Pony Creek is located on the Carlin Trend in Elko County, Nevada, immediately south and east of Gold Standard Venture's Railroad project
Contact Gold Receives permit for the Pony Creek Gold Project. (Credit: PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay)
Contact Gold Corp. (TSXV: C) (OTCQB: CGOL) (the “Company” or “Contact Gold”) is pleased to announce receipt of a key permit for the Pony Creek gold project (“Pony Creek”), allowing the Company to ramp up drilling to test high-priority targets across a broad area of the property. Drilling to date has been limited to 10 acres, leaving a significant footprint of prospective terrain underexplored.
Pony Creek is located on the Carlin Trend in Elko County, Nevada, immediately south and east of Gold Standard Venture’s Railroad project.
Receiving the Plan of Operations means that all the high priority drill targets developed by Contact Gold over the last 2.5 years can now be drilled. Pony Creek can now support exploration activities, including drill pad and road construction of up to 150 acres a significant increase from the 10 acres previously under Notice of Intent permits that facilitated drilling in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
“Receipt of the Plan of Operations permit is a key milestone for Pony Creek,” said Matt Lennox-King, President & CEO of Contact Gold. “Our exploration success at Pony so far has been within a limited footprint under Notice of Intent permits. The Plan of Operations allows for an aggressive follow up on our recent discoveries at the Stallion and Bowl Zones, and to test the other high-quality drill targets our team has generated over the past 2.5 years. We believe Pony Creek can deliver several new gold discoveries.”
Drilling to date at Pony Creek has been very successful in both expanding previously known zones of near surface gold mineralization and making new discoveries on previously un-drilled targets developed by Contact Gold. Pony Creek was acquired in June 2017 in the “founding” transaction to create Contact Gold. Since that time, the Company has made significant progress advancing, de-risking and augmenting the exploration and growth potential of the property. Contact Gold has drilled 25,960 metres in 117 drill holes across four main target zones, maintaining a hit ratio of over 90% of all drill holes hitting significant gold mineralization (defined as greater than 3 metres grading 0.14 g/t Au).
Bowl Zone:
Drilling by Contact Gold has returned long intervals of near surface oxide gold on this previously known zone of near-surface Carlin Type gold mineralization. The Bowl Zone remains open for expansion in all directions with previous step out drilling limited by permitting. Expansion targets can now be drilled.
Highlights from Contact Gold drilling 2017 – 2019:
1.36 g/t Au over 43.74 m from 116.89 m in hole PCC17-24
including 3.35 g/t Au over 15.55 m from 125.03 m
2.12 g/t Au over 22.86 m from 64.01 m in hole PC17-040
including 4.53 g/t Au over 9.14 m from 65.53 m
2.51 g/t Au over 47.24 m from 86.87 m in hole PC18-03
1.00 g/t Au over 92.97 m from 50.29 m in hole PC18-04
2.42 g/t Au over 35.05 m from 266.7 m in hole PC18-33
including 3.15 g/t Au over 24.38 m from 274.32 m
Stallion Zone:
Stallion was discovered by Contact Gold in 2018. It is an outcropping zone of oxide gold mineralization drilled over a strike length in excess of 2 km. To date 22 of 23 drill holes released have intersected long runs of near-and-at surface, well oxidized gold mineralization.
Drilling can now continue to extend Stallion north where we believe it will link to the Mustang Target.
0.42 g/t Au over 33.53 m oxide from 4.57 m in discovery hole PC18-018
including 1.11 g/t Au over 4.5 m
0.71 g/t oxide Au over 10.67 m from 19.81 m in hole PC18-022
0.33 g/t oxide Au over 92.97 m from surface in hole PC18-51
including 0.6 g/t oxide Au over 13.7 m
Appaloosa Zone:
Appaloosa has continued to return thick intervals of oxide gold in the near surface, and the gold mineralization footprint measures in excess of 1 km. The zone remains open for expansion, with numerous untested coincident gold-in-soil geochemical & geophysical targets yet to be drilled.
Highlights from previous drilling:
0.84 g/t Au over 7.62 m from 85.35 m in hole PC19-17
including 1.56 g/t Au over 3.05 m from 88.39 m
0.47 g/t Au over 43 m – Barrick drill hole 1989
0.91 g/t Au over 38.1m in hole PC-06-03
0.92 g/t Au over 36.5m in hole 95-08
Future Drill Targets:
Through the systematic exploration approach carried out at Pony Creek, Contact Gold has continued to add high quality drill targets to the property. Key targets to be tested with the Plan of Operations area include:
Mustang: The 2 km long target, which has never been drilled, extends west-northwest from the Appaloosa Zone and north from the Stallion Zone, and is defined by: west-northwest structurally controlled gravity and gold-in-soil anomalies cutting Penn-Perm Moleen and Strathearn formation clastic and carbonate rocks, and contains gold-in-soil values as high as 0.54 g/t Au.
The Mustang Target is immediately south of Gold Standard’s Jasperoid Wash deposit, and Contact Gold’s recent interpretation is that it may be connected to the Stallion Zone, with the vast area between the two surface anomalies covered with a thin veneer of unmineralized rock that is in low angle fault contact with the underlying mineralized clastic carbonate rock.
Elliott Dome: Adjacent to the Jasperoid Wash deposit, the 500 x 1000 metre target, which has never been drilled, is defined by north-south structurally controlled gravity, CSAMT and gold-in-soil anomalies cutting clastic and carbonate rocks with gold-in-soil values as high as 0.34 g/t Au. Drill pads and roads have been built for this drill ready target.
Palomino: The 400 x 500 metre target area is located immediately northwest of the Bowl Zone and is defined by a significant gold-in-soil anomaly with local gold-in-soil values up to 0.55 g/t Au. Palomino is interpreted to be located along the major northwest structure that controls gold mineralization at the Bowl Zone and Pony Spur target.
Pony Spur: A northwest oriented structural zone, with abundant Jasperoid development and drilled gold mineralization at the Webb-Devil’s Gate contact, an important regional gold host. Recent soil sampling by Contact Gold has generated a gold-in-soil anomaly measuring 200 X 600 metres, with gold values up to 1.18 g/t Au. Pony Spur is located along the main northwest structure associated with gold mineralization at the Bowl Zone and the Palomino target.
DNZ: A target area defined by geophysical anomalies, the DNZ is interpreted to sit along the main Dark Star – Emigrant structural corridor. The target stratigraphy is covered by post mineral volcanic rocks, resulting in a higher risk, high reward target scenario.
The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Vance Spalding, CPG, VP Exploration, Contact Gold, who is a “qualified person” within the meaning of NI 43-101. Drill intercepts were calculated using a minimum thickness of 3.05 metres averaging 0.14 ppm gold and allowing inclusion of up to 4.57 metres of material averaging less than 0.14 ppm gold for low grade intervals and higher grade intervals were calculated using a minimum thickness of 3.05 metres averaging 1.00 ppm gold and allowing inclusion of up to 4.57 metres of assays averaging less than 1.00 ppm gold. Gravimetric assays are used for all Fire Assays above 4.00 ppm gold. Cyanide solubility assays are completed on all Fire Assays greater than 0.1 g/t. True width of drilled mineralization is unknown, but owing to the apparent flat lying nature of mineralization, is estimated to generally be at least 70% of drilled thickness. The composited grades for comparison to the Bottle Roll assays are weighted averages of the amount of pulp used from individual 5 foot assays. Quality Assurance / Quality Control consists of regular insertion of certified reference standards, blanks, and duplicates. All failures are followed up and resolved whenever possible with additional investigation whenever such an event occurs. All assays are completed at ALS Chemex; an ISO 17025:2005 accredited lab. Check assays are completed at a second, reputable assay lab after the program is complete.
Source: Company Press Release