TORONTO, Nov. 29, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nevada Zinc Corporation (“Nevada Zinc” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: NZN ) is pleased to report it has outlined a significant gold exploration target on its VIP Project located in Yukon, west of Goldcorp’s Coffee Gold Project. Goldcorp acquired ownership of the Coffee Gold Project on July 19, 2016 for approximately $521 million by purchasing Kaminak Gold Corporation. Since the Kaminak transaction Goldcorp has acquired equity interests in two additional adjacent publicly traded property holders.
The 700 metre long East Big Creek gold target on the Company’s VIP Project remains open along strike and is unexplored for several kilometres along the trend of the existing anomalous data points.
The Company is continuing to drill on its Lone Mountain zinc project in Nevada where the Company’s most recent drilling intersected significant intervals of very near surface high grade zinc mineralization including holes that collared in subcropping mineralization assaying up to 5.76% zinc over 41.15 metres (press release August 11, 2016).
President and CEO, Bruce Durham commented, “we are continuing to drill at our highly prospective Lone Mountain zinc project in Nevada and we are pleased to report continuing positive exploration progress on our large land holdings in Yukon. We own a 100% interest in more than 837 claims in the VIP area making us the only significant junior company in the area not involved with Goldcorp. Our expanded property position, with the addition of the Wolf block covers the westerly extension of our East Big Creek target for several kilometres where we have no exploration data. We have held the VIP property for more than six years and there are still large parts of the property that remain completely unexplored. There is room for an entire gold camp on our VIP Project and VIP is only one of several large land position, high quality gold projects we continue to advance in Yukon”.
Highlights – VIP Project - East Big Creek Target
The East Big Creek target is comprised of a 700 metre long northwest trending gold-in-soil and pathfinder element geochemical anomaly that remains untested and open in both directions along strike. The anomaly is up to 250 metres wide, and is only constrained to the south (uphill) by permafrost which resulted in an inability to obtain proper sample material for analysis.
Higher gold values in soil samples in the anomalous area range up to more than 10 times background which is highly anomalous for the area given the rather ubiquitous overburden cover. Anomalous gold values in soils correlates well with anomalous levels of tellurium, bismuth, sulphur, selenium, copper, silver, molybdenum, mercury, lead, antimony, and zinc. This suite of anomalous elements is a very good indicator for the presence of significant gold mineralization in the area.
The East Big Creek target occurs within Klondike Schist of Paleozoic Age. It occurs 2.4 kilometres west-northwest on strike from a Cretaceous-age, Coffee Creek-phase monzogranite body, and 1.4 kilometres north of a Cretaceous, Whitehorse Suite gabbro body. The Coffee Creek-phase monzogranite body is one of a series continuing to the east-southeast and extending to the Coffee Creek Batholith which hosts a significant portion of Goldcorp’s Coffee Creek gold deposit.
An airborne magnetic survey completed by Nevada Zinc in 2010 and recently reprocessed, indicates additional buried intrusions within 1 kilometre to the south of the East Big Creek anomaly and also to the northwest along trend of the East Big Creek anomaly. The location of these interpreted intrusions is on trend with the Coffee Creek intrusions.
An extensive, prominent magnetic low in the reprocessed airborne magnetic data defines a northwest trending structure directly associated with the location of the East Big Creek target.
Rock sampling in the area proved somewhat problematic due to lack of outcrop in the area of the defined target. Hand dug pits yielded grab samples with anomalous geochem results similar to the suite of anomalous elements found in the soil sampling data, indicating proximity to the source of the target.
The Company plans to further evaluate the area of the East Big Creek target and also the extensions of the target both northwesterly and southeasterly in 2017.
VIP Project
The VIP Project was acquired by the Company before the first announcement of the Coffee Creek drill results by Kaminak in 2010. The VIP Project was acquired as a very large, completely untested gold exploration target covering the upstream location of a number of significant gold and pathfinder element anomalies located along the major regional trend located immediately west of Goldcorp’s Coffee Gold Project. A transaction between Goldspike Exploration Inc. (now Nevada Zinc) and Silverquest (now Independence Gold Corp.) on some of the claims near the west boundary of the Coffee Gold Project resulted in the Company retaining a 1% net smelter returns (“NSR”) royalty on the YCS Property of Independence Gold Corp.
One item of particular interest just outside the Wolf claims on the VIP claims is the discovery of remnants of historic, never recorded, placer gold operations near the eastern boundary of the Wolf claims on the VIP block.
The Company recently added significantly to its VIP land package by acquiring the 16 square kilometre Wolf claim group (64 claim units) located within the boundaries of the VIP Project.
The recently acquired Wolf claims and the original VIP Project cover the interpreted sources of a number of high gold and multi-element geochemical targets similar to those found at the the Coffee Gold Project.
Nevada Zinc has outlined a number of geochemical and structural targets that warrant further follow-up. The VIP Project is comprised of 837 mineral claims covering some 16,000 hectares covering 17 kilometres of favourable stratigraphy west of Goldcorp Coffee Gold Project.
No drilling or trenching has ever been undertaken on the Company’s extensive VIP land holdings.
Corporate
The Company continues to be focused on its highly prospective Lone Mountain zinc exploration assets located in Nevada while concurrently allocating resources to its gold exploration targets in Yukon. In addition to its VIP Project the Company holds a large block of claims referred to as the Goodman Project that cover the southwesterly, along trend extension of the gold and silver mineralization trends being actively explored by Victoria Gold Corporation. The Company also holds a significant land position at Josephine Creek where it holds both hardrock and placer rights along Josephine Creek adjacent to land held by Victoria Gold. The Company also holds the dominant land position in the Livingstone Creek placer gold district northeast of Whitehorse where its land position was acquired to cover the upstream portion of several historic placer creeks that have produced some of the largest gold nuggets discovered in Yukon since the days of the original Yukon Gold Rush, with individual gold nuggets weighing up to more than 20 ounces. The Livingstone area, arguably the only placer gold district in Yukon for which a significant gold in bedrock source has not yet been located, was once a thriving community of more than 300 people and now sits as an abandoned village. The Company has in fact discovered significant gold in bedrock in its most recent work on the Livingstone property. Geochemistry of the nuggets and this new discovery of gold in bedrock by the Company appears to be part of the source for the extremely large nuggets that are still being found occasionally by the placer miners.
Bruce Durham, P.Geo, is a qualified person, as that term is defined by National Instrument 43-101, and on behalf of the Company has approved the contents contained in this press release.
About Nevada Zinc
Nevada Zinc is a discovery driven mineral exploration company with a proven management team focussed on identifying unique opportunities in mineral exploration that can provide significant value to its shareholders. The Company’s existing zinc and gold projects are located in Nevada and Yukon, respectively.
The Lone Mountain Project
While the Company maintains its highly prospective Yukon gold properties and continues to advance them, the current focus of the Company is the exploration and advancement of the Lone Mountain Project comprised of 224 claims covering approximately 4,000 acres near Eureka, Nevada.
The Lone Mountain zinc project is located in east-central Nevada and is easily accessible via paved and gravel roads northwesterly from Eureka where all essential services are available. The land that comprises the project includes options, leases or purchase agreements to acquire 100% interests in all properties along the key structural trend for more than three kilometres.
For further information contact:
Nevada Zinc Corporation Suite 1660, 141 Adelaide St. West Toronto, Ontario M5H 3L5 Tel: 416-504-8821
Bruce Durham, President and CEO bdurham@nevadazinc.com
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 adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.
