Tectonic Metals identifies gold-in-soil anomalies at Tibbs Gold Project

Highlights

• Multiple 1 km long drill-ready targets highlight potential for Pogo-style mineralisation.
• Newly identified gneiss-hosted gold-in-soil anomalies.
  • Soil sampling in the west of the Tibbs property identified new geochemical anomalies with gold-arsenic-bismuth-tungsten, gold-arsenic-antimony, and gold-arsenic signatures; identical signatures as the mineralisation observed at Pogo.
• Zoned mineralising system now found, indicating high levels of mineralising fluid flow.
  • Multiple styles of gold mineralisation observed within the Tibbs footprint.
  • Elemental zonation, which may aid in vectoring towards additional zones of high-grade gold mineralisation, shows both proximal and distal intrusion-related gold signatures and vein styles.
  • Proximal: gold-arsenic-bismuth-tungsten anomalies may be indicative of additional high-grade lodes analogous to Gray Lead/Pogo-style vein mineralisation.
  • Distal: gold-arsenic-antimony anomalies are consistent with Michigan-style mineralisation where Tectonic identified high-grade gold mineralisation in its 2019 and 2020 drill programmes.
• 2020 soil sampling programme validates under-explored nature and potential at Tibbs.
  • Exploration work to date has focused on high-grade gold targets at surface and within high-angle structures at the contact zone between gneiss and intrusive rocks, and within the intrusive rocks themselves. However, no work has been conducted until now in the west of the project area in the gneissic rocks, despite the >25-year history of modern exploration at Tibbs.
  • The discovery of new, gneiss-hosted soil anomalies represents the next evolution of the targeting methodology at the Tibbs project, and opens the prospect of Pogo-like mineralisation west of the previously known exploration targets.

Tony Reda, President and CEO of Tectonic Metals, commented: “Our 2020 soil survey at Tibbs identified significant gneiss-hosted gold-in-soil anomalies in areas with low-angle faulting and shearing. These anomalies indicate mineralising fluids travelled not only through the known high-angle structures within the intrusive rocks at Tibbs, but also through the gneissic rocks found in the western part of Tibbs. Low-angle thrust faults are mapped within these gneissic rocks and are now tied to increased gold-in-soil anomalism. This is a powerful new observation, as gneissic rocks also host the Liese veins at Pogo, just 35 km away. We again see potential for true, Pogo-style mineralisation at Tibbs, and are excited to test these new targets.”

2020 soil sampling programme – new exploration targets generated

During the 2020 RAB drilling campaign at Tibbs, Tectonic collected a total of 1153 soil samples to both infill and expand the historic soil grid over previously untested ground to the west and east. The goal of the soil programme was to generate new exploration targets with a focus on exploring the low-angle faults within moderately dipping gneissic rocks in the west of the property, which appears to be never targeted at Tibbs. Five soil grids were sited over gneissic rocks found to the west of the Wolverine Zone in the north and the Gray Lead Zone in the south. Samples were collected along east-west oriented lines on 50 m sample spacing, with lines spaced 100 m apart. A sixth grid was established east of the Blue Lead Zone, with samples collected along east-west oriented lines on 50 m sample spacing, with lines spaced 200 m apart to cover additional ground.

Each soil grid returned multiple soil samples in excess of 0.1 g/t gold, with a global range of trace to 0.9873 g/t gold. It is worth noting that Tectonic has established, through the use of the recently acquired Goodpaster data set, that the 98^th percentile threshold for gold-in-soil values in the Goodpaster district is approximately 0.024 g/t, suggesting any value greater than 0.020 g/t warrants further investigation. Interestingly, multiple new anomalies have been identified entirely within gneissic host rocks, including a 2.5 km long, NE-SW trending gold-arsenic anomaly in the southwest of the property found approximately 500 m northwest of historic diamond drilling at Gray Lead. In addition, a high-tenor gold-in-soil anomaly with coincident arsenic, bismuth and tungsten was discovered 1200m west of the Lower Trench Zone in previously untested ground. This new anomaly, yet unnamed, is hosted by moderately dipping gneisses cut by a mapped diorite dike.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/exploration-development/26102020/tectonic-metals-identifies-gold-in-soil-anomalies-at-tibbs-gold-project/