Trailbreaker Resources Ltd. (TBK.V) (‘Trailbreaker’ or ‘the Company’) is pleased to announce that it has completed a surficial exploration program at its Castle Rock property on northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia (BC).
The program consisted of the collection of 497 soil samples, 50 prospecting grab samples, and geological mapping. It was primarily designed to follow up on the channel sample and associated 400 m x 50 m gold-in-soil anomaly defined as the Heart zone in 2022.
Daithi Mac Gearailt, CEO of Trailbreaker, commented: ‘The program provided excellent coverage of the already robust gold anomaly at the Heart zone. This is a very recent discovery in an underexplored area of the Island. With the results in hand, we will have a more complete picture of the strike length of the anomaly and whether there are additional geochemical trends.’
All assays for the program remain pending.
About the Castle Rock property
The Castle Rock property covers 3,108 hectares on Northern Vancouver Island, approximately 70 km northwest of Campbell River, BC (Figure 1). It was acquired by Trailbreaker in 2022 and was recently consolidated through an option agreement (see August 8, 2023 news release ).
The claims cover five BC Minfile occurrences along a district-scale structure that is >5 km long, with newly identified gold ± copper-enriched intrusions. These Minfile occurrences are relatively new discoveries, mostly due to access created by recent logging activity.
Northern Vancouver Island is host to several large copper-gold (Cu-Au) porphyry deposits including Northisle’s Hushamu deposit (Inferred Resource of 5.57 Moz AuEq) 1 , and BHP Billiton’s past producing Island Copper porphyry copper deposit (has produced >2.7 B lb Cu and >1.0 Moz Au) 1 .
At the Castle Rock property, gold is dominantly hosted in Jurassic granodiorite dykes emplaced along a regional-scale fault zone separating Lower to Middle Triassic Daonella Bed sedimentary rocks from Upper Triassic Karmutsen Formation basalts.
Figure 1: Location of the Castle Rock property on Vancouver Island 1 .
2023 exploration at the Heart and Flan zones
The Heart zone was the primary focus of the 2023 exploration program. The Heart showing (upon which the zone is centered) was discovered in 2012 and consists of a brecciated granodiorite dyke containing 5% to 10% combined pyrite and chalcopyrite. Historic chip sampling returned assays of 2.0 g/t Au over 30 metres 2 .
During 2022, Trailbreaker completed a channel sampling program at the Heart showing which returned values up to 0.68 g/t Au over 13.11 m, including a subinterval of 1.85 g/t Au over 2.92 m. A small soil geochemical survey outlined a 400 m x 50 m, northwest-southeast trending gold-in-soil anomaly. This is interpreted to represent the surface footprint of the gold-bearing dyke exposed at the Heart showing. Soil values up to 5.44 g/t Au were returned, and the anomaly remains open. This area is referred to as the Heart zone.
During the 2023 program, the exploration team expanded the soil grid, now covering 3.2 km x 1.5 km with 497 soil samples (see Figure 2). Additional prospecting was also done along trend of the Heart zone to explore for similar mineralization to that of the main Heart showing.
The soil survey was also extended to cover the Flan zone, located approximately 1.5 km west of the Heart zone. The zone was originally discovered in 2000 and comprises numerous high-grade boulders assaying up to 135 g/t Au 3 . Prospecting at the Flan zone during the 2023 program uncovered significant pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite mineralization hosted in a mafic volcanic unit. While the boulders were originally interpreted as sourced from the Heart zone, the mineralized volcanic rocks may represent a recently exposed bedrock source discovered in 2023 within 200 metres of the historic location of the boulders.
Figure 2: 2023 sample locations at the Castle Rock property with inset showing 2022 results at the Heart zone.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Daithi Mac Gearailt
President and Chief Executive Officer
Carl Schulze, P. Geo., Consulting Geologist with Aurora Geosciences Ltd, is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 for Trailbreaker’s BC and Yukon exploration projects, and has reviewed and approved the technical information in this release.
Other
For new information about the Company’s projects, please visit Trailbreaker’s website at TrailbreakerResources.com and sign up to receive news. For further information, follow Trailbreaker’s tweets at Twitter.com/TrailbreakerLtd , use the ‘Contact’ section of our website, or contact us at (604) 681-1820 or at info@trailbreakerresources.com .
References
1) https://cmscontent.nrs.gov.bc.ca/geoscience/PublicationCatalogue/InformationCircular/BCGS_IC2014-04.pdf
2) https://minfile.gov.bc.ca/Summary.aspx?minfilno=092L%20%20399
3) https://minfile.gov.bc.ca/Summary.aspx?minfilno=092L%20%20396
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.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are ‘forward-looking information’ or ‘forward-looking statements’ (collectively, ‘Forward-Looking Information’) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-Looking Information includes, but is not limited to, disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or financial performance that is based on assumptions about future economic conditions and courses of action; expectations regarding future exploration and drilling programs and receipt of related permitting. In certain cases, Forward-Looking Information can be identified by the use of words and phrases such as ‘anticipates’, ‘expects’, ‘understanding’, ‘has agreed to’ or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results ‘would’, ‘occur’ or ‘be achieved’. Although Trailbreaker has attempted to identify important factors that could affect Trailbreaker and may cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward-Looking Information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, if any, Trailbreaker has applied several material assumptions, including the assumption that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner. There can be no assurance that Forward-Looking 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. Except as required by law, Trailbreaker does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to Forward-Looking Information contained in this news release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ea60c3c3-fb49-43ce-9748-506837f96ee2
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c68c91f3-5231-4a07-886b-40a96e0c9392
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