Evergold Corp (TSX-V:EVER, OTC:EVGUF) has updated the exploration model for its 100% owned Holy Cross gold-silver property in central British Columbia in advance of plans to carry out up to 2,500 metres of drilling commencing in October 2022.
"It's always exciting to be the first to drill targets of this scale," Evergold president and CEO Kevin Keough said in a statement.
"With Blackwater not too far to the south, we're in fertile geological terrane, and very much looking forward to doing the work. The fact that we have these targets to drill reflects the systematic approach to exploration applied to all our projects by our exploration team, CJ Greig & Associates, including at our Rockland, Nevada property, where the same methodical approach is revealing a felsic intrusive-extrusive complex similar to that at Holy Cross, associated closely with mineralization and promising geophysical anomalies," he added.
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The Holy Cross property has vehicle access, moderate topography, is largely treeless and can be drilled year-round, Evergold said.
Work by the company, including two lines of deeper-sensing induced polarization (IP) survey in 2015, a detailed airborne magnetic survey in 2019, and a line of audio-magnetotellurics in 2021, along with mapping and rock and soil geochemical sampling programs carried out this season, has revealed attractive coincident geophysical and geochemical anomalies, it added.
Grab samples, although not necessarily representative of mineralization on the property, have run to highs of 8.86 grams per ton (g/t) gold (Au) by Evergold, and to 26.02 g/t Au and 50.0 g/t silver (Ag) in samplings by previous operators Noranda and Phelps Dodge, respectively.
The company said it interprets the observed widespread surface Au-Ag and pathfinder element anomalism, and silicious-pyritic and clay alteration as representing the upper levels of a potentially intact felsic intrusion-related, low sulphidation, epithermal gold-silver system, with the higher-grade parts of the system lying at depth.
Testing this theory by targeting attractive coincident geophysical-geochemical anomalies, at least four of which have been identified to date, will be the focus of the fully-finance first-ever drill program at Holy Cross.
Crews are presently on the ground, bringing up the soil sampling density, and flagging lines for an additional 16 line-kilometers of IP, with the survey to be completed in the coming months prior to drilling, the company said.
Holy Cross has in the past attracted the attention of major mining companies, including Noranda (1987-1989), Kennecott (1994), and Phelps Dodge (1995-1997) for its large-scale geochemical anomalies and potential to host epithermal-style, felsic intrusion-related gold-silver mineralization with some similarities to the region's Blackwater deposit, presently being developed by Artemis Gold, and hosting published resources of almost 12 million ounces of gold and 122 million ounces of silver, Evergold noted.
However, prior operators have only carried out some 2 kilometers of trenching, along with considerable soil geochemical sampling, geologic mapping, and local IP surveys, but the target areas were never drilled, leaving the potential for a significant discovery, it added
Evergold is a Canadian explorer with four wholly-owned precious metals projects in British Columbia: Golden Lion, Holy Cross, Snoball and Spanish Lake, and a single project under option in Rockland, Nevada.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com