January 20, 2023 – Trailbreaker Resources Ltd. (TBK.V) (“Trailbreaker” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Castle Rock property on northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia (BC).
The property was acquired through claim staking, then expanded through a partnership with Cazador Resources Ltd. (“Cazador”) in January, 2023. Together, the companies own 100% of the property with no underlying payments or royalties.
In September, 2022, Trailbreaker completed a first-pass prospecting program at the Castle Rock claims. The program was designed to follow up on historic values and included channel sampling, prospecting, and soil sampling. A presentation PDF of the property highlights can be found here.
Highlights of the Castle Rock property
- Covers 3,108 hectares of land on northern Vancouver Island, approximately 70 km northwest of Campbell River, BC (see Figure 1 – Location)
- Claims cover 5 Minfile occurrences, >5 km-long district-scale structure, and newly identified gold +/- copper-enriched intrusions
- Relatively new discovery, in an area that hosts copper-gold (Cu-Au) porphyry, volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS), and gold skarn deposits
- Northern Vancouver Island is host to several large Cu-Au porphyry deposits including Northisle’s Hushamu deposit (Inferred Resource of 5.57 Moz AuEq), and BHP Billiton’s past producing Island Copper deposit (produced >2.7 B lb Cu and >1.0 Moz Au)
- Vancouver Island is host to the Myra Falls VMS deposit (>1.5 Moz Au past production) and the Merry Widow gold skarn deposit (>200 Koz Au past production)
- Newly accessible via recent logging activity
- Historic chip sample returned assays of 2.0 g/t Au over 30 metres (source: Heart Minfile, 2012)
- Historic grab sampling from boulders returned assays up to 135 g/t Au, 1.5 km west of Heart showing (source: Flan Minfile, 2007)
- Gold is hosted in Jurassic granodiorite dykes which have been emplaced along a regional-scale fault zone separating Lower to Middle Triassic Daonella Bed sediments from Upper Triassic Karmutsen Formation basalts
Daithi Mac Gearailt, CEO of Trailbreaker, commented, “The Castle Rock property is Trailbreaker’s newest addition to our portfolio of high-quality precious metal and copper assets. This is an overlooked and underexplored area of Vancouver Island that has recently been made more accessible. With a short geochemical sampling and reconnaissance program, the team was able to delineate a large, gold-bearing dyke system over at least 400 metres, coinciding with a district-scale fault. This system has strong potential for expansion.”
Figure 1: Location of the Castle Rock property on Vancouver Island (Gold production and resource values obtained from Ministry of Energy and Mines, BCGS Information Circular 2014-04).
Partnership with Cazador Resources
In January, 2023, Trailbreaker signed a partnership agreement with Cazador Resources Ltd. This partnership will increase the effectiveness of future exploration in the Schoen Creek area, including the Castle Rock property. The details of the agreement are as follows:
- Each party owns 50% of the property;
- All agreed-upon expenses incurred and potential proceeds will be split between the parties;
- All information will be shared between the parties to enhance development of the property;
- The agreement is perpetual unless terminated by mutual consent of both parties.
Trailbreaker Resources’ 2022 exploration program
In September, 2022, Trailbreaker completed a first-pass, 3-day evaluation program on the Castle Rock claims.
The program included a detailed soil sample survey consisting of 116 samples, as well as 32 metres of channel sampling designed to confirm the historic grades and thickness. The program successfully confirmed historic gold grades, with 2022 values up to 0.680 g/t Au over 13.11m, including a subinterval of 1.85 g/t Au over 2.92m.
The soil sample survey outlined a 50m x 400m, northwest-southeast trending gold-in-soil anomaly interpreted to represent the surface footprint of the gold-bearing dyke exposed at the Heart showing. The soil values reached a maximum of 5.44 g/t Au, and the anomaly remains open (see Figure 2 – Surface Geochemistry).
Future Exploration at Castle Rock
No past systematic geochemical or geophysical work has been done on the property. Trailbreaker plans to execute a property-wide geochemical soil survey to further expand the Heart zone and identify other mineralized intrusive dykes. Historic silt sampling has outlined additional targets on the property, with samples returning up to 860 ppb Au that have undergone no follow-up exploration to date. Furthermore, a second historic gold showing (Flan showing) discovered in 2000, approximately 1.5 km west of the Heart showing, consists of numerous high-grade boulders assaying up to 135 g/ Au. These boulders are believed to be sourced from the Heart showing which is located upstream. This indicates potential for the Heart zone to host much higher-grade gold mineralization than that identified to date.
Trailbreaker’s team believes the Castle Rock project represents an exciting discovery that has been overlooked in the past, and, given its association with large district-scale structures and open-ended anomalies, has potential to be rapidly expanded into a significant gold prospect.
Figure 2: Surface geochemistry of the Castle Rock property. Trailbreaker’s 2022 exploration results at the Heart zone are shown on the top two maps.
For more information about the Castle Rock property, see the dedicated section on Trailbreakers website at www.trailbreakerresources.com/castle-rock/.
Message from the President
“The Castle Rock property represents Trailbreaker’s continued focus as a project generator. We are very excited to sink our teeth into exploring a new gold district. The completed program has shown this to be a large mineralized system, with plenty of opportunity for new discoveries. The team, including myself, along with the team at Cazador Resources, will be diligently planning the next steps for this project.”
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.
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.
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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.
