Tagish Lake drills Skukum Creek (November 12, 2001)

A recent drill program and a second look at some historical core by Tagish Lake Gold (TLG-V) has identified three zones not included in previous resource calculations on the Skukum gold-silver property, 80 km south of Whitehorse, Y.T.

Zone 2, Ridge Zone, and Kuhn Splay, were identified in program that included four holes totalling 1,502 metres and a re-sampling of historical holes.

Hole SC01-4 collared on Zone 2 cut 9.9 metres (from 173.6 metres below surface) grading 1.77 grams gold and 19.2 grams silver per tonne, including 0.42 metres of 40.4 grams gold and 243.2 grams silver. The hole appears to define the zone’s up-dip limit.

Mineralization at Zone 2 consists of quartz-sulphide breccias and veins with locally massive sulphides, including sphalerite, galena, pyrite, arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite. The zone extends along strike for 150 metres and is open down-dip and to the east and west. A previous hole, RG97-4, which cut 5.75 metres (from 467.3 m) running 0.32 gram gold and 12.4 gram silver, seems to represent the zone’s eastern limit. Re-sampling and re-logging of previous holes testing the zone returned between 0.32 and 16.4 grams gold and 12.4 and 522.4 grams silver over widths up to 12 metres.

Hole SC01-4 also encountered narrow intervals of the Ridge zone at lower depths. The hole returned between 1 and 1.8 grams gold and 20.6 and 49.9 grams silver over widths from 0.24 to 0.75 metres. Hole SC01-3 cut 2.03 metres of 2.2 grams gold and 85.4 grams silver at 238.6 metres downhole. Hole SC01-1 yielded 3 metres averaging 2.15 grams gold and 160.2 grams silver at 257 metres downhole. Previous holes returned similar values.

Holes 1 and 2 also cut values at shallower depths. Hole SC01-1 was highlighted by a 1.45-metre interval (from 126.5 m) running 1.43 grams gold and 292.9 grams silver. Hole SC01-2 cut 0.36 metre (from 107.6 m) of 1.37 grams gold and 70.8 grams silver. The intervals are thought to represent a new upper level mineralized zone. Mineralization is hosted by quartz-sulphide veins in the hanging wall of the Kuhn Fault structure.

A second look at historical core from the Kuhn Splay indicates that the zone may represent the western extension of the Rainbow zone where it intersects the Kuhn fault. The zone, a sub-parallel structure to the Kuhn zone, has an apparent strike length of up to 200 metres and a down-dip potential of 200 metres. Further surface and underground drilling is required to define the zone. Past drilling returned between 3.53 and 11.26 grams gold and 92 and 518.1 grams silver.

Tagish Lake intends to extend the 1300-metre-level access 400 metres to the west to avoid the difficulty and expense of further drilling from surface. The property is situated in rugged, semi-arid terrain at elevations ranging from 1,000 metres in the river valley to 2,100 metres at the highest peak. Temperatures range from minus 30C in the winter, when there is little snowfall, to plus 30C in the summer. The property is accessible via an all-weather highway and gravel roads.

Elsewhere, prospecting and re-sampling over a 250-metre section of the Charleston vein exposure has turned up three potential mineralized shoots. Values range between 1.29 and 1.77 grams gold and 121.4 and 437 grams silver over widths between 14 and 45 metres. Bonanza grades running up to 222 grams gold and 626.7 grams silver over 0.5 metres have been found outside the new shoots.

Tagish is looking to outline sufficient mineral resources and reserves to support a viable mining operation at Skukum Creek. Based on a scoping study prepared by CME Consulting, Tagish Lake believes that an indicated resource equivalent to 1.7 million tonnes grading 7.45 grams gold and 240 grams silver would warrant a mining operation. CME holds a 30.7% interest in Tagish Lake Gold.

Previous operators Omni Resources and Trumpeter Yukon Gold (now merged into Tagish Lake Gold) drilled about 215 holes at Skukum Creek from the surface and advanced two underground drifts. The companies delineated a measured resource of 95,000 tonnes grading 3.92 grams gold and 332.83 grams silver in the Rainbow zone. The Kuhn zone was estimated to contain a measured resource of 62,000 tonnes grading 11.07 grams gold and 132 grams silver. The indicated portion of the Rainbow resource weighs in at 197,000 tonnes grading 7.28 grams gold and 299.5 grams silver. At Kuhn, the indicated resource is 156,000 tonnes grading 7.18 grams gold and 133.59 grams silver.