TORONTO, April 12, 2017 /CNW/ - Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. (TSXV: BGM) (the "Company" or "Barkerville") is pleased to announce additional results from the ongoing 130,000 metre Phase II Island Mountain exploration drilling program at the Company's flagship Cariboo Gold Project. The Company is currently exploring and delineating the new Valley Zone with four drill rigs. Detailed drilling results, a drill hole location plan map, level plan and longitudinal section are presented at the end of this release.
High Tenor Gold Veining Further Expands Shaft Zone
The 130,000 metre Phase II exploration and delineation drill program on Island Mountain has again demonstrated the tenor and size potential of the vein systems that exist at the Cariboo Gold Project. At a vertical of depth of 400 metres vertically below surface and 150 metres footwall to the former Aurum Mine, drillhole IM-17-068 intersected a new and previously unidentified occurrence of significant veining overall grading 14.10 g/t Au over 20.00 metres. Higher grade intercepts within this corridor include 40.00 g/t Au over 0.70 metres and 373.00 g/t Au over 0.65 metres. Because no other drillholes occur within 150 metres of this newly tested area of the mineralized system, this portion of the larger Shaft Zone is open for expansion in all directions.
At a depth of only 80 metres vertically below surface, IM-17-068 also intersected another corridor of veining averaging 7.76 g/t Au over 10.45 metres which included 9.52 g/t Au over 1.10 metres and 56.00 g/t Au over 1.10 metres. This new veining is again open for expansion along vein strike to the southwest and down dip.
Chris Lodder, President and CEO comments, "The Valley Zone drilling identifies several new robust vein corridors in the previously unexplored area between Cow and Island Mountains. We're encouraged by the denser than expected vein intensity identified by the drilling and are planning more step outs to extend the dimensions of the intersected vein corridors both along strike and down dip."
About the Phase II Program
The 130,000 metre 2017 Phase II exploratory and delineation drill program on Island Mountain is intended to determine the extent of the vein systems that were historically never explored, and is aimed at discovering new vein systems and sulphide replacement bodies that will ultimately inform a maiden resource. Seven drill rigs are currently operating on Island Mountain, with an eighth rig testing for additional mineralization below the former Aurum and Cariboo Gold Quartz Mines which have never been explored since mining operations ceased circa 1960.
Qualified Persons
Exploration activities at the Cariboo Gold Project are administered on site by the Company's Exploration Manager, Maggie Layman, P.Geo. As per National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, Paul Geddes, P.Geo. Vice President Exploration, is the Qualified Person for the Company and has prepared, validated and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release. The Company strictly adheres to CIM Best Practices Guidelines in conducting, documenting, and reporting its exploration activities on the Cariboo Gold Project.
Quality Assurance - Quality Control
Once received from the drill and processed, all drill core samples are sawn in half, labelled and bagged. The remaining drill core is subsequently stored on site at the Company's secure facility in Wells, BC. Numbered security tags are applied to lab shipments for chain of custody requirements. The Company inserts quality control (QC) samples at regular intervals in the sample stream, including blanks and reference materials with all sample shipments to monitor laboratory performance. The QAQC program was designed and approved by Lynda Bloom, P.Geo. of Analytical Solutions Ltd., and is overseen by the Company's Qualified Person, Paul Geddes, P.Geo, Vice President Exploration.
Drill core samples are submitted to ALS Geochemistry's analytical facility in North Vancouver, British Columbia for preparation and analysis. The ALS facility is accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard for gold assays and all analytical methods include quality control materials at set frequencies with established data acceptance criteria. The entire sample is crushed and 250 grams is pulverized. Analysis for gold is by 50g fire assay fusion with atomic absorption (AAS) finish with a lower limit of 0.01 ppm and upper limit of 100 ppm. Samples with gold assays greater than 100 ppm are re-analyzed using a 1,000g screen metallic fire assay. A selected number of samples are also analyzed using a 48 multi-elemental geochemical package by a 4-acid digestion, followed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS).
About Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd.
The Company is focused on developing its extensive land package located in the historical Cariboo Mining District of central British Columbia. Barkerville's mineral tenures cover 1,164 square kilometres along a strike length of 60 kilometres which includes several past producing hard rock mines of the historic Barkerville Gold Mining Camp near the town of Wells, British Columbia. The QR Project, located approximately 110 kilometres by highway and all weather road from Wells was acquired by Barkerville in 2010 and boasts a fully permitted 900 tonne/day gold milling and tailings facility. Test mining of the Bonanza Ledge open pit was completed in March of 2015 with 91,489 tonnes of ore milled producing 25,464 ounces of gold. The Company has completed a number of drilling and exploration programs over the past 20 years and is currently compiling this data with all historical information in order develop geologic models which will assist new management and provide the framework to continue to explore the Cariboo Gold Project. An extensive drill program is currently underway with the goal of delineating additional high grade gold mineralization.
