Kiboko Gold drills 4.2 g/t gold over 5 metres at Harricana, Quebec

Kiboko Gold Inc. [KIB-TSXV] reported results from the remaining 25 holes (4,846 metres) of its systematic 70-hole (11,269 m) phase 1 verification exploration program at its Harricana gold project 55 km north of Val d’Or, Quebec.

These 25 holes were drilled at the Hooper-Bunkhouse (HB) and Lot 14 zones located west of the drilling at the Marcotte and Claverny zones within the Fontana area that were reported previously.

Select intervals include 4.2 g/t gold over 5 metres (DDFON23-015), including 19.2 g/t gold over one meytres; 7.2 g/t gold over 0.85 metres (DDFON23-014); 6.3 g/t gold over one metre (DDFON22-012); and 2.8 g/t gold over two metres (DDFON22-034).

Jeremy Link, president and CEO, stated: “Our drilling at Harricana continues to intersect significant intervals of mineralization, including visible gold. Drilling at Marcotte, Claverny and Lot 14 has substantially verified historical results and we’re confident they can be relied upon for resource estimation. Although our drilling in the structurally complex Hooper-Bunkhouse zone intersected significant gold mineralization, including visible gold, it did not always replicate the historical intervals.

“This was not unexpected given the exploratory nature of our program and the anastomosing nature of the veins, veinlets and shear zones. While the work is still under way, we expect to be able to rely upon much of the historical Hooper-Bunkhouse zone drilling for mineral resource estimation. With the maiden mineral resource targeted for this summer, our team continues to be excited about the potential of the Harricana gold project.”

Kiboko’s interpretation is that the Harricana gold project is a collection of parallel subvertical shear-hosted mineralized zones contained within a Riedel-type system.

At the Fontana area of the property, the mineralized zones are predominately located along major northwest-southeast (N135 degrees) shears (the Fontana trend) and along conjugate shears with limited thickness and extension. Accordingly, a planned drilling azimuth of N045 degrees was utilized for the exploration program. This direction was expected to be perpendicular to the primary Fontana trend (N135 degrees) but also sufficiently oblique to other second- and third-order mineralization for deposit evaluation.

In Kiboko’s phase 1 program, 25 holes (4,846 m) were drilled at the HB and Lot 14 zones of the Fontana area of the Harricana gold project.

Within the HB zone, the company interpreted the presence of two significant trends related to gold mineralization, thereby adding structural complexity. In the phase 1 program, the main Fontana trend was expected to be the dominant control on gold mineralization within the HB zone, with a secondary conjugate trend striking N025 degrees with limited extension (the Bunkhouse trend).

While Kiboko’s drilling within the HB zone intersected significant mineralization, including visible gold, it did not always reproduce the intervals seen in some of the historical results, but it also encountered unexpected mineralization. The discrepancy in results was not unexpected and is attributed to the nature of the mineralization and not due to geological discontinuity.

As a result, the company’s current interpretation is that while the HB zone consistently intercepted the favourable alteration that typically surrounds gold mineralization at Fontana, and intercepted the Bunkhouse trend’s shear zone, Kiboko did not encounter gold mineralization in the Bunkhouse trend over the same widths as occasionally seen in the historical drilling. While this is disappointing, it was not unexpected, and is attributed to the HB zone’s structural complexity.

The company completed several drill holes that targeted an area of the Bunkhouse zone where a prior operator had reported spectacular results, including 9.3 g/t Au over 25 m (JB-200); 14.4 g/t Au over 18 m (JB-200B); and 21.6 g/t Au over 20 m (JB-200B).

The company is targeting the reporting of a maiden mineral resource for a portion of the Fontana area in the third quarter of 2023. While this work is continuing, there appears to be consistency between the historical drilling and the new drilling, and the company’s exploration model.

The near-surface exploration targets for the Fontana area of the project range from 13.6 million to 23.1 million tonnes at a range of grades of three to 3.4 g/t gold.

Kiboko’s Harricana gold project is a consolidated +100 km² prospective mineral claim package.

tsxv
gold