White Rock Minerals Ltd (ASX:WRM) (OTCMKTS:WRMCF) is setting its sights on a game-changing 2021 as it focuses on the highly prospective Last Chance Gold Target (NYSE:TGT) in the Tintina region of Alaska.
Last Chance is a 15 square kilometre region within Alaska’s famed Tintina Gold Belt that stretches for more than 1,000 kilometres across the northern part of the North American Cordillera, a mountainous region along the western side of the Americas.
In prolific region
Tintina is home to gold deposits such as Donlin Creek (45 million ounces gold) owned by NovaGold Resources Inc (NYSEAMERICAN:NG) and Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD), Fort Knox (13.5 million ounces) owned by Kinross Gold Corp (NYSE:KGC) and Pogo (10 million ounces) owned by Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:ASX:NST).
In late December 2020, White Rock discovered a new large and robust gold anomaly measuring 5 square kilometres along strike just to the west of the Last Chance target, which is within the broader Red Mountain project.
Newly-identified gold anomalies provide additional targets for drill testing targeted for the second half of 2021, following ground reconnaissance and detailed surface sampling.
2021 discovery potential
White Rock technical advisor Dr Quinton Hennigh said: “White Rock’s recently expanded land package continues to yield a multitude of highly prospective stream sediment gold anomalies.
“Collectively, there are approximately 30 square kilometres of drainages shedding anomalous gold across the Last Chance property indicating excellent potential for discovery.
“Geologically, these anomalies appear to be related to a series of Cretaceous age intrusive bodies generally following the same trend, a sign we are dealing with a Tintina type gold system.
“We are very eager to get back in the field to follow-up on these new anomalies and define new drill targets to add to our already robust plans for drilling the main target area in 2021.”
The story so far
White Rock first flagged an extensive 2021 drilling program back in October 2020 after it received promising early signs from the Last Chance target.
By December, it had received results that included a peak gold assay of 1.2 metres at 24.8 g/t.
All holes in the eight-hole diamond drill campaign intersected multiple intervals of low-grade-but-significant gold mineralisation associated with hydrothermal silica breccia bodies, diffuse quartz-arsenopyrite veining and silicification.
These results supported the company’s interpretation that the erosional level at Last Chance is within the upper brittle regime of a very large orogenic or intrusion-related gold system with potential for more favourable gold deposition at depth.
The latest samples define a catchment area more than 5 square kilometres with anomalous gold up to 124 parts per billion (ppb), comparable to some of the peak results at the Last Chance gold anomaly.
A further six gold anomalies are clustered to the south around the Last Chance target, where the associated Cretaceous age granites are interpreted to trend beneath the surface at relatively shallow depths.
Collectively, these gold anomalies indicate there is a multitude of untested targets at Last Chance.
So, what’s next?
White Rock is undertaking a detailed magnetics inspection of the site to define the shape of the source intrusion at depth, and the upper structural architecture that provide fluid migration pathways for mineralisation sourced from the granites.
The company says integration of the new areas of gold anomalism with the structural interpretation is expected to yield numerous targets for aggressive focused surface prospecting and drilling ahead of the 2021 season.
- Daniel Paproth