Season’s first hole hits high grades for Sitka Gold

Sitka Gold’s (TSXV: SIG; US-OTC: SITKF) first completed hole of its summer drilling program cut highlight results as high as 73.2 metres grading 2.05 grams gold per tonne in the Blackjack zone at its RC project in west-central Yukon. Shares rose.

That result, in hole DDRCCC-25-077 was part of a larger intercept of 211.2 metres at 1.13 grams gold from 287 metres depth, Sitka reported Thursday. It included 136.2 metres grading 1.45 grams gold and 35 metres at 2.75 grams gold.

“The presence of visible gold in drill core across all our target areas is a strong indication that our drilling program is successfully expanding our existing deposits and uncovering new zones with the potential to host additional gold deposits,” Sitka CEO Cor Coe said in a release. “We are especially excited about the Rhosgobel target where [visible gold] has been observed in all three holes drilled so far this year.”

Sitka’s drilling has demonstrated the strong vertical potential of the Blackjack system, Agentis Capital mining analyst Michael Gray said in a note earlier this month.

“We think tighter drilling will be key in demonstrating continuity potential for an underground resource,” he said.

Strong results streak

The hole 77 results come about two weeks after Sitka reported similarly high grades at Blackjack in hole 76, which was an extension of the strong intersection the hole pierced last month. That further added to tailwinds for Sitka this year, after it closed a $11.8-million financing in April for drilling at RC and released a resource update in January that more than doubled indicated tonnage in the Blackjack zone. Gray noted in a January report that the update raised resources by 159% and grades by 17%. The project could have a strip ratio of about 5:1, which indicates a favourable open-pit scenario, he added.

Sitka shares gained 3.7% to 55¢ apiece on Thursday afternoon in Toronto, for a market capitalization of about $184.3 million. The stock has traded in a 12-month range of 13¢ to 69¢.

Four targets drilled

Of the 23 holes completed in this year’s drilling program, seven were in the Blackjack deposit expansion, four in the Eiger deposit expansion, nine holes in the Saddle zone and three holes in the Rhosgobel intrusion, located 5 km south of the Blackjack-Saddle-Eiger drilling.

Sitka this month started the first diamond drilling at Rhosgobel, with discovery hole DDRCRG-24-001 cutting 164.8 metres grading 0.82 gram gold from 9 metres depth. That intercept included 119 metres at 1.05 grams gold, 37.9 metres at 2.05 grams gold and 11.5 metres grading 4.32 grams gold.

More than 10,000 metres across 23 holes have been completed this year in Sitka’s planned 30,000-metre drill program.

RC hosts about 40 million indicated tonnes grading 1.01 grams gold for 1.3 million oz., according to the resource update. Inferred resources total 34.6 million tonnes at 0.94 gram gold for 1 million ounces. The previous resource was released in 2023.

The RC property covers 431 sq. km within Yukon’s Tombstone gold belt. It’s located about 100 km east of Dawson City.

RC hosts one of the largest gold projects along the belt by resource size, in league with Snowline Gold’s (TSXV: SGD; US-OTC: SNWGF) Valley project and Banyan Gold’s (TSXV: BYN; US-OTC: BYAGF) AurMac. It also comprises the largest consolidated land package in Yukon between the shuttered Eagle gold mine and the past-producing Brewery Creek mine.