January 17, 2017 - Vancouver, BC - ATAC Resources Ltd. (TSX-V:ATC) (“ATAC”) is pleased to announce the 2017 exploration program for its 100% owned Rackla Gold Project in east-central Yukon. The fully-funded 2017 exploration budget is $10 million and will include approximately 15,000 m of diamond and rotary air blast (“RAB”) drilling. The multiphase exploration program will focus on expanding high-grade gold mineralization at existing zones within the Nadaleen and Rau Trends.
2017 Objectives
- Targeted diamond drilling to expand high-grade gold structures at the Conrad and Osiris zones;
- Diamond and RAB drilling to advance over 10 Osiris and Anubis Custer gold zones and Tier 1 geochemical targets;
- Diamond drill evaluation of the newly discovered Tiger East anomaly and other untested upper oxide and sulphide mineralization to increase the gold resources within the Tiger Gold Deposit; and,
- Sampling, prospecting and mapping of regional exploration targets at both the Nadaleen and Rau trends.
“The accelerated exploration program at the Rackla Gold Project will be our most comprehensive in recent years and will target extensions of some of the highest grade gold zones identified to date. With over 15,000 m of drilling planned, we anticipate making significant progress in evaluating known gold zones as well as continuing exploration work across our large district-sized land package,” stated Graham Downs, President and CEO of ATAC. “We have successfully advanced the Rackla Gold Project through challenging markets while maintaining a healthy treasury and preserving our capital structure. We are very well-positioned going into a busy and exciting year as we take advantage of the economies of scale that have previously returned excellent results and new discoveries at the Rackla Gold Project.”
Nadaleen Trend
ATAC made Canada’s only Carlin-type gold discoveries at the eastern end of its Rackla Gold Project in 2010 by targeting a 30 km trend that is highly anomalous for the Carlin pathfinder elements arsenic, antimony, mercury and thallium. The Nadaleen Trend is comparable in size to the entire Northern Carlin Trend of Nevada and exhibits many of the same characteristics key to the Northern Carlin Trend’s exceptional gold endowment. To date, ATAC has defined two clusters of Carlin-type gold discoveries within the Nadaleen Trend - the 12 km2 Osiris and
18 km2 Anubis Clusters.
Between 2011 and 2014, ATAC funded large exploration programs focused on defining broad zones of shallow mineralization within the Osiris Cluster while concurrently conducting regional reconnaissance exploration in search of additional Carlin-type gold targets along the Nadaleen Trend. In response to weaker capital markets during the past few years, ATAC focused its efforts on regional grassroots targets in the Anubis Cluster and utilized more cost effective RAB drilling to evaluate mineralization and potential. The larger program in 2017 will enable ATAC to resume testing zones within the Osiris Cluster (Conrad, Osiris, Sunrise and Ibis) that all remain open for expansion. A combination of diamond and RAB drilling will be used to define these known zones and to assess other areas where limited exploration or drilling has been carried out to date.
Nadaleen Trend Objectives
- Conrad Zone
- Diamond drilling of crosscutting faults thought to be associated with high-grade gold mineralization in holes OS-10-008 and OS-12-184. Only limited drilling has tested these faults due to their near parallel orientation to previous drilling; and,
- Diamond drilling of the Conrad Lower Zone along strike of OS-14-229.
Previous Conrad Zone Diamond Drilling Highlights | Structure | Drill Hole | From (m) | To (m) | Interval* (m) | Gold (g/t) |
| | | | | | |
| 350 Fault | OS-10-008 | 41.35 | 62.48 | 21.13 | 8.03 |
| | incl. | 41.35 | 53.34 | 11.99 | 13.60 |
| | | | | | |
| 650 Fault | OS-12-184 | 146.91 | 198.73 | 51.82 | 4.05 |
| | incl. | 169.10 | 177.39 | 8.29 | 14.12 |
| | | | | | |
| Lower Zone | OS-14-229 | 448.06 | 484.63 | 36.57 | 5.06 |
* True widths for Conrad diamond drill holes are estimated to be 60% - 100% of intersected widths.
- Osiris Zone
- Diamond drilling the northern extension of the Osiris Zone along strike of OS-11-080 and OS-11-082;
- RAB drilling to test for additional high-grade mineralized structures similar to the North Osiris Trench discovery which returned values up to 80.40 g/t gold over 1.8 m* (see ATAC news release dated August 30, 2011).
Previous Osiris Zone Diamond Drilling Highlights | Area | Drill Hole | From (m) | To (m) | Interval** (m) | Gold (g/t) |
| | | | | | |
| North Osiris | OS-11-080 | 24.39 | 44.20 | 19.81 | 5.07 |
| | incl. | 32.00 | 44.20 | 12.20 | 8.03 |
| | | | | | |
| North Osiris | OS-11-082 | 134.11 | 178.31 | 44.20 | 4.41 |
| | incl. | 160.02 | 175.26 | 15.24 | 6.83 |
* True width of the North Osiris Trench sample interval is unknown.
** True widths for Osiris diamond drill holes are estimated to be 60% - 100% of intersected widths.
- Sunrise Zone
- Shallow diamond and RAB drilling of the Sunrise mineralized corridor along strike to the west where OS-12-150 intersected 15.24 m of 2.64 g/t gold and 7.55 m of 2.81 g/t gold.
- Ibis Zone
- RAB drilling of a gold-in-soil anomaly where a cluster of soil samples returned up to 1.52 g/t gold; and,
- RAB drilling east of the Ibis Zone where a rock grab sample returned 1.81 g/t gold.
- Anubis Cluster
- Diamond drilling at the Orion Zone will follow-up mineralization intersected in AN-16-010 which returned 61.29 m of 2.75 g/t gold. Additional drilling will test for mineralization at depth where an area of favorable stratigraphy is interpreted to be; and,
- RAB drilling of untested targets along the 6 km long Anubis Fault Corridor.
Rau Trend
Prior to the discovery of the Nadaleen Trend, ATAC explored the 25 km long Rau Trend from 2007 through 2010 and focused on defining the high-grade oxide Tiger Gold Deposit. ATAC employed a two-pronged exploration approach at the Rau Trend which advanced the Tiger Deposit through resource development while simultaneously advancing regional exploration targets. This resulted in the discovery of over 15 early-stage prospecting/geochemical anomalies that have received little to no follow-up work since 2010.
In 2016, ATAC completed an updated Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) on the Tiger Deposit which improved on every metric from the 2014 PEA. One major success of the 2016 PEA was the inclusion of sulphide gold resources into the proposed mine plan (see ATAC news release dated May 31, 2016).
2016 Tiger Deposit PEA Highlights
The following highlights from the 2016 PEA are based on a gold price of US$1,250/oz and an exchange rate of CA$1.00 to US$0.78. Unless specified otherwise, all values are shown in Canadian dollars.
- NPV(5%) of $106.6 million and an IRR of 34.8% before tax, and an NPV(5%) of $75.7 million and an IRR of 28.2% after tax, with an all-in sustaining cost of US$864/oz;
- Compared to the 2014 PEA, the 2016 PEA extends the mine life by 2 years, more than doubles the pre-tax NPV(5%) and increases the pre-tax IRR by 4.8%; and,
- Approximately 302,307 ounces of gold produced at an average undiluted grade of 3.81 g/t gold.
As part of the 2017 program, ATAC will be testing for additional oxide and sulphide mineralization at the Tiger Deposit while concurrently advancing regional gold targets to the drill stage.
Rau Trend Objectives
- Tiger Deposit Drilling
- Shallow diamond drilling of the Tiger East gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly located 125 m from the southeastern limit of the proposed 2016 PEA Tiger Deposit pit where 10 out of 21 composite float grab samples collected in 2016 returned between 1.15 g/t to 18.30 g/t gold;
- Drilling at Tiger East will also test the eastern extent of the Tiger Deposit upper zone mineralization proximal to the mineralizing Tiger Fault; and,
- Diamond drilling within the proposed 2016 PEA Tiger Deposit pit will test for additional sulphide mineralization.
- Rau Trend Exploration
- Prospecting, mapping and potential RAB drilling of four oxide gold targets along strike of the Tiger Deposit at the Cheetah, Cougar, Panther and Puma Zones where grab samples returned 3.06 g/t gold, 3.13 g/t gold, 5.72 g/t gold and 18.45 g/t gold, respectively; and,
- Follow-up of the 2016 RAB drilling at the Airstrip Anomaly where hole ASR-16-006 intersected 13.71 m of 1.43 g/t gold.
QA/QC
Grab samples reported range from below detection to the highest value reported in this release.
True widths for Sunrise and Ibis zone drill holes are estimated to be 60%-100% of intersected widths. Based on the character of the mineralization and the limited drilling at the Orion Zone, it is not possible to determine the true width of the intersection at this time. RAB drill hole intersections from the Airstrip Anomaly are drilled thicknesses and true widths are unknown.
PEA Disclosure
The reader should be cautioned that the PEA is preliminary in nature. It includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is no certainty that the results of the PEA will be realized.
Additional information about the Tiger Deposit PEA is summarized in ATAC’s May 31, 2016 technical report titled “Technical Report and Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Tiger Deposit, Rackla Gold Project, Yukon, Canada” which can be viewed at www.sedar.com under the ATAC profile or on the ATAC website at www.atacresources.com.
The technical information in this news release has been approved by Julia Lane, P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration for ATAC and a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101.
About ATAC
ATAC is a Yukon-based exploration company focused on developing Canada’s only Carlin-type gold district at its 100% owned Rackla Gold Project. Recent work on the ~1,700 km2 project has resulted in a positive Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Tiger Gold Deposit, drilling of multiple high-grade Carlin-type gold zones and the identification of numerous early-stage gold exploration targets. The Rackla Gold Project has no underlying royalties or third-party interests. ATAC also holds a 15.66% interest in Arcus Development Group Inc. whose Dan Man project shares its southern boundary with Goldcorp Inc.’s Coffee Gold Project in west-central Yukon. ATAC is well-financed with approximately $14 million in its treasury.
On behalf of Management and the Board of Directors
of ATAC Resources Ltd.
Graham Downs, President and CEO
For further information, please contact:
Vanessa Pickering, Manager, Corporate Communications
ATAC Resources Ltd.
T: 604-687-2522 ext. 260
info@atacresources.com
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