VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 23, 2023 / TectonicMetals Inc. (TSXV:TECT)(OTCQB:TETOF)(FSE:T15B) ("Tectonic" or the "Company"), a mineral exploration company applying a disciplined, up-front de-risking strategy to address the economics, community benefits and sustainability of the Company's projects, today provided an end of season update and launched an exclusive site visit tour video of the Flat Gold Project with Tectonic CEO, Tony Reda, and Doyon, Ltd. CEO, Aaron Schutt.
"We have achieved a major milestone in our exploration efforts with the successful completion of our first-ever drill program. This program has provided invaluable insights into the potential of the Flat Gold System, particularly within the historically drilled area of Chicken Mountain," said Tony Reda, President and CEO of Tectonic. "We believe in the importance of continuous learning and growth, and our company has made significant progress in terms of our understanding of the logistics, operations and geology at Flat. The upcoming 2023 drill assay results will enhance our knowledge even more. With our camp and drills already in place, we are well-positioned to leverage the knowledge and lessons learned from the 2023 program and achieve even greater success in the 2024 drilling season."
Highlights of 2023 Flat Gold Project Drill Program
Upgraded Infrastructure - The 4,100 foot-long airstrip has seen little to no activity in almost 20 years and therefore required maintenance and upgrading to support this year's activities.
Multi-Year Camp Established - The multi-year, 24-person camp was built following four successful deliveries of camp materials to the Flat Airstrip by a Hercules C-130 Transport Aircraft. Camp facilities remain onsite and were successfully decommissioned for the winter season.
Drill Mobilization - Despite challenging, unforeseen weather conditions impacting visibility and access to the Project, the Tectonic team safely and successfully overcame various obstacles, such as low-lying clouds, thick dense fog, and above average rainfall (+50%) to successfully mobilize workers, equipment, fuel and the diamond and reverse circulating ("RC") drills to site.
Drilling - 19 drill holes of combined diamond and RC drilling for a total of 2,633 metres were completed at Chicken Mountain with the objective of expanding mineralization along strike and at depth and drilling new discoveries.
Diamond Drilling - 915 metres of oriented diamond drilling across 3 holes to a maximum depth of 428.5 metres was completed to expand previously drilled mineralization along strike and to depth while providing valuable structural data to assist in understanding optimal orientation, the factors controlling mineralization and to target future drilling.
RC Drilling - 1,718 metres of drilling across 16 holes was completed by the RC drill to test new, historically undrilled areas of Chicken Mountain's gold in soil anomaly.
Please see the drill plan maps below.
Drills Remain On-site - Both the diamond and RC drills have been winterized and retained onsite in anticipation of the 2024 drill season.
Field Mapping and Prospecting - Field mapping/prospecting was performed during the drill campaign, which focused on the relationships between monzonite intrusions, volcanic cap rocks, and hornfelsed Kuskokwim sediments, from Chicken Mountain northwards towards the Golden Apex area. Some 49 representative rock samples were collected for ongoing geochemical and petrographic work.
Aerial High Resolution LiDAR/Orthophoto Survey - completed over ~237 square kilometres covering the Flat volcano-intrusive complex, associated hornfelsed Kuskokwim sediments, and historic placer mining activity/infrastructure within the project area. This advanced and precise LiDAR survey, combined with orthophotos, creates a comprehensive and detailed base-map. With high resolution and accuracy, this data serves as a foundation for overlaying other geological and environmental datasets. Not only does LiDAR help identify surface structures and lineaments, it also provides valuable insights into the underground geology. This aids in geological mapping and can lead to the discovery of potential gold deposits associated with geological structures.
Site Visit - Management hosted a site tour for members of Doyon Limited, investors, mining securities analysts, and the Board of Directions
Health & Safety - More than 17,000 work-hours were incurred on the Project with no Lost Time Incidents.
Diamond Drilling
In total, three oriented diamond drill holes totaling 915 metres were drilled over a 500 metre strike length within the core of Chicken Mountain (see plan map), targeting to depth the main interpreted north-northwest oriented structural zone and coincident gold in soil anomaly, which transects the mountain. All holes were drilled at an azimuth of 90 degrees and dips of -50 degrees. All holes intersected variably sericite altered biotite-quartz and leucocratic quartz monzonitic host rock throughout their lengths, with complete to partial oxidation of sulphide minerals and strong iron staining within specific structural zones persisting to depth. Veining comprising distinct quartz, quartz-sulphide, quartz-oxide, carbonate or clay infill ranging from 1-2mm up to several cm were encountered at variable per metre densities throughout all three holes. Within zones of lower oxidation, arsenopyrite followed by pyrite was identified as the major sulphide species, occurring primarily as fine-grained vein fill, and as somewhat coarser grained disseminations within strongly sericite altered wallrock adjacent to quartz dominant veins. Orientations of quartz dominant veins interpreted to be the main mineralizing event average 47.1/295.8 (dip/dip direction) indicate drill holes are well oriented with respect to overall mineralized zone-veining trends.
Reverse Circulation ("RC") Drilling
In total sixteen RC drill holes totaling 1,718 metres were drilled to test the eastern and western margins of the Chicken Mountain structural zone as delineated by historic gold in soil anomaly. RC hole planned target depth was 200 metres, however achieved depth varied from 53.3 to 201.2 metres and averaged 107 metres with early hole termination due to excessive water influx on holes drilled in the valley. RC chip logging indicates all holes intersected variably sericite-clay altered, variably oxidized biotite-quartz monzonite as expected.
Drill Assays
All drill core and RC chip samples have been submitted to ALS Global Facility in Fairbanks, Alaska for shipping to ALS Global Reno, Nevada where preparation and fire assay (30 gram with AA finish (Au-AA23) will be performed. Multielement geochemistry for 48 elements by four acid digestion with ICP-MS finish (ME-MS61) and mercury analysis by aqua regia and ICP-MS finish (Hg-MS42) will be performed at ALS Global Vancouver.
Complete analytical results are expected to be received and announced in a timely and contextual manner anticipated to be in Q1 2024.
Figure 1: Plan Map of Drill Program Satellite
Figure 2: Plan Map of Drill Program Topo
The Flat Gold System - Alaska's Next Tier 1 Opportunity
Tectonic is currently assessing the Flat Gold System in partnership with Doyon Limited ("Doyon"), one of Alaska's largest native regional corporations and a strategic Tectonic investor. The Flat Gold System is a network of interconnected geophysical anomalies that indicate six confirmed and potential under-explored bulk tonnage intrusion-related gold systems. The system spans a 20km trend and has produced approximately 1.4 million ounces of Placer Gold between 1908 and 19661.
Tectonic is currently evaluating Chicken Mountain, a confirmed intrusion that features a four-kilometre long gold in-soil anomaly and 55 historic drill holes, all of which intersected and 25 of which ended in gold mineralization. Highlight intersects from this historical drilling2 include 12.56 g/t Au over 24.7m, 211 g/t Au over 1.4m, 0.98 g/t Au over 76m, 1.36 g/t over 36.6m, and 5.62 over 7.6m. Chicken Mountain was the focus of the Company's 2023 drilling program and can be found on Google Earth here.
Preliminary metallurgical analysis to-date has demonstrated rapid leach kinetics and gold recoveries averaging 95% from bottle roll testing3. This, combined with gold intersections at or near surface, suggest Chicken Mountain could represent an open pit, heap leach opportunity.
Please refer to Tectonic's news release dated September 28, 2021 for historic drill results.
Please refer to Tectonic's news release dated February 16, 2023 for metallurgical testing.
About Tectonic Metals Inc. ("Tectonic" or the "Company")
Tectonic brings a highly disciplined capital allocation and development process to mineral exploration. By consistently limiting their focus to tier 1 opportunities that fit their formula for mine economics, and de-risking projects upfront, the team has established a tremendous track record of success. Members of the Tectonic team have been directly involved in identifying and monetizing several significant gold discoveries throughout N. America that have created a tremendous amount of value for shareholders and stakeholders.
Tectonic's disclosure of a technical or scientific nature in this press release has been reviewed, verified, and approved by Peter Kleespies, M.Sc., P.Geo., Tectonic's Vice President Exploration, who serves as a Qualified Person under the definition of National Instrument 43-101.
On behalf of Tectonic Metals Inc.,
Tony Reda
President and Chief Executive Officer
For further information about Tectonic Metals Inc. or this news release, please visit our website at www.tectonicmetals.com or contact Tom McMillan, Investor Relations, at toll-free 1.888.685.8558 or by email at [email protected].
Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking information and statements under applicable securities law. Any statements that are contained in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "may", "should", "anticipate", "expect", "intend" and similar expressions and include, but are not limited to, the potential for mineralization at Tectonic's projects, any future exploration activities and the size; the receipt of any regulatory approvals, including the final approval of the TSXV.
Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and is based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management at the date the statements are made including, among others, assumptions about future prices of gold and other metal prices, currency exchange rates and interest rates, favourable operating conditions, political stability, obtaining governmental and other approvals and financing on time, obtaining required licenses and permits, labour stability, stability in market conditions, availability of equipment, accuracy of any mineral resources, successful resolution of disputes and anticipated costs and expenditures. Many assumptions are based on factors and events that are not within the control of Tectonic, and there is no assurance they will prove to be correct.
Although Tectonic considers these beliefs and assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking statements in this release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks, including, without limitation: the Company's ability to implement its business strategies; risks associated with mineral exploration and production; risks associated with general economic conditions; adverse industry events; marketing and transportation costs; loss of markets; volatility of commodity prices; inability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favourable terms; industry and government regulation; changes in legislation, income tax and regulatory matters; competition; currency and interest rate fluctuations; and other risks.
Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Although Tectonic has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Tectonic does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
