ALX Resources to conduct airborne survey for Vixen near First Mining's Springpole
ALX Resources has signed a contract for a helicopter-borne geophysical survey at its 100%-owned Vixen Gold Project in the Red Lake Mining District. Vixen consists of three sub-projects totaling 10,069 hectares (24,880 acres) staked within the Birch-Uchi greenstone belt and is located approximately 60 kilometres (37 miles) east of Red Lake, Ontario. The airborne survey is planned to begin in early October 2020 and will be focused on the Vixen North property, which demonstrates significant gold mineralization in surface samples (see ALX news release dated September 9, 2020).
Highlights of the 2020 Vixen North airborne survey
- ALX has contracted Terraquest Ltd. ("Terraquest") of Markham, Ontario, a leading industry provider of airborne geophysical services and data processing, to perform the survey;
- The Vixen North survey plan consists of approximately 476 line-kilometres at 100 metre line spacing with the goal of defining drill targets along the newly-identified Vulpin Zone;
- A helicopter-borne acquisition system will collect horizontal Magnetic Gradient Data utilizing advanced positioning and gridding techniques;
- Terraquest's survey specifications include the use of a proprietary digital Very Low Frequency Electromagnetic ("VLF-EM") system on a best-efforts basis, the data from which can provide inversions of resistivity model sections;
- Radiometric data will also be collected to add to the understanding of surface alteration at Vixen North.
During ALX's August 2020 prospecting program, gold occurrences which returned up to 8.41 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold were found within gossanous and magnetite-bearing host rocks at the Vulpin Zone, leading to the possibility of banded iron formation ("BIF") gold deposits at Vixen, a gold deposit model which has not been historically sought after in the Vixen area. However, the Springpole Gold deposit located six kilometres to the south of Vixen North (owned by First Mining Gold Corp.) demonstrates the influence of NNW-trending BIF for hosting gold mineralization confirmed by both surface mapping and the detection of strong magnetic high anomalies observed in a 2004 aeromagnetic survey2.
1 Springpole contains a reported Indicated mineral resource estimate of 139.1 million tonnes at 1.04 g/t gold and 5.4 g/t silver, containing 4.67 million ounces of gold and 24.19 million ounces of silver, and an Inferred mineral resource estimate of 11.4 million tonnes at 0.63 g/t gold and 3.1 g/t silver, containing 230,000 ounces of gold and 1.12 million ounces of silver (Source: First Mining Gold Corp., 2020).
2 Preliminary Economic Assessment Update for the Springpole Gold Project, Ontario, Canada, prepared for First Mining Gold Corp. by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc., November 2019.
In conjunction with the airborne geophysical survey, ALX is planning more surface exploration work at Vixen North in the remainder of the 2020 field season, including additional prospecting as well as soil and lake sediment sampling to better define the surface trace of the Vulpin Zone. The Company is planning to submit a drill permit for a drilling program in the winter of 2021 to test prospective target areas.
About Vixen and the Red Lake Mining District
To date, the Red Lake Mining District ("Red Lake") has produced over 28 million ounces of gold since mines began production in 1925 (readers are cautioned that mineralization present on adjacent properties may not be present at Vixen). Historic gold mines in the Red Lake camp include the Campbell mine, the Red Lake mine, and the Couchenour-Williams mine, all multi-million ounce gold producers. Vixen lies within the Birch-Uchi greenstone belt, a geological trend located to the northeast of Red Lake that hosts numerous historical gold mines and showings and is highly prospective for new showings of gold mineralization. The Argosy Mine, located approximately 2.0 kilometres from the Vixen North claim boundary, produced approximately 102,000 ounces of gold from 1934 to 1952. The Springpole Gold Project, operated by First Mining Gold Corp., is located approximately 6.0 kilometres from the Vixen North boundary.
ALX considers Vixen historically underexplored where areas of limited outcrop have inhibited surface exploration and plans to identify new drill targets through detailed prospecting, leading-edge geochemical techniques, and geophysical surveys.
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