The Yuge property is located in Humboldt County, northern Nevada, approximately 55 km south of Denio in the Varyville Mining District. The property covers the historical Columbia and Juanita Mines, which produced high-grade gold on a small scale between 1870 and 1937 from strong veins located more than 1,000 m apart within the same structural corridor. Historical mining only extended down to the bottom of the oxidized zone. Diamond drilling by previous operators below the Columbia workings produced a true-width sulphide intersect, which graded 9.70 g/t gold over 3.3 m starting 49 m below surface. This drilling was conducted in 1981 and no further drilling was been completed until Trifecta acquired the project from Silver Range Resources.
A successful reconnaissance program conducted in 2018 focused on three zones – Columbia, Juanita and Josie. A total of 68 rock geochemical samples were collected during the program. Thirty-five of the 68 rock and/or chip samples collected returned greater than 1 g/t gold. Significant rock sample results are listed below.
Gold mineralization occurs with sulphides (arsenopyrite and pyrite) or their weathered products (scorodite and iron oxides). Only minor amounts of quartz or silica accompany the mineralization. The veins are found in fault/shear zones that cut andesites, andesitic epiclastics and diorites, but seem to be best developed within and on the margins of mapped diorite intrusions. Underground workings were not sampled or mapped during this program due to safety reasons.
At Columbia, multiple drill holes completed by Trifecta have confirmed that a broad envelope of gold mineralization flanks the high-grade vein identified by historical miners at Columbia and that a second high-grade vein parallels the structure targeted by historical miners. Highlight intervals include:
Mineralization remains open to depth, and mineralizing systems of this character often extend to great depths. Columbia also remains open along strike as the most southerly hole drill hole, YU-21-01, was abandoned short of target depth. The most northerly hole, YU-21-03, was drilled on the north side of a cross fault that appears to offset the Columbia Zone approximately 160 metres to the northeast. Surface grab samples collected along the projected northern extension of Columbia, 100 m along strike to the northeast of hole YU-21-03, have returned assays including 7.18 and 7.13 g/t. In addition, Trench D retuned 7.4 m of 0.43 g/t gold 420 m along strike from YU-21-03.
The Juanita target hosts various underground workings and the Juanita Mine, which was once owned and operated by notable Nevadan prospector Josie Pearl. Many of the previous workings have yet to be mapped and sampled. Surface sampling at Juanita has returned grab samples grading 57.7 g/t gold and 11.4 g/t gold while a shear zone exposed in a nearby road cut graded 11.9 g/t gold over 1 m. Drilling by Trifecta gold has targeted mineralization to the south of the main shaft, intersecting:
Hole YU-22-14 undercut hole YU-21-07 and terminated before reaching target depth due to mechanical issues. The last sample of the interval graded 0.52 g/t gold over 1.52 m.
The Josie target is a large area located south of the former Juanita Mine that contains scattered historical diggings, which Trifecta is evaluating for its bulk tonnage potential. Mineralization at the Josie target was collected over a 500 m long by up to 200 m wide area, from structures that trend oblique to the Columbia/Juanita system. Most samples at Josie were taken from vein exposures or float, but a 2 m chip sample, mapped as weathered ‘andesite’ with minor iron oxide, contained 1.84 g/t gold. Two significant chip samples of vein exposures from partially collapsed trenches graded 45.2 g/t gold over 0.35 m and 42.2 g/t gold over 0.4 m, respectively. The limits of the Josie target have not been defined.
Trench I, located to the east of Josie, returned 17.7 m of 2.34 g/t gold (including 2 m of 6.49 g/t gold). This discovery lies 500 m east of the closest drill hole and consists of multiple structures that cut highly altered granodiorite, lending to the bulk tonnage potential in this part of the project.
Results to date indicate that gold mineralization at Yuge is more widespread than documented in the limited historical data and may occur in undocumented structural settings as well as broad zones of lower grade gold mineralization which would not have been of interest to historical miners. In response to the positive results, Trifecta has staked additional claims, more than doubling the size of the property since acquisition. In addition to drilling and trenching, Trifecta has completed an airborne total magnetic field and radiometric survey, a ground based HLEM survey, a widespread soil geochemical survey.
