2011 Exploration well underway in White Gold district

Vancouver – As the Yukon’s exploration season emerges from the spring melt, investors are once again looking north for exiting news after a winter lull.

Several districts are emerging in the territory but the White Gold district, initially legitimized by Kinross Gold’s (K-T, KGC-N) buyout of Underworld Resources, remains an essential part of the new Yukon gold rush. In the district, all the major land holders have already kicked off their exploration programs for the year.

Kaminak Gold (KAM-V) was early out of the gate this year, starting its exploration program at its Coffee project in mid-April with a reverse circulation rig targeting the T3 trend at its Supremo zone and three diamond drill rigs working on the Latte and Double Double zones.

Thanks to its early start the company has already released the first 2011 drill results from its 2-km by 2-km gold-in-soil anomaly Supremo zone. The 16 RC holes, spaced 25- to 50-metre apart across a 100-metre strike length of the T3 structure, were all drilled westward at between 50 and 70 degrees.

Hole CFR3, the most southeast hole in the crop of results, hit 27.4 metres grading 2.52 grams gold per tonne from 89 metres depth. Fifty metres west, hole CFR1 cut 16.8 metres averaging 4.51 grams gold from 37 metres downhole. CFR5, drilled 25 metres north of CFR1, returned 6.1 metres grading 10.41 grams gold from 15 metres depth. and 25 metres east of CFR5, CFR6A hit 24.4 metres averaging 2.28 grams gold from 47 metres.

The company’s planned holes and pending results continue southward on the T3 target. The company us using a relatively mobile track-mounted RC rig capable of drilling up to 200 metres depth and is working to secure a second rig for the site.

Overall Kaminak has budgeted $15 million for its phase 1 exploration program this year that includes about 40,000 metres of drilling and 10,000 soil samples in new areas. The company’s key objectives for the year are to expand and define the geometry on the eight gold zones it discovered last year, work towards inferred resources on priority zones and find new zones by following up promising soil anomalies.

New entrant Smash Minerals (SSH-V) was also eager to start the exploration season and make a name for itself, starting its exploration program in early May. Unlike most other Yukon players, Smash’s stock was not exposed to last year’s Yukon excitement as it only listed this April on the Venture after a $6.4 million initial public offering.

But while the company’s name is new, its CEO Adrian Fleming is not. As the former president of Underworld, Fleming played a part in putting Yukon on the map again. He is also CEO of Entourage Metals (EMT-V) and has been involved in a number of discoveries and projects over his 35-year mining career.

Smash’s 846-sq-km Whiskey project sits adjacent or near-adjacent to the east of Kinross’ claims in the district, a possibly plum location secured with the help of Shawn Ryan.

The company completed roughly 7,000 soil samples last year with private funding and identified three priority targets. This year’s program calls for at least 15,000 sample plus about 3,000 metres of core drilling starting in August, with a total budget of at least $4.5 million.

Ethos Capital (ECC-V) is also looking at a sample-heavy exploration season as it explores its five properties spanning 763-sq-km in the area. Launched in early June, the company’s program calls for an ambitious 33,000 soil samples at a collection rate of roughly 2,000 a day.

Having optioned its properties from Shawn Ryan, Ethos chief operating officer Peter Tallman noted in a recent meeting that the company is benefitting from Ryan’s sample collection expertise and especially efficient methods.

Tallman said the intent of the program is to blanket all of Ethos’ properties to establish targets, much as Kaminak did before them.

“The intent is basically to do what Kaminak did in four years in one,” said Tallman.

Like other companies conducting major sampling programs, Ethos is benefitting from the fact that the White Gold district was not glaciated and so surface samples are a more reliable predictor of sub-surface anomalies than where the surface rocks have been shifted.

Ethos has budgeted $6 million for its exploration program, which will also include 2,000 metres of drilling on its Wolf gold target.

Silver Quest Resources (SQI-V) also started exploring its 850-sq-km land package in the district in early June. The company currently plans to spend about $5 million conducting 15,000 metres of diamond drilling, 20,000 soil samples, geological mapping and airborne surveying.

Silver Quest has claim blocks spread all over the district, but will concentrate exploration on its 55-sq.-km Prospector Mountain project and 49-sq.-km Boulevard project. In 2010 the company identified a 1,600-metre-long anomalous trend at Prospector it dubbed the Bonanza zone, while at Boulevard the company has found geochemical anomalies over 20 km of the Boulevard trend.

Rounding out the major land holders in the area, Taku Gold (TAK-V), with substantial land holdings on the north end of the district, is also planning to take upwards of 30,000 samples in 2011. Thanks to a recent addition of about 137-sq.-km of property through staking, the company now holds roughly 762.4-sq-km in the Dawson Area.

Of course there is also Kinross itself sitting in the heart of the district. But, but as with most majors, the company is keeping tight lipped about its exploration and discovery news.