Tectonic Metals Inc. announced the commencement of its 2021 diamond drilling program at the Tibbs Gold Project (“Tibbs”), located in Alaska’s Goodpaster Mining District. The program is Tectonic’s inaugural diamond drilling campaign and will consist of approximately 3,000 metres (“m”) in two phases, with an average hole depth of approximately 200m. Oriented core drilling will test both known exploration targets such as the Michigan Zone (“Michigan”), where Tectonic’s reconnaissance Rotary Air Blast (“RAB”) drilling returned 6.71 grams per tonne gold (“g/t Au”) over 9.14m including 19.3 g/t Au over 3.05m in 2020, and newly identified and untested structural and soil geochemical targets delineated by Tectonic in 2020 such as the West Trench target.
Tony Reda, President & CEO, commented, “The Tibbs Gold Project’s 29,000 acres represent a compelling district-scale gold exploration opportunity only 35km from the world class Pogo Gold Mine. Tibbs hosts some of the highest tenor gold anomalies in the Goodpaster and evidence of compelling Pogo-style vein mineralization. For the first time these targets will be subject to testing with oriented core diamond drilling. We could not be more excited to get the drills turning and look forward to keeping our investors updated as the season progresses.”
Drill Targets
Drilling will be conducted at known high-grade targets (Michigan, Gray Lead Zone (“Gray Lead”)) to obtain detailed structural information which will aid in the interpretation of each target and the overall structural setting of the project.
About the Tibbs Gold Project
The Tibbs project is located in the Goodpaster Mining District approximately 175 kilometres southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, and 35 kilometres east of the Pogo Mine. The project is accessible via helicopter and historic winter trails and hosts an unimproved airstrip in the Tibbs Creek drainage. The property covers 29,280 acres of highly prospective geology hosting over 25 target areas and historic lode gold production in three locations.
Gold mineralization at the property is hosted in both intrusive and metamorphic rocks of the Yukon Tanana Terrane (YTT) and appears to be controlled by the district-scale Black Mountain Tectonic Zone, a northeast trending structural corridor. Three distinct styles of gold mineralization are observed at Tibbs: 1) Pogo-style high-grade gold-quartz veining at the Gray Lead prospect; 2) Intrusion-hosted disseminated sulphides and stockwork gold-quartz-stibnite-arsenopyrite veining at the Michigan and Upper/Lower Trench prospects; and 3) Fort Knox-style intrusion-hosted sheeted gold-quartz-bismuthenite veins at the Jorts and Hilltop prospects. The Tibbs property offers high-grade gold mineralization at surface, in trenches, and in drill core, all in proximity to existing infrastructure and an active mill.
Tectonic has completed exploration work at the property over four campaigns beginning in 2017, with a gradual progression from grassroots methodologies such as geological mapping and power auger soil sampling, heli-portable excavator trenching, and airborne magnetic and electromagnetic geophysics through to RAB drilling campaigns in 2019 and 2020. Soil geochemical sampling in 2020 identified previously unknown, high tenor gold, arsenic, and bismuth soil anomalies west of previous exploration in similar host rocks as the Pogo deposit. Tectonic’s 2021 program will be the first core drilled on the property since 2011 and the first oriented core in the property’s history. The program is designed to obtain structural control on high grade mineralization drilled by the Company over the previous two seasons, while also testing newly discovered exploration targets with similar structural, geological, and geochemical features as mineralization at the Pogo Gold Mine.
Qualified Person & QA/QC
Tectonic’s disclosure of a technical or scientific nature in this press release has been reviewed, verified and approved by Eric Buitenhuis, M.Sc., P.Geo., Tectonic’s Vice President Exploration, who serves as a Qualified Person under the definition of National Instrument 43-101.
About Tectonic
Tectonic Metals Inc. is a mineral exploration company created and operated by an experienced and well-respected technical and financial team with a track record of wealth creation for shareholders. Key members of the Tectonic team were involved with Kaminak Gold Corporation, the company that raised C$165 million to fund the acquisition, discovery and advancement of the Coffee Gold Project in the Yukon Territory through to the completion of a bankable feasibility study before selling the multi-million-ounce gold project to Goldcorp Inc. (now Newmont Goldcorp) for C$520 million in 2016.
Tectonic is focused on the acquisition, exploration, discovery and development of mineral resources from district-scale projects in politically stable jurisdictions that have the potential to host world-class orebodies.
Tectonic believes that responsible mineral exploration and development can positively impact the communities in which the company lives and operates and is committed to early and ongoing community engagement, best practices in environmental stewardship and the development of a strong safety culture. Whether at home or at work, the Tectonic team is grounded on the following core values: passion, integrity, patience, focus, perseverance, honesty, fairness, accountability, respect and a play big mindset. The company works for its shareholders and is committed to creating value for them.
On behalf of Tectonic Metals Inc.,
Tony Reda
President and Chief Executive Officer
For further information about Tectonic Metals Inc. or this news release, please visit our website at www.tectonicmetals.com or contact Tony Reda, President & CEO of Tectonic, or Bill Stormont, Investor Relations, at toll-free 1.888.685.8558 or by email at info@tectonicmetals.com.