Sitka finds visible gold at RC project in Yukon

Sitka Gold (TSX-V: SIG; US-OTC: SITKF) says it encountered visible high-grade gold on multiple occasions during new drilling at its RC property in the Yukon. The stock rose.

Highlight hole DDRCRG-25-006 at the Rhosgobel discovery cut 166 metres of 1.14 grams gold per tonne from surface, Vancouver-based Sitka said Tuesday. This included 8 metres of 4.86 grams gold, also from surface.

Drilling at Rhosgobel “continues to confirm that we have made a very significant gold discovery,” Sitka CEO Cor Coe said in a statement. “The potential for the Rhosgobel intrusion to host a large, multi-million-ounce gold deposit similar to other known deposits in the Tombstone gold belt is becoming more evident with these recent results.”

With 22 holes drilled so far this year at Rhosgobel, Tuesday’s results add to a productive summer of exploration for Sitka, following its first high-grade hole in June. The company is almost two-thirds of the way through a planned 10,000-metre drilling program at the deposit. Crews have completed 62 holes, or about three-quarters of a planned 30,000 metre drilling campaign for RC. Four diamond drills are active on the project, and assay results are pending for another 48 holes.

Sitka shares climbed 2.7% to 75¢ in morning trading Tuesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. That gave the company a market capitalization of about $279 million (US$202 million).

Advanced targets

Among the highlights released Tuesday, hole DDRCRG-25-004 cut 239.9 metres of 0.6 gram gold from 3.1 metres downhole, including 20 metres grading 1.02 grams gold from the same depth. It also intersected 18 metres of 1.36 grams gold from 100 metres downhole.

All six of the first diamond drill holes at Rhosgobel have returned intersections exceeding 100 gram-metres of gold, Sitka says. Sixteen of the 22 holes drilled over about 900 metres of strike length produced visible gold.

The mineralization at Rhosgobel remains open in all directions, Sitka said.

With advanced drill targets at the Saddle, Pukelman-Contact and Bear Paw Breccia zones, plus other targets across Sitka’s 431-sq.-km claim block, “the potential for further resource growth at RC Gold is significant,” Coe added.

Resource update

RC hosts about 40 million indicated tonnes grading 1.01 grams gold for 1.3 million oz., according to a resource update released in January. Inferred resources total 34.6 million tonnes at 0.94 gram gold for 1 million ounces.

The RC property is located about 100 km east of Dawson City. It hosts one of the largest gold projects along the belt by resource size, in league with Snowline Gold’s (TSXV: SGD; US-OTC: SNWGF) Valley project and Banyan Gold’s (TSXV: BYN; US-OTC: BYAGF) AurMac.

RC also comprises the largest consolidated land package in Yukon between the shuttered Eagle gold mine and the past-producing Brewery Creek mine.

Sitka in April raised $11.8 million and said it would use the proceeds on exploration at RC. The bought deal financing was led by a group of underwriters including Agentis Capital, Paradigm Capital and Cormark Securities.