TV Tower delight continues for Pilot

A high-grade gold zone is emerging at the north end of Pilot Gold’s (PLG-T) TV Tower project in Turkey, complete with drill intervals that regularly contain visible gold. 

The zone is known as Kucukdag, or KCD, and Pilot Gold is probing it in a 16,000-metre drill campaign. The latest results from TV Tower include three holes drilled in a fan from a single drill pad located 25 metres southeast of hole 50, the best hole on the property to date.In December hole 50 returned 12 metres averaging 193 grams gold per tonne, 9.8 grams silver per tonne and 0.46% copper from a vertical depth of 100 metres. The intercept included several morsels of visible gold.  Another set of holes drilled 100 metres southeast also hit high grade, including 5.94 grams gold, 12.6 grams silver and 0.53% copper over 137 metres in hole 39.

The three new holes found gold between these long mineralized hits, suggesting the high-grade zone is continuous along the 100-metre-plus distance.

The best result from the three fan holes came in hole 80, which returned 34.2 metres grading 6.59 grams gold, 5.9 grams silver and 0.32% copper from 64 metres downhole. Hole 83 returned 28.5 metres of 0.94 gram gold, 3.9 grams silver and 0.13% copper from 51 metres depth, while hole 85 produced three intercepts, including 6.2 metres grading 6.86 grams gold, 2.5 grams silver and 0.2% copper.

Just a few days earlier Pilot Gold had released another set of KCD results, from stepout holes testing the north and south edges of the zone. The best result came from hole 79, which was drilled along the northern edge of the zone. It cut 14 metres grading 14.9 grams gold, 7.8 grams silver and 0.31% copper, stretching the high-grade hit from hole 50 another 120 metres downdip.

The Jan. 9 news release also shared results from hole 76, which hit 18 metres of 1.56 grams gold, 7.9 grams silver and 0.46% copper from 25 metres south and updip of previously reported hole 63, which returned 2.37 grams gold over 33.7 metres. Similarly, hole 78 returned 35.1 metres of 2.74 grams gold and 2.5 grams silver from 25 metres south of hole 49, which earlier returned 11.63 grams gold over 32.5 metres. These results extended the zone 50 metres updip to the south, towards a surface outcrop that generated high-grade rock-chip samples.

TV Tower is a joint venture between Pilot and Teck Resources (TCK-T, TCK-N). Pilot is the operator and can increase its stake from 40% to 60% by solely financing exploration at the site over a three-year period.

The project is on the Biga peninsula in northwest Turkey. There are numerous targets on the 71 sq. km property, ranging from high- and low-sulphidation epithermal zones to areas with gold-copper porphyry potential. Pilot’s geophysical surveys, surface-mapping efforts and soil geochemistry work continue to delineate new targets, such as the Columbaz vein target that returned 39 grams gold and 290 grams silver in recent rock-chip sampling.

TV Tower is surrounded by good infrastructure: roads traverse the project, power is easily accessible and there is a port nearby. The project sits west of Alamos Gold’s (AGI-T) Kirazli project and 10 km northwest of the Halilaga copper-gold project, which is another Pilot-Teck joint venture.

Pilot has a little more cash available to spend in Turkey after recently divesting its Regent property in Nevada. Rawhide Mining paid $3 million for the project. If the project enters production, Pilot would benefit through a 15% net profits royalty, and potentially through a sliding scale gold-equivalent bonus-payment scheme. Regent is in Mineral County, along the eastern edge of the Walker Lane gold-silver trend.

News of the latest drill results from TV Tower added 5¢ to Pilot Gold’s share price, bringing it to $2.27. The gain adds to what has been a phenomenal share price climb: in September, Pilot shares were worth $1.05, which means they have gained 115% in four months. Pilot Gold has 85 million shares outstanding.