Latest results put Yellowknife City Gold project closer to target gold potential, says Gold Terra

Mining exploration company Gold Terra Resource Corp. — formerly TerraX Minerals Inc. — says its latest drilling results put the Yellowknife City Gold project closer to its target gold potential.

These latest results of 10 holes in the Sam Otto South area of the project were part of a 10,989-metre winter drilling program. Thirty-six holes were drilled, and so far assay results — which measure the quality of a mineral or ore and give a potential value — from 28 have been released.

Gold Terra's Yellowknife City Gold project covers 783 square kilometres of land immediately north and east of the former Giant Mine, near Yellowknife.

In a news release, the company stated that the 10 drill holes totalled 2,754 metres of drilling, with 1,410 core samples assayed. All 10 holes intersected gold mineralization. Assay results ranged from undetectable gold to a highest assay of 4.17 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.

According to the news release, "the drilling results reported to date demonstrate good continuity of the gold mineralization at greater than one g/t and have expanded the mineralized zone beyond the boundaries of the 2019 mineral resource estimate."

According to the company, the Yellowknife City Gold project has an inferred mineral resource of 735,000 ounces gold "within multiple gold-bearing shear structures."

But company chairman Gerald Panneton said Gold Terra still needs to find more gold.

"We're expanding the resource, and our goal is to have enough ounces to make the decision to do a feasibility study, at some point in the future," Panneton said. 

Gold Terra has been exploring the area adjacent to Giant Mine, and completed its winter drilling program at Walsh Lake, less than 20 kilometres from Yellowknife. Before it was Gold Terra, TerraX started exploration activities in 2013 on the initial 37 square kilometres of property. More than 60,000 metres of drilling have been completed.

In 2020, Gold Terra started 10,000 metres worth of drilling to measure the continuity of its Sam Otto gold deposit. They found a continuous gold deposit 500 metres long, between 200 and 250 metres deep.

Panneton wants to triple the size of Gold Terra's gold discoveries to more than two million ounces before it considers moving into the feasibility study stage. 

"We have to demonstrate there are enough ounces, that the metallurgy is good. We already have tests and know that it's good," Panneton said. "It's a work in progress. This is not done yet."

Panneton said he has brought three mines into production in his career and that Yellowknife is an opportune location for a mine, because of local mining expertise.

"It's a long process" from discovery hole to potential mine, he said.

Panneton said Yellowknife has great potential for a local gold project and that the price of gold is currently on Gold Terra's side. The company is expecting to continue additional drilling in the third and fourth quarter of this financial year.