As announced on August 12, 2014, the Company has been undertaking a summer surface field program at the Unga Project. The program has now been completed, with in excess of 1,775 rock chip, soil and talus samples collected. The program – which consisted of detailed survey work, geochemical sampling and geological trench mapping, the re-evaluation of the historic drill hole database and the re-logging of over 600 m of historic core – will allow Redstar to construct an accurate three-dimensional model of the target areas prior to planning diamond drill targets for a winter 2014/15 core drilling program. First geochemical assay results are expected to be evaluated, including appropriate QA/QC, and released within the month.
Toby Mayo, President and CEO of Redstar, commented: "Our field surface program at the Unga Project has been completed. The program at Unga was designed ultimately to allow the Company to maximize our potential for drilling high-grade gold mineralization while minimizing expenditure; to clearly delineate the potential for expanding areas of known mineralization; and to generate new targets for future exploration. We believe that the program was executed successfully and we look forward to receiving results over the coming weeks. Meanwhile, we will be using this time to compile new and historic data with the view of planning the next phase of exploration at Unga proposed for later in Q4 2014 and into 2015."
The field surface program covered three target areas, details of which are set out below: 1) the Apollo-Sitka Trend; 2) the Aquila Prospect; and 3) the Shumigan Prospect.
The Apollo-Sitka Trend
The Apollo-Sitka Trend is a northeast to southwest trending structure located to the south and east of Unga Island. The trend was a target priority at the beginning of the field surface program due to: 1) a newly acquired surface-use agreement with the Unga Tribe (surface estate holder) granting overland access use; 2) a general lack of understanding to as how mineralization mined previously within the Apollo-Sitka trend compares with the Shumigan Prospect (see below); and 3) the desire to identify additional geochemical or structural anomalies and potentially mineralized quartz-vein systems within the trend.
To test the potential for mineralized anomalies within the Apollo-Sitka Trend, Redstar’s surface sampling program targeted approximately 3,280 m of strike length between the historic Sitka trenches and the California Prospect. Approximately 405 rock samples and 670 soil/talus fine samples were collected. At Sitka, approximately 235 m of historic trenches have been remapped, continuous chip and select sampled to better understand the characteristics of historic mining activities.
The Aquila Prospect
The Aquila prospect occurs at the southwest end of the Shumigan Trend on Unga Island. Historic rock sampling, geological mapping and drill data indicates a strong potential for a high-grade quartz-vein system to occur within the prospect area. A small surface program was established to try to delineate the potential source areas to existing high-grade stream sediment and rock float samples. Approximately 150 soil/talus fines samples and over 50 rock samples were taken from the target area during the summer program.
The Shumigan Prospect
The Shumigan Prospect has received the most attention in recent exploration programs as it contains a very strong potential for expansion of existing high-grade gold mineralization, as defined by historic drilling and surface trenching. The field surface program was designed to accurately organize, compile and then expand upon previously generated exploration data in order to produce an accurate 3D model that will be utilized for diamond drill targeting.