Tower Hill hits gold 1 km northeast of Livengood deposit

Vancouver – A 45,000-metre drilling effort at the Livengood gold project in Alaska is starting to pay off for owner International Tower Hill Mines (ITH-V) as drills have hit mineralization more than 1 km northeast of the current resource.

Tower Hill has already drilled 56 holes totaling 16,300 metres this summer and plans to complete another 25,000 metres of drilling before the end of the year. The work done to date has extended mineralization to the northeast and east.

One of the key holes drilled to the northeast was hole 143, which returned 30.5 metres grading 1.06 grams gold per tonne from 119 metres depth, followed by 47.3 metres of 0.78 gram gold from 165 metres. Nearby, hole 145 cut 25.9 metres of 0.91 gram gold starting 69 metres downhole; between 150 and 260 metres depth the hole also returned 57.9 metres of 0.54 gram gold and 44.2 metres of 0.6 gram gold. And hole 155 intersected 35.1 metres averaging 1.59 grams gold from 69 metres depth, 32 metres of 0.76 gram gold from 163 metres depth, and 53.3 metres grading 1.35 grams gold from 247 metres depth.

Other promising results from the northeast sector include holes 156 and 158. Hole 15 returned four mineralized intercepts between the surface and 287 metres depth: 64 metres of 0.74 gram gold, 42.7 metres of 0.62 gram gold, 32 metres of 0.59 gram gold, and 80.8 metres of 0.65 gram gold. And hole 158 cut three intercepts between 37 and 223 metres depth: 29 metres of 0.52 gram gold, 18.3 metres of 1.81 grams gold, and 59.4 metres of 0.79 gram gold.

Drills have also extended mineralization 225 metres to the east. Assays are still pending for many of the holes in this area but hole 153 cut 57.9 metres grading 0.93 gram gold from 146 metres depth and hole 157 returned three hits between 160 and 241 metres depth: 10.7 metres of 1.88 grams gold, 36.6 metres of 0.81 gram gold, and 25.9 metres of 0.73 gram gold.

In addition to extending mineralization laterally, in its summer drill program Tower Hill is drilling several deep holes to probe for structural controls at depth, below the Core zone mineralization. The first such hole, hole 34, intersected several zones of well-mineralized rock associated with north-northwest trending, steeply dipping veins and a high concentration of dikes. The hole returned 22 metres of 0.98 gram gold from 83 metres depth, 41 metres of 1.17 grams gold from 130 metres downhole, and 48 metres of 1.02 grams gold from 210 metres. The company says the results “confirm the structural control for the deep target in this area” and is currently drilling several more deep holes.

The Money Knob deposit is a shallowly dipping, outcropping ore zone likely amenable to open pit mining. The deposit covers 2.6 sq. km, only a small portion of the 12-sq. km gold target zone at Livengood, and remains open in all directions.

The Core zone, differentiated by a cut-off grade of 0.7 gram gold per tonne, hosts 85 million indicated tonnes grading 1.06 grams gold and 68.9 million inferred tonnes averaging 0.99 gram gold. The Money Knob deposit as a whole contains 234.9 million indicated tonnes grading 0.69 gram gold and 280.6 million inferred tonnes averaging 0.59 gram gold, using a 0.3-gram-gold cut-off grade. Total contained gold has reached 10.5 million oz.

Livengood is favourably located, sitting 110 road km north of Fairbanks along the paved Elliot Highway and the Trans-Alaska pipeline corridor. It is also 55 km north of the Alaska state power grid, along the proposed Alaskan natural gas pipeline route. Tower Hill owns the 44-sq. km Livengood land package completely.

On news of the latest set of drill results, Tower Hill’s share price gained 4¢ to close at $3.35. The company has a 52-week trading range of $1.07 to $4 and has 56 million shares outstanding.