Sep 25 2013
WestKam Gold Corp. ("WestKam" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the commencement of a fall field program on the Company's Bonaparte Gold Project. This program is designed to evaluate the copper-gold porphyry potential of the property and test for extensions to the shear hosted, high-grade gold in quartz veins located in the Discovery Zone. The Bonaparte property is located 50km north of Kamloops BC.
Focusing on Two Distinct Targets
The design and objectives of the 2013 Exploration Program have been guided by historical exploration work and geological studies carried out to date on the Bonaparte Property. Several key factors are evident from this data and analysis, and they essentially demonstrate the potential for two distinct targets: 1) Shear hosted, high-grade gold in quartz vein networks and, 2) a Brenda/Woodjam copper-gold porphyry style deposit. Therefore the 2013 Exploration Program is a multi-faceted plan designed to target and develop both styles of mineralization.
Factors Guiding the 2013 Program Design
The key guiding factors for design of the 2013 Exploration Program are presented below, commencing with the high-grade shear hosted gold in quartz veins followed by the porphyry potential:
- High-grade gold on the Bonaparte Property has been demonstrated by bulk sampling and previously reported geochemical results. (Discovery Zone) These are shear hosted gold-chalcopyrite quartz vein networks. Facets of the 2013 Exploration Program are designed to test the expansion and extension of these zones through geological, geophysical and diamond drilling programs.
- East of the Discovery Zone, along Cooler Creek, historical soil sampling identified a 2-kilometer long anomalous gold geochemical trend. Prospecting and sampling in this area encountered angular quartz vein float material with high-grade gold values up to 74 grams/tonne. No follow-up has been carried out to date along this trend, and the 2013 Program will deploy geological and geophysical studies to be followed up by diamond drilling of the targets identified.
- In support of the 2013 exploration program are the recent findings published by the British Columbia Geological Survey in Paper 2012-1 entitled "Bonaparte gold: another 195Ma porphyry Au-Cu deposit in Southern British Columbia?" In support of a Cu-Au porphyry target, the Bonaparte Intrusions align with a north-west trending belt of early Jurassic porphyry deposits in the Takomane-Wildhorse Magmatic belt (TWM belt). The metal and alteration assemblages at Bonaparte are shared by porphyry deposits within the TWM belt such as the Brenda Cu-Mo and the Woodjam Au, Cu-Mo porphyry deposits. As well, drilling at Bonaparte in 1986 reported polylithic breccias demonstrating the presence of high-level porphyry processes on the property. Therefore the 2013 Exploration Program is also designed to advance and test this porphyry deposit potential. Geological and geophysical programs will be deployed to define porphyry targets, followed up by diamond drilling. The link to Paper 2012-1 is as follows:
www.empr.gov.bc.ca/Mining/Geoscience/PublicationsCatalogue/Fieldwork/Pages/GeologicalFieldwork2012.aspx
To summarize, due to the guiding aspects and goals above, the 2013 Exploration Program we are proposing is a much larger and property-wide set of multi-faceted programs than has been carried out to date on the project.
Proposed 2013 Exploration Program:
The proposed exploration program is based on the above mentioned goals. Where feasible, the program has been designed to utilize exploration methods that will test and target both the high-grade gold vein networks as well as the porphyry potential, thereby more efficiently deploying the available exploration resources.
Exploration Grid Establishment:
- The exploration program first includes the establishment of an exploration grid covering the central portions of the Bonaparte claim group, measuring 1.2km north-south X 1.7km east-west resulting in 24.0 line kilometers covering a total area of 204ha of land. This grid shall cover the Discovery Zone, the potential on-strike extension of the Discovery Zone quartz veins to the south and parallel targets located to the east along the anomalous Cooler Creek gold soil geochemical trend.
- This exploration grid will form the base and ground control for the subsequent geological mapping, prospecting and ground based geophysical programs that follow.
Geophysical Programs:
- A 3D Induced Polarization (3D IP) and ground Magnetics survey will follow the exploration grid establishment.
- A 3D IP survey is a very effective geophysical method for detecting the disseminated mineralization of porphyry deposits at depth. The resistivity component of the 3D IP survey can also be effective in defining the structures and shear zones that are associated with the high-grade gold vein systems. As such, the 3D IP survey is designed to assist in the definition of drill targets for both.
- The ground Magnetics geophysical survey is a fast and cost effective method to overlay with the 3D IP data to define structures and lithology and therefore refine drill targets for both porphyry and gold in shear systems.
- Both the 3D IP and Magnetics data will be processed and modeled in 3 dimensions to further aid in drill target definition.
Prospecting and Mapping:
- Geotechnical Field Teams will utilize the established exploration grid to prospect in detail and expand on historical soil geochemical anomalies in order to extend known anomalous zones and identify any new zones as yet untested or detected. Recent clear cut logging operations have opened up new ground for follow up mapping and prospecting to the west, east and southeast of the Discovery Zone.
Diamond Drilling:
- A drill program towards the fall of 2013 will evaluate the near surface shear hosted gold targets in the Discovery Zone, gold targets identified in the Cooler Creek Trend and targets testing the Cu-Au Porphyry potential.
In conclusion, the Bonaparte Property presents an opportunity to carry out an efficient exploration program designed to overlap and define two significant types of mineralization.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
"Matt Wayrynen"
Source: http://www.westkamgold.com/