Overview
- The Unga Project contains high-grade (>10 g/t) gold mineralization in multiple vein systems as well as disseminated gold and porphyry copper-gold mineralization within island-arc volcanic rocks that haven't been explored since 1990.
- Redstar is the first company to consolidate land holdings in this large mineralized district by combining two important property positions:
- Shumagin Property, limited to the central portions of two of the known high-grade veins
- Unga/Popof Property, which borders the Shumagin Property and contains the extensions of the vein systems as well as a number of other mineralized areas
Existing Resources
(Non 43-101 Compliant)
Shumagin Property consists of the Shumagin and Apollo gold deposits. Shumagin hosts a historic resource of 254,000 tonnes averaging 27.7 g/t gold and 92.6 g/t silver
#, and Apollo produced about 150,000 ounces of gold at a grade of about 10 g/t gold between 1891 and 1922. US natural gas producer NGAS Resources currently owns the deposits.
Unga-Popof Property contains numerous mineralized vein systems, disseminated gold mineralization and porphyry copper-gold mineralization. The Centennial disseminated gold deposit on Popof Island was discovered by Battle Mountain Gold in the late 1980's; a 6-million tonne resource averaging 1.5 g/t gold was outlined
#.
Property Agreements
Shumagin Property consists of 27 mining claims covering the important Shumagin and Apollo-Sitka veins. Redstar can earn a 100% interest in the Shumagin property from NGAS Production Co. (a Kentucky based gas production company) by making cash payments of $2.35 million (NGAS has the option of receiving the final $1.5 million in cash or stock) and issuing $500,000 in Redstar stock over 2 years.
Unga-Popof Property mineral rights are held by Full Metal Minerals Inc. under a lease agreement with Aleut Corporation, an Alaska Native Regional Corporation. Redstar has signed an Agreement with Full Metal giving Redstar the right to earn a 60% interest in the property by completing $5 million in exploration expenditures by August 1, 2015, making cash payments of $300,000 by August 1, 2014 and issuing 1,000,000 shares by August 1, 2014. Redstar has the option of earning an additional 15% interest by producing a Bankable Feasibility Study and issuing an additional 1 million shares to Full Metal. Redstar will issue an additional 1 million shares on the commencement of commercial production.
Geology and Mineralization
Several northeast-trending mineralized trends occur on Unga Island: Shumagin, Apollo-Sitka and the less-explored Disney or Junior trend. The Shumagin trend is 9km long and about 1.5km wide and includes the unmined Shumagin vein, which contains a resource of 254,000 tonnes (280,000 tons) grading 27.4 g/t (0.80 ounces per ton) gold and 127 g/t (3.7 opt) silver (SRK Consulting, 2000
#). The resource is based on shallow drilling in the 1980's that was within about 150m (500 feet) of surface. The vein is at least 1.3km long but remains open for exploration along strike and at depth. For example, one lone deep hole drilled 130m below the resource intersected 5.5m grading 16.1 g/t gold, indicating a strong vertical extent to mineralization of at least 335m; and limited drilling along strike from the resource block intersected locally high grades, including 37.7 g/t (1.1 opt) gold over 0.76m (2.5 feet). Mineralization occurs in a network of closely-spaced, multiple, steeply-dipping veins and there is potential for multiple ore shoots. At least three other mineralized vein zones occur along the Shumagin trend but have seen far more limited exploration work than the Shumagin vein. One of these, the Aquila zone, about 6km southwest of Shumagin, consists of a 2km-long vein system that includes a drillhole intersection of 113 g/t over 0.4m.
Shumagin Vein: Selected Historic Drillhole Intersections
| Hole |
Core Length* (ft) |
Gold (oz/t) |
Silver (oz/t) |
Core Length* (m) |
Gold (g/t) |
Silver (g/t) |
Gross Value
($/t)
$1400/oz Au, $35/oz Ag |
| 177** |
21.5 |
0.58 |
2.13 |
7.05 |
19.79 |
73.04 |
$882.35 |
| 57 |
10.5 |
0.97 |
0.94 |
3.44 |
33.26 |
32.23 |
$1,390.90 |
| 35 |
2 |
5.62 |
157.6 |
0.66 |
192.6 |
5,404.10 |
$13,381.20 |
| 23 |
12 |
0.8 |
2.53 |
3.94 |
27.33 |
86.75 |
$1,204.35 |
| 42 |
27 |
0.46 |
0.55 |
8.86 |
15.81 |
18.86 |
$664.65 |
| 46 |
4 |
10.7 |
5.56 |
1.31 |
365.2 |
190.65 |
$15,104.60 |
*Core length does not necessarily represent true thickness. Further work is needed to determine the relationship between core length and true thickness.
** Percussion drill hole
The Apollo-Sitka trend is parallel to and 3km southeast of the Shumagin trend. Mineralization occurs along at least 7km of the 11km structural zone. Historic mining from 1891-1922 produced approximately 150,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 10.3 g/t (0.3 opt) gold, and mineralization is known to cover a vertical extent of at least 400m. There were inadequate methods for recovering gold from base-metal bearing sulfidic ore encountered at deeper levels, and mining was terminated. There has been very limited modern exploration along the trend. In 2011, Redstar collected several samples from the area of the historic Sitka shaft and obtained high-grade Au-Ag values across the vein of 13.2 g/t Au and 398 g/t Ag over 2metres in outcrop that includes a sulfide vein separate which assayed 94.7 g/t Au and 1840 g/t Ag. The Sitka mineralization is part of the extensive +5,000-foot long, northeast-trending Apollo-Sitka vein system, but there was minimal historic mining at Sitka owing to the presence of shallow sulfides. Gold-bearing veins with historic sampling to 147 g/t gold also occur at the California prospect 1.5 km southwest of the Apollo mine. The width of vein mineralization at Apollo was up to 12m wide in the mined zones, and evidence at Sitka indicates a vein system that may be as wide as 50m. The Disney/Junior trend, 4km northwest of the Shumagin trend, contains at least two gold-bearing vein zones and several other mineralized prospects but is underexplored.
The project also contains volcanic-hosted disseminated gold mineralization on adjacent Popof Island. The Centennial deposit was discovered in the late 1980's by Battle Mountain Gold Corp., who outlined 4.34 million tonnes grading 1.44 g/t (200,000 oz gold) within 50 meters of surface
#. The mineralization remains open and there is potential to discover higher-grade feeders to the mineralization. The historic drilling was shallow (average length = 94m). Trenches and drillholes intersected significant mineralization, including 1.1 g/t over 61.3m including 3.2 g/t over 5.6 meters; and 1.8 g/t over 72.5m including 18.1 g/t over 3.0m. The adjacent Propalof prospect has seen very limited exploration and may offer an opportunity to significantly expand the Centennial resource. Only three holes tested Propalof but did intersect significant gold, including 0.82 g/t over 7.3m. High-level advanced-argillic alteration at the nearby Red Cove prospect on Popof Isalnd may be underlain by porphyry-style or vein-style Cu-Au mineralization and offers an additional exploration opportunity.
The Zachary Bay porphyry copper-gold target is 7 kilometres northwest of the Shumagin vein. Surface rock-chip sampling in 1974 returned 46 metres of 0.36% copper and 0.550 g/t gold. Four shallow (<120 metre) drillholes completed in 1975 by Quintana Minerals Corp and Duval Corp intersected disseminated Cu-Au mineralization in intrusive rocks. The deepest drillhole (Z1, 117 metres) was mineralized over its entire length, with 107 metres grading 0.11% copper and 0.280 g/t gold. These assays were completed by Resource Associates of Alaska in 1981, who re-assayed the original core. Abundant disseminated hydrothermal biotite, magnetite and chalcopyrite within a quartz-diorite intrusion with pink potassium feldspar phenocrysts are consistent with classic porphyry copper-gold mineralization. The strong correlation between copper and gold is also indicative of a porphyry system. There has been no exploration at Zachary Bay since 1975.
Targets and Plans
There are a number of go-to targets in the project that will be the immediate focus of Redstar's exploration efforts. The Shumagin vein offers the lowest risk and highest potential exploration target on the project. As noted above, there is strong evidence that significant mineralization extends beyond the known resource, with a first-pass estimate of this potential being at least 800,000 tonnes containing at least 500,000 ounces of gold along with significant silver. The historic Apollo-Sitka mine area offers an additional exploration opportunity, but the area has seen little modern exploration, and additional work is needed to compile historic data and develop drill targets. Other important vein targets include Aquila, Pook and Bloomer Ridge along the Shumagin trend and California along the Apollo-Sitka trend. All these vein systems offer the potential for underground mining of high-grade mineralization. In addition, the disseminated porphyry copper-gold mineralization at Zachary Bay is an important early-stage target. Plans for 2012 include continued detailed drilling along the Shumagin vein and drill testing of other targets that may include Centennial, Apollo-Sitka, Zachary Bay and Aquila.
# Note that a qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves that is compliant with NI 43-101. The Company is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves and the historical estimate should not be relied upon or understood to indicate the existence of reserves or resources.
Recent Exploration
