Tectonic Metals drills 41.15m at 5.61 g/t gold at Black Creek
The Alaska result ended in high-grade mineralization and supports further testing of a possible second gold system at Flat.
Mara Quinlan
Tectonic Metals Inc. CVETECT OTCMKTSTETOF reported on Monday that drilling at Black Creek in Alaska returned 5.61 grams per tonne gold over 41.15 metres. The hole sits 100 metres south of the discovery hole and ended in high-grade mineralization, leaving the system open at depth.
Shares fell to C$1.37 on the TSX Venture Exchange in the CVETECT quote dated Oct. 30 at 4 p.m. EDT, before the announcement.
The company reported results from six reverse circulation holes at its Flat Gold Project, led by CMR26-159. That hole returned a broader interval of 2.86 grams per tonne gold over 91.44 metres, beginning 22.86 metres downhole.
Tectonic says the results strengthen evidence for a possible second gold system, six kilometres north of its more advanced Chicken Mountain target. Black Creek's gold occurs mainly in hornfelsed sedimentary rocks, while Chicken Mountain's mineralization is primarily hosted in monzonite.
The higher-grade section includes 12.94 grams per tonne gold over 13.72 metres. All reported lengths are downhole measurements, true widths remain undetermined, and the included intervals are nested rather than additive.
Tectonic interprets the higher-grade zones as potentially steeply dipping and plunging, with structures controlling mineralization. Further drilling and oriented core analysis are needed to establish their geometry and continuity.
The host-rock distinction expands the ground the company plans to test because hornfels also occurs around other intrusions at Flat. Tectonic identifies Golden Apex, Horseshoe, Jam and Caribou, as well as Chicken Mountain's margins, as priorities under that exploration model.
Black Creek drilling has outlined mineralization across approximately 100 by 200 metres, within a larger gold-in-soil anomaly. Tectonic says more than 85 per cent of that soil anomaly remains untested.
"Both sit within an even larger 1.5 by 2.5 km geophysical anomaly interpreted to represent an intrusive centre," chief executive Tony Reda said in the release.
The remaining holes show the limits of the current drilling evidence. A nearby hole returned no significant gold intersections but stopped above the depth of the high-grade interval, while holes northwest of the headline result mainly encountered lower-grade mineralization.
Black Creek has been tested by 18 holes totalling about 1,600 metres, with gold intersected in 17. Tectonic's May 6 program announcement set a broader Flat drilling target of 40,000 metres.
Tectonic held C$83.2 million in cash and cash equivalents at June 30, according to interim financial statements issued Aug. 20.
Read more: West Red Lake Gold signs term sheet for up to US$95M credit facility
Tectonic targets the first quarter of 2027 for Chicken Mountain's maiden mineral resource estimate.
