progress report
NuLegacy hits thick package of Wenban5 unit at Red Hill
2020-11-25 06:55 ET - News Release
Mr. Albert Matter reports
NULEGACY DISCOVERS THICK PACKAGE OF FAVOURABLE WENBAN5
A very thick package (about 175 metres) of the favourable Wenban5 stratigraphic unit has been confirmed by the first two drill holes targeting the approximately six-square-kilometre Rift Anticline target on NuLegacy Gold Corp.'s Red Hill Carlin gold project, Nevada. It is the Wenban5 horizon that hosts 75% of the gold in Nevada Gold Mines' adjacent Goldrush deposit.
The 108 sq. km, 100% owned2 Red Hill property is adjacent to and on trend with the three3 Nevada Gold Mines owned high-grade Carlin-type gold deposits in Nevada's Cortez gold-trend. These deposits are ranked amongst the world's thirty largest, lowest cost and politically safest gold mines.
The presence of a thick section of Wenban5 underneath Miocene basalt cover was predicted by NuLegacy's geologic team. This discovery confirms the Rift Anticline target has the potential to host a very large Carlin-type gold system. The Wenban5 is similar to that of NuLegacy's Serena and North Iceberg deposits approximately 2,500 meters to the east where high-grade gold (9.6 to 16.9 grams/tonne) in albeit thinner intercepts (5 to 12 meters) was encountered in prior drilling.
A comprehensive geologic review and geophysical studies of the project over the past eighteen months resulted in the hypothesis that a thicker package of possibly gold-bearing Wenban5 underlay the covered Rift Anticline target 2,500 meters west of the Serena and Iceberg deposits. Importantly, this hypothesis is further supported by the fact that the high-grade gold bearing Wenban5 at Nevada Gold Mines' Goldrush deposit 11 km to the northwest is at least 70 meters thick. Initial logging of the core from the two just completed holes (detailed below) has identified favourable hydrothermal alteration consistent with a Carlin-type gold system being hosted in the Wenban5 of the Rift Anticline target.
Geological model confirmed: The first two holes completed into the Rift Anticline target validate our exploration team's expertise and geo-modeling capability in having correctly projected and targeted the favourable Wenban5 horizon, and the presence of a Carlin-type gold system which was intercepted at a depth of approximately 350 meters with a thickness of ~175 meters.
RA20-01C (-72 degrees, azimuth 70 degrees) which commenced drilling on Oct 15th took 16 days to complete to a depth of 585 meters (1918 ft) and intercepted 178 meters (580 ft) of Wenban5 starting at a depth of 324 meters; the core was logged and then shipped for assaying on November 6th
RA20-02C (-84 degrees, azimuth 160 degrees) which commenced drilling on Nov 2nd, approximately 300 meters to the northeast of RA20-01, intercepted 169 meters (555 ft) of Wenban5 starting at a depth of 340 meters and was terminated at a depth of 630 meters (2068 ft); the hole has just been completed and once initially logged the core will be shipped for assaying
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic much of Nevada's 2020 spring and early summer drilling programs were deferred to the late summer and fall and as such the assay labs are reporting five to six weeks turn arounds for assay results; we anticipate the analytical results for these two holes in late December.
Geological details: The geological model continues to support the hypothesis that the Rift Anticline target is a Goldrush analogue with:
- 175 +/- meters of Wenban Unit 5 with the marker horizons for the upper, middle, and lower subunits of the Wenban5 intercepted in both holes.
- Thin Wenban Unit 8-6 was intercepted at top of the carbonate sequence, overlying Wenban Unit 5 as predicted in both holes indicating that none of the favourable Wenban5 has been eroded or faulted off as is the case in the Serena and North zones to the east.
- Depth to top of Paleozoic Wenban5 carbonates relatively close to predicted: 38 meters deeper in first hole, 52 meters shallower in second hole.
- Acoustic Televiewer data from RA20-01 shows a fault at the base of the anomalously altered zone. This fault has a north-northwest strike and moderate west dip (same strike, steeper dip than gold-control at Iceberg) with the same approximate strike/dip as primary gold-control at Goldrush.
Drilling: With the recruitment of a second core rig, drilling of holes RA20-03 and 04, which are deeper than the first two holes (located on linked map), has commenced, and is anticipated to be completed by mid-December: https://nulegacygold.com/site/assets/files/6789/slide19.jpg
The primary objective underlying NuLegacy's current exploration program is to confirm:
- that 'mineable' thicknesses (greater than 40 meters (130 ft)) of the favourable Wenban5 horizon are present beneath basalt cover of the Rift Anticline target;
- that such Wenban5 hosts high-grades of gold (9.6 to 16.9 grams/tonne or better) as it does in the Serena and North Iceberg deposits 2,500 meters to the east.
With circa 175 meters (575 ft) of the favourable Wenban5 in these drill holes, the first of the two value propositions has been confirmed.