Upside Gold Corp. Signs LOI to Acquire Historic High-Grade Gold Claims Adjacent to Kena Property
Upside Gold Corp. has signed a letter of intent to acquire seven mineral claims covering 273 hectares adjacent to its Kena Gold-Copper Property in British Columbia, which include historic high-grade gold production and are expected to strengthen the land package's continuity.
Upside Gold Corp. (CSE: UG) (FSE: 47I) (OTCQB: UGODF) announced the signing of a Letter of Intent (LOI) with a local prospector to acquire seven mineral claims totaling approximately 273 hectares on the northwest side of its Kena Gold-Copper Property in southeastern British Columbia. The proposed acquisition is intended to strengthen the continuity of the Kena land package by consolidating adjacent ground along a prospective trend, the company said.
The claims cover historically mineralized areas and support Upside Gold's strategy of building scale across the Kena system. The claims encompass the original six reverted Crown grants that formed the historic Venus-Juno Group, which recorded past production of approximately 5,411 tonnes grading an average of 19.8 g/t gold and 17.7 g/t silver, with minor copper and lead, during the first half of the 20th century. This high-grade production history, which includes grades significantly above the current Kena resource grade of 0.544 g/t gold for the indicated resource, underscores the exploration potential of this largely under-explored portion of the property.
Geologically, the claims are underlain by altered mafic volcanic rocks of the Elise Formation adjacent to the Nelson granodiorite intrusion – the same regional geological setting that hosts gold and copper mineralization at Kena. Mineralization on the newly acquired claims is characterized by quartz veins and stringers containing pyrite, galena, sphalerite, and copper sulphides, consistent with mineralization styles observed elsewhere across the Kena Property.
Upside Gold plans to conduct a systematic surface evaluation program to assess the extent and continuity of gold-silver mineralization across the newly acquired claims and to determine their potential contribution to the broader Kena exploration model. The company is focused on advancing the Kena Gold-Copper Project through systematic exploration and drilling programs.
The Kena Project currently hosts a historical gold resource estimate comprising an Indicated Mineral Resource of 32,146,000 tonnes at an average grade of 0.544 g/t Au for 0.561 million ounces of gold, and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 177,507,000 tonnes at an average grade of 0.486 g/t Au for 2.77 million ounces of gold, as per a technical report dated May 3, 2021. However, the company cautions that a Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources, and Upside Gold is not treating it as such.
The acquisition is subject to final agreement and regulatory approvals. The information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Trevor Boyd, P.Geo., Vice President, Exploration of the Company and a Qualified Person under NI 43-101 standards. For more information, visit www.upsidegoldcorp.com.