive compilation and a 3D geological model of the epithermal vein system, in addition to the magnetic and spectral surveys, completed in 2019. The geological model in particular highlighted significant gaps in the historical drilling in the Tommy and Ted-Mint vein systems that the majority of the planned drillholes tested. Of the 10 drillholes, four were exploratory in nature, dedicated to testing the potential northern extension of the Johnny Vein and the potential southern extension of the Larry Vein, both of which are were not included in the resource estimate described below.
Results from the Tommy Vein drilling confirm that this vein system hosts high-grade gold and silver epithermal mineralization. The best intercept averaged 30.94 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold and 130.0 g/t silver across 3.0 m, within a wider intersection grading 7.97 g/t gold and 37.92 g/t silver over 12.7 m in hole 3T-20-02. This intercept is approximately 40 m along strike from the intercept in hole 95-019 that assayed 8.38 g/t gold and 76.16 g/t silver over 14.3 m.
Drillholes at the Ted-Mint Vein system tested the underexplored Offset vein, which occurs in a faulted contact between the Ted Vein and the mint Veins to the south and north, respectively. Drillhole 3T-20-09 intersected the Ted-Mint Offset Vein between 122.5 and 130.6 m, with an intensely altered diabase dike occurring between 127.0 and 128.4 m. Drillhole 3T-20-10 intersected the Ted-Mint Offset Vein, which contained six intercalated metre-scale intervals of highly altered rhyolite, between 51.0 and 119.6 m. Drillholes 3T-20-09 and 3T-20-10 were both drilled at an azimuth of 073˚ and at -50˚ and -55˚ inclinations, respectively, with the Ted-Mint Offset Vein steeply dipping to the west. Drillholes 3T-20-09 and 3T-20-10 are approximately 24 m apart. The Ted-Mint Offset Vein intersection in drillhole 3T-20-10 is the widest vein interval on the Property to date, and consists of a semi-continuous quartz-carbonate vein hosting significant gold and silver mineralization. The Ted-Mint Vein system remains open at depth and along strike.
In 2019, an extensive historical data review and compilation was conducted, followed by 3D geological modeling of the epithermal vein system based on surface and historical drilling data, laying out the groundwork for future drilling completed in 2020. During the summer of 2019, a detailed TerraSpec alteration mapping program was also carried out focusing on surface exposures around the known mineralized veins and historical drill core stored on site. Following this, a 286.4 line-km drone based magnetic survey was completed over the central part of the 3Ts Property. The resulting magnetic interpretation and a 3D magnetic inversion model, together with the observed alteration features, highlighted numerous areas of interest for follow-up work and assisted in refining several new drill targets.
More than 16 mineralized veins, with strike lengths ranging from 50 metres (m) to more than 900 m and true widths up to 20 m, have been identified at the 3Ts Project. The first gold-bearing quartz vein was discovered in 1993 at Tommy Lake by a BC government mapping crew. Following the discovery, Teck, Cogema and Phelps Dodge conducted geological, geochemical and geophysical surveys, and diamond drilling from 1994 to 1998.
Independence Gold has continued to explore the 3Ts Project with recent work including such activities as structural mapping, petrographic studies, geophysics, diamond drilling and metallurgy at three main targets: the Ted-Mint Vein, the Tommy Vein and the Ringer Target.
3Ts Work Summary | |
Mapping/Prospecting | yes |
Airborne Geophysics (line km) | 286 |
Ground Geophysics (line km) | ~471 |
Rock Sampling | ~2,130 |
Soil Sampling | ~2,844 |
Trenching (#(m)) | 45 (~2,060) |
Diamond Drilling (#(m)) | 267 (~54,680) |
Metallurgical test work conducted on mineralized material from the Ted-Mint Vein in 2013 yielded 97.3% gold recovery and 94.9% silver recovery by using a combination of gravity, flotation and leaching.
The Ted-Mint Vein is a mineralized quartz-carbonate vein structure which has a total strike length of more than 900 m and an average width of about 6 m. The Ted-Mint Vein averages 1.86 g/t gold and 82.7 g/t silver with a more gold rich zone to the north and a more silver rich zone to the south. This mineralized vein structure is open both at depth and along strike.
The Tommy Vein is located 1,200 m west of the Ted-Mint Vein. This mineralized quartz-carbonate vein structure is parallel to the Ted-Mint Vein and has a strike length of 650 m and an average width of about 4.5 m. The Tommy Vein averages 4.25 g/t gold and 41.9 g/t silver with mineralization being more continuous near surface. Further work is needed to outline the geometry of the mineralization at depth.
Mineralized vein float boulders at the Ringer Target area are up to 2 m in maximum dimension. Eight samples from these boulders assayed an average of 19.01 g/t gold and 140.1 g/t silver. The mineralized Ringer Target boulders, and other well-mineralized vein float boulders in other parts of the property indicate the potential to discover new mineralized veins within the 3Ts Project area.
The 3Ts Project area is located along the southern margin of the Nechako Uplift, a northeast-trending, structurally raised block. The structural uplift provides a window through younger cover rocks to the underlying, regionally extensive, volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Lower to Middle Jurassic Hazelton Group, and the Late Jurassic Bowser Lake Group.
Quartz- and feldspar-phyric rhyolite tuffs and flows of the Entiako
Formation are the most abundant rock unit on the 3Ts Project, and host
the gold- and silver-bearing veins. These mineralized quartz-carbonate
veins are part of a robust low sulphidation-type epithermal vein system.
The veins are subvertical, strike north-northwesterly and are crosscut
by a gently-dipping Late Cretaceous microdiorite sill.
The 3Ts Project is comprised of the Tsacha, Taken, Tam, Tommy, Bot and Blackwater South properties. The Company has a 100% interest in these claims, subject to NSRs up to 4% on a sliding scale.
Metallurgical test work was completed in early 2021 on two composite samples taken from 2020 drilling and tested at SGS Canada Inc. The test was initiated in order to confirm the results from a previous metallurgical study taken from the Ted-Mint vein system in 2013 (see news release dated July 9th, 2013). The 2013 study yielded 97.3% gold and 94.9% silver recovery. The following table summarizes the results of the metallurgical test work:
Composite 1 (Tommy Vein) | Composite 2 (Ted-Mint Offset Vein) | |||
Total Gold Recovery | Total Silver Recovery | Total Gold Recovery | Total Silver Recovery | |
Gravity Concentrate | 1.46 % | 0.57 % | 27.6 % | 3.62 % |
Floatation Concentrate | 76.0 % | 74.8 % | 64.1 % | 84.8 % |
Leach Concentrate | 16.4 % | 17.1 % | 6.18 % | 7.07 % |
TOTAL RECOVERY | 93.9 % | 92.4 % | 97.9 % | 95.5 % |
It is believed that recoverability could be further improved by modifying the processes and with additional mineralogical studies to understand deportment of the gold and silver within the Tommy Vein compared to the Ted-Mint Offset Vein.