(MENAFN- Newsfile Corp) Todd Creek Project Geochemical Samples Confirm High Tenor Precious and Base Metal Values in Multiple Zones
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 12, 2018) - Sojourn Exploration Inc. (TSXV: SOJ) (OTC Pink: SJRNF) is pleased to report analytical results of geochemical sampling from its 36,000 hectare Todd Creek Project, located 30 km northeast of Stewart in B.C.'s Golden Triangle.
The Todd Creek project is situated approximately 40 km southeast of Seabridge Gold's KSM project, one of North America's largest porphyry copper-gold deposits, and Pretium Resources' Brucejack high-grade gold mine. The Todd Creek north and western property boundaries adjoin mineral claims actively being explored by Pretium as described in their recent press release (Pretium news release Dec. 6, 2018). Pretium's 2018 exploration activities included drilling at their Koopa and American Creek prospects which are prospective for Eskay Creek style precious metal enriched VMS mineralization and porphyry copper-gold mineralization, respectively, and are located proximal to the Todd Creek property.
The 2018 reconnaissance sampling program at Todd Creek was completed following the closure of the property purchase agreement to acquire Millrock Resources' Golden Triangle assets (Sojourn news release September 14, 2018), making Sojourn one of the largest claim holders in this highly prospective copper-gold metallotect. Significant results of the program are summarized in Table 1. Highlights include:
Fifty rock chip and grab samples collected over a 0.7 by 1.2 km area within the untested Yellow Bowl Zone at Todd Creek averaged 0.68% copper (Cu), including ten samples with over 1% Cu. The Yellow Bowl Zone contains widespread Cu-rich magmatic-hydrothermal breccias and has never been drilled. Three kilometres north of Yellow Bowl, well mineralized breccias at the Fall Creek Zone returned up to 37.7 g/t gold (Au) and 5.3% Cu.
At the VMS Zone, eight samples of mineralization ranging from gossanous altered volcanics to semimassive and massive sulfides averaged 0.213 g/t Au, 30.1 g/t silver (Ag), 0.53% Cu, 0.53% lead (Pb) and 2.54% zinc (Zn), including individual assays up to 1.98% Cu, 9.15% Zn, 0.392 g/t Au and 112 g/t Ag. Mineralization has been traced over a strike length of 900 metres and has never been drill tested.
Samples from the newly discovered Smokin Zone at Todd Creek returned anomalous values in Au (to 0.266 g/t Au), arsenic (to 1120 ppm) and antimony (to 51 ppm). Mineralization is hosted in rhyolite breccias within Upper Hazelton Group mudstones, a similar stratigraphic position to the high grade Eskay Creek Au-Ag volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit located approximately 60 km to the northwest. Table 1. Todd Creek highlight rock chip and grab samples from 2018 program (YB - Yellow Bowl; FC - Fall Creek; SMK - Smokin, VMS - VMS Zone).
Sample
ID Zone UTM
easting UTM northing Cu
(%) Au
(g/t) Ag
(g/t) Zn
(%)
L656603 YB 451192 6233765 1.34 0.357 0.8 0.0013
L656604 YB 451065 6233149 0.66 0.103 0.9 0.0025
L656605 YB 451035 6233160 1.23 0.213 0.9 0.0039
L656606 YB 451027 6233152 0.03 0.424 0.9 0.0026
L656607 YB 450955 6233221 1.26 0.407 0.7 0.0003
L656645 YB 450657 6233359 0.32 0.021 0.2 0.0062
L656646 YB 450625 6233296 0.84 0.012 7.1 0.0179
L656648 YB 450549 6233445 1.16 0.231 10.4 0.0056
S851058 YB 450768 6233376 2.67 0.005 0.8 0.0062
S851059 YB 450768 6233375 2.34 0.002 0.6 0.0032
S851060 YB 450728 6233371 0.57 0.034 9.3 0.003
S851061 YB 450589 6233356 0.87 0.217 1.3 0.01
S851068 YB 450673 6232728 0.94 0.017 2.2 0.002
S851069 YB 450673 6232769 2.02 0.081 11.2 0.0128
S851070 YB 450660 6232781 2.92 0.039 24.6 0.0021
S851071 YB 450636 6232800 4.04 0.052 62.8 0.109
S851072 YB 450622 6232806 3.74 0.061 65.4 0.0558
S851073 YB 450599 6232807 0.30 0.01 7.6 0.322
S851077 YB 450443 6232876 0.36 0.021 19.2 0.0264
S851078 YB 450439 6232869 0.49 0.021 12.4 0.0197
S851080 YB 450567 6232775 0.50 0.107 18.8 0.244
S851081 YB 450625 6232776 4.52 0.203 74.9 1.015
L656627 FC 451975 6236585 2.42 2.83 9.8 0.0369
L656628 FC 451947 6236585 5.30 37.7 30.5 0.0726
S851008 FC 451207 6236209 0.32 0.194 0.3 0.0027
S851082 VMS 452933 6228663 0.53 0.205 16.5 0.87
S851083 VMS 452942 6228650 1.98 0.381 36.6 3.14
S851084 VMS 452976 6228638 0.40 0.392 12.8 0.957
S851085 VMS 452970 6228612 0.62 0.228 112 9.15
L656637 VMS 452932 6228666 0.44 0.291 19 2.31
L656630 SMK 456302 6237635 0.01 0.266 1.1 0.0077
Todd Creek contains widespread volcanic and intrusion-hosted copper-gold vein and breccia mineralization west of the central Todd Creek Fault, as well as polymetallic (zinc-lead-copper-gold-silver) volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) mineralization east of this important structure. The Todd Creek Fault is a major north-south structure which separates interpreted lower Hazelton Group stratigraphy to the west from interpreted upper Hazelton Group stratigraphy to the east. Reconnaissance sampling at Todd Creek in 2018 resulted in two significant advances in geologic understanding reinforced with geochemical results:
1) The Cu-Au mineralization west of the Todd Creek Fault extends approximately six kilometres from the South Zone, through Yellow Bowl, to the Fall Creek Zone. Strongly altered, Cu-Au bearing porphyritic intrusions at Yellow Bowl suggest the presence of a porphyry system which has not been drill tested.
2) VMS-style mineralization east of the Todd Creek Fault has been recognized as a much larger prospective area with the discovery of the Smokin Zone, almost ten kilometres north of the outcropping massive sulfides of the VMS Zone. Several other unsampled gossans support the concept that the VMS Zone may represent a small part of a more extensive and under-explored corridor prospective for Eskay Creek style, precious metal enriched VMS mineralization.
Yellow Bowl Corridor
The Yellow Bowl Zone is central to a six-kilometre long corridor of strongly gossanous, altered and Cu-Au mineralized intermediate volcanic rocks, porphyritic intrusions and associated breccias. The Yellow Bowl Zone is located mid-way between the Au-enriched veins and breccias of the South Zone (historical 43-101 non-compliant resource of 207,000 tonnes grading 5.48 g/t Au, Hemlo Gold Mines Inc., 1988 Annual Report), and the multiple parallel zones of breccias and veins at the Fall Creek Zone. The untested Yellow Bowl Zone is located within a four-kilometre gap between historical drill holes in the Fall Creek and South Zones. The 2018 sampling program at Yellow Bowl, in conjunction with historical rock chip sampling, confirm Yellow Bowl represents a Cu enriched core zone, flanked by Au enriched mineralization at South Zone and Fall Creek. This core zone is interpreted as the upper levels of a significant porphyry Cu-Au system.
Fifty rock samples were collected across Yellow Bowl in 2018 and focused on recently deglaciated exposures of chalcopyrite-bearing hydrothermal breccias. The breccias have a strong east-west trend, and contain clasts of multi-brecciated quartz-chalcopyrite veins in a matrix of pyrite, chalcopyrite, and less common sulfosalts and sphalerite. These mineralized breccias are often spatially related to strongly altered porphyritic intrusions and associated hydrothermal-magmatic breccias.
The 2018 sampling data suggests a metal zonation exists between the central and southern parts of the Yellow Bowl Zone. Thirteen samples in the southern part of the zone contain higher average Cu grades (1.53%) along with anomalous Ag (average 23.1 g/t), Pb (0.05%) and Zn (0.14%), which is not seen elsewhere at Yellow Bowl. This is interpreted as a later phase of Ag-Pb-Zn enriched mineralization overprinting the southern part of the Cu-Au system. In the central part of the Yellow Bowl Zone, 34 samples averaged 0.38% Cu. However, Cu and Au values appear to increase with decreasing elevations, with 7 samples averaging 0.49% Cu and 0.19 g/t Au below 1500 metres. This includes a sample (L656607) assaying 1.26% Cu and 0.41 g/t Au in a strongly quartz-sericite-pyrite (QSP) altered intrusion.
Preliminary results from the 2018 IP geophysical survey indicate a significant chargeability anomaly underlies the Yellow Bowl Zone. Final interpretations will be released following receipt of the final report. The company aims to conduct a partner funded, first phase drill test of Yellow Bowl in 2019 for an underlying porphyry copper-gold system.
Due to time constraints, only limited sampling was carried out in the Fall Creek area (six samples) where historical trenching and shallow drilling by Noranda and others delineated multiple zones of brecciation and veining across 500 metres width and over strike lengths of up to 300 metres. Multiple drill intersections included 12.65 metres of 7.61 g/t Au and 1.58% Cu in NTC88-22 (Fall Creek A Zone). Two 2018 samples of breccia-hosted mineralization from the A Zone trench returned 37.7 g/t Au, 30.5 g/t Ag and 5.3% Cu (sample L656628) and 2.83 g/t Au, 9.8 g/t Ag and 2.42% Cu (sample L656627). High grade Cu-Au mineralization at South Zone and Fall Creek is hosted predominantly by variably hematite-altered andesitic volcanic rocks, within epithermal-like, banded, multi-phase brecciated quartz-jasperoidal silica-chalcopyrite veins.
VMS Corridor
Outcropping massive sulfides of the VMS Zone were discovered in 2008 below a receding glacier. However, the zone remains untested by drilling. Previous one to two metre channel samples of the zone returned grades up to 0.74% Cu, 1.35 g/t Au and 9.7% Zn. The 2018 samples successfully validated these tenors.
The VMS Zone is underlain by Hazelton Group mafic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks. Pyrite-chalcopyrite-sphalerite-galena massive sulfide lenses within strong chlorite-sericite alteration selvages are hosted locally within lapilli tuff containing angular, massive sulfide clasts suggesting the possibility of multiple VMS horizons. The main massive sulfide lens ranges from 0.5 to 3.0 metres wide and is continuous for at least 60 metres along a northwest trend. Multiple lenses have been recognized and sampled and contain moderate to strong base metal values along an overall strike length of at least 900 metres. Sample S851010 was collected from a newly exposed zone of glacially polished outcrop and returned 0.17% Cu, 3.1% Zn, 0.95% Pb, 0.152 g/t Au and 27.6 g/t Ag.
Previous workers completed a property-wide VTEM airborne geophysical survey. The results of the survey indicate several linear conductors of 500 m strike-length are spatially related to the VMS Zone. These geophysical anomalies, including additional conductors identified to the south of VMS zone, have not been followed up.
The Smokin Zone is an extensive area of gossans identified in 2018 at the northern margin of an un-named glacier about 10 km north of the VMS Zone. Mapping of part of the gossanous area outlined a rhyolite breccia unit between a mudstone footwall and a coherent volcanic hanging wall in stratigraphy recognized as the upper Hazelton Group. Rhyolite clasts in the breccia are set in a matrix of very-fine sooty pyrite, arsenopyrite, chalcedonic quartz, open-space vugs and minor carbonaceous material (coal), suggesting a shallow subaqueous environment. A similar stratigraphic sequence sits immediately below the Eskay Creek VMS deposit.
Nineteen samples collected at Smokin Zone contained elevated gold pathfinders arsenic and antimony (averaging 156 ppm As and 17 ppm Sb), and locally anomalous gold and silver values, including sample L656630, which returned 0.266 g/t Au and 1.1 g/t Ag. The anomalism within this limited sampling data, as well as several newly exposed gossans and highly prospective stratigraphy east of the Todd Creek Fault, warrant an aggressive follow-up program in 2019.
Sojourn Exploration President Tyler Ruks comments: "Our 2018 Todd Creek reconnaissance program suggests that the Yellow Bowl zone, a gossan of significant size containing widespread, Cu-Au occurrences, represents the upper levels of an untested porphyry copper system. Yellow Bowl is flanked by distal, high grade gold-copper veins and breccias at South Zone and Fall Creek. Previously, the Yellow Bowl, South Zone and Fall Creek zones have been explored as distinct entities. The results of our 2018 program suggest that these zones are likely related and part of a large system, the core of which is completely untested by drilling. In addition, we have confirmed that the VMS Zone, located 5 kilometres southeast of Yellow Bowl and across the Todd Creek Fault, is hosted in interpreted Upper Hazelton Group stratigraphy, is far more extensive than previously thought and is virtually unexplored. Combined with the Smokin Zone, this large land position on the east side of the Todd Creek Fault represents a significant target for precious metal enriched, Eskay Creek style VMS mineralization. Lastly, the central Todd Creek Fault has been recognized as an important structure for further exploration. Our large land position includes 13 kilometres of this prospective lineament and we believe that there is significant potential for additional discoveries in its vicinity."
Historical assays have not been verified by Sojourn but have been cited from sources believed to be reliable. Sojourn's disclosure of a technical or scientific nature in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Jeff Kyba, PGeo, Vice President Exploration, who serves as a Qualified Person under the definition of National Instrument 43-101. Sample preparation was carried out at ALS Globals's Terrace prep lab, and analyses were completed at its North Vancouver analytical laboratory. Samples were analyzed for 35 elements including copper by aqua regia acid digestion and ICP-AES, while gold was analyzed by fire assay (30 gram nominal sample weight), aqua regia digestion and ICP-AES. Over-limit copper (>1%), lead, zinc and silver (>100 ppm) were re-analyzed by aqua-regia digestion and ICP-AES (OG-46). Reconnaissance scale rock sampling as reported here is intended to indicate a range of typical grades associated with the mineralization observed, and does not imply the grade of a larger rock volume.
For further information please contact: Tyler Ruks, President and CEO at +1 (604) 638 3695
Investors are cautioned that Sojourn Exploration Inc. has not verified the data from the KSM, Brucejack and Eskay Creek deposits. Further, the presence and style of mineralization on these properties is not necessarily indicative of similar mineralization on the Sojourn Exploration Inc. properties.
This news release contains statements about Sojourn's expectations and are forward-looking in nature. As a result, they are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Although Sojourn believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them as actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof, and Sojourn undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, except as required by law.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release.
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