Golden Predator extends mineralization at Brewery Creek in Yukon

Golden Predator‘s (GPD-T) successful winter drill program has hit several encouraging intercepts and expanded known mineralization eastward at its Brewery Creek gold project in the Yukon.

The company drilled 25 holes in the program, targeting the recently discovered Bohemian zone and Schooner zone 250 metres east, with 24 holes hitting significant mineralization.

In the latest round of results the company reported four holes from the Schooner zone, which it believes could be an extension of the Bohemian zone.

On the Schooner zone, hole 198 hit 74 metres of 7.08 grams gold per tonne from 6 metres depth. Hole 199, collared roughly 40 metres southeast, hit 51.6 metres of 1.71 grams gold from 20 metres depth. Significantly, hole 199 ended at 71.6 metres with a 2.1-metre interval grading 12.85 grams gold. 

Holes 196 and 197, collared roughly 50 metres west of hole 198, hit 35 metres of 0.87 gram gold from 8 metres depth and 33 metres of 1.02 grams gold from 3 metres depth, respectively.

On the Bohemian zone, the latest results included hole 191 that hit 19.4 metres grading 2.37 grams gold from 54 metres depth and hole 192 that cut 22.8 metres averaging 2.61 grams gold from 56 metres downhole. Results from the first half of the winter program included 28 metres of 5.06 grams gold, 10 metres averaging 3.56 grams gold and 11 metres carrying 3.1 grams gold.

The company’s share price climbed 15¢ or 14.3% on the latest results to close at $1.20 on 3.7 million shares traded, having hit a 52-week high of $1.38 in mid-day trading. 

Golden Predator will be conducting infill drilling between the two zones, as well as step-out drilling as part of its next program, scheduled to start in May.

The fracture-controlled gold mineralization at Brewery Creek is hosted within porphyritic monzonite, quartz monzonite, biotite monzonite and interbedded fine-grained, siliciclastic sediments.

The area was actively mined by Viceroy Resources between 1996 and 2002, with roughly 280,000 oz. produced from seven near-surface oxide deposits. The Bohemian zone lies roughly 500 metres east of the Lucky zone, which is the nearest past-producing deposit.

Golden Predator optioned into the property from Alexco Resource (AXR-T, AXU-X) in 2009 and can earn 75% by spending $6 million in exploration by 2015. The property also has two underlying royalty agreements, one being a sliding scale royalty on the next 21,516 oz. gold produced and the other a 5% net profits royalty on gold production.

The property hosts an indicated resource of 3.98 million tonnes of 1.14 grams gold and an inferred resource of 2.2 million tonnes grading 2.01 grams gold using a 0.5 gram cutoff. The company expects to have an updated resource out in the second or third quarter.

The company closed a $22.7-million bought-deal private placement in early March and now has 107 million shares outstanding. In mid-March, the company sold its Nevada silver property portfolio to Silver Predator (SPD-T) for 5 million shares, and may receive 11 million more as Silver Predator earns into the Taylor property.

Golden Predator has several other properties in the Yukon, with over 2,300 sq. km of exploration lands. It recently added four properties, totaling 640 quartz claims, northwest of Dawson City, and staked roughly 520-sq.-km of land in the Selwyn basin area. The company plans to spend $11.5 million on Yukon exploration this year, $2 million of that at Brewery Creek.