HighGold Mining steps out Johnson Tract in Alaska

Final results for nine holes drilled as part of a 16,418-metre, 32-hole drill program completed last year at HighGold Mining’s (TSXV: HIGH; US-OTC: HGGOF) gold-polymetallic project in southcentral Alaska expand mineralization by 180 metres down-plunge, and on strike of earlier step-out intercepts. Overall, the 2020 drill program expanded the gold-copper-zinc-silver-lead mineralization to a total strike length of 500 metres and to 575 metres down-plunge; the mineralization remains open along strike and at depth.

Highlights from the latest step-out holes included 7.9 metres of 2% copper, 1.7% zinc and 18 grams silver per tonne (2.9% copper-equivalent) from the 180-metre step-out; 56.1 metres of 1.97% zinc, 0.06% copper, 0.32% lead, 0.42 gram gold per tonne and 1.5 grams silver per tonne (1.9 grams gold-equivalent per tonne); and 24 metres of 2.81% zinc, 0.06% copper, 0.19% lead, 0.14 gram gold per tonne and 5.3 grams silver per tonne (2.1 grams gold-equivalent per tonne).

“We are very pleased to see that the extent of the JT mineralized system is growing as we continue to step out northeast and down-plunge of the deposit,” Darwin Green, HighGold’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “(Our) focus will now turn to the upcoming 2021 field season in which we will be targeting both larger step-outs to the northeast and down-plunge with wide-spaced drilling for additional zones of high-grade gold and continued expansion of the JT deposit.”

Green added that he is encouraged by new mineralization discovered 200 metres up-valley from the Johnson Tract deposit, at the Gap target. A grab sample in this area from a clay-altered zone within a drainage system returned 26 grams gold, 4.1% copper and 4% zinc. This boulder features the same host unit as the main deposit at the site.

HighGold expects to mobilize drills to the site in mid-May, details on the 2021 program (including the budget) are expected in late April. Drilling in 2021 will focus on stepping out Johnson Tract and testing the 600-metre long Gap target.

A June 2020 resource for Johnson Tract defined 2.1 million indicated tonnes grading 6.07 grams gold per tonne, 5.8 grams silver per tonne, 0.57% copper, 0.8% lead and 5.85% zinc. Inferred resources add 581,000 tonnes at 2.05 grams gold per tonne, 8.7 grams silver per tonne, 0.54% copper, 0.33% lead and 6.67% zinc.

HighGold acquired Johnson Tract in 2019 and notes that the deposit appears well-suited to longhole underground mining, based on its bulk-tonnage type width.