The Tin Cup Gold Zone is an initial priority for the Company’s exploration work in 2020 at Secret Pass
Northern Lights commences exploration work at Secret Pass Gold Project. (Credit: PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay)
Northern Lights Resources Corp. (the “Company” or “Northern Lights”) is pleased to announce the commencement of exploration work at the Company’s 100% owned Secret Pass Gold Project (“Secret Pass” of the “Project”) located in Mohave County, northwestern Arizona.
Secret Pass 2020 Exploration Program
The Tin Cup Gold Zone is an initial priority for the Company’s exploration work in 2020 at Secret Pass. The Tin Cup zone accounts for less than 10% of the total license area (See Figure 1). Only the area between Tin Cup and FM gold zones has been drill tested over a strike length of 1.2 km. and very limited surface exploration was conducted on the structures located outside of Tin Cup and FM gold zones.
The mineralized zone has a strike length of approximately 245 metres and a drill-indicated depth of up to 180 metres, both open along strike and depth. High-grade mineralization greater than 3 g/t Au, is localized in a 3.0 to 7.6 metres wide, steeply northeast-dipping structure that occurs within a much wider mineralized fault zone that ranges from 30 to 45 metres in width. The mineralization has a northwest plunge and is open at depth.
The historic Tin Cup mine reportedly produced several hundred tons of mineralized material grading 15 g/t (0.5 oz/t) to 31 g/t (1 oz/t) of gold. Historic workings from the 1930’s included an open pit and an inclined shaft to a depth of 21 metres (70 ft) with minor underground level workings. There has been no known production from the Tin Cup Mine since the 1930’s.
Exploration drilling completed by Santa Fe Pacific Mining and Fisher-Watt Gold Company during the period from 1984 to 1991 intersected significant high grade gold mineralization in the Tin Cup Gold Zone with gold assays ranging as high as 40g/t.
Northern Lights’ initial goals for the Project are to confirm high grade historic drilling results, generate a NI43-101 compliant resource estimate for the Tin Cup Zone, and to establish additional exploration targets over the rest of the 868 hectare license area.
The 2020 exploration program will be conducted in two phases.
Phase 1 Exploration Program:
1. Evaluation and compilation of historic drilling and surface geology into a modern digital format to be used in the GIS and geological modeling – in progress.
2. Completion of drone aeromagnetic and photogrammetry mapping survey over the Tin Cup and FM Zones.
The Company has appointed MWH Geo-Surveys International Inc. to conduct an UAV Orthophoto-digital mapping survey which will generate a high resolution surface model of the entire license area plus a UAV magnetic survey to produce high resolution geological map used to identify structure and mineralized target areas. The UAV surveys are planned to be flown in early March, 2020.
3. Geochemical sampling over target areas to include multiple element as well as low- level gold background survey. For areas of anomalous gold results, additional samples will be taken to determine the extent of a halo of gold mineralization.
4. Geological mapping to identify structure and alteration to extend known mineralization.
5. Three-dimensional modeling of historical data and aeromagnetic survey results to allow Northern Lights to refine the Phase 2 exploration targets and confirm the historical surface and underground mineralization at Tin Cup for resource and mine planning purposes.
The Phase 1 exploration program has an estimated cost of US$150,000 and is expected to be completed over the next two months.
Phase 2 Exploration Program:
The Phase 2 exploration program for the Project will focus on confirmatory and infill drilling of the high grade mineralization at the historic Tin Cup Zone leading to a resource estimate. Northern Lights plans to commence this drilling immediately following the completion of the Phase 1 exploration program.
The Tin Cup drilling will be followed by selective drilling of the additional target areas identified in Phase 1.
Source: Company Press Release