Barrick funds $4m exploration campaign in Japan

The Barrick Alliance is a joint venture that brought together the mining giant and the projects’ owner, Japan Gold (TSXV: JG).

In a press release, Japan Gold – who is going to act as the operator – said that the budget and work programs will complete the 2-year initial evaluation phase regional exploration over the Alliance’s project portfolio, which covers 1,889 square kilometers.

“Regional exploration programs commenced following the formation of the Barrick Alliance on February 23, 2020. The exploration programs are aimed at identifying new gold prospects through the systematic sampling of stream sediments for bulk leach extractable gold, and gold and multi-element pathfinder analysis of rock samples,” the media brief reads. “Geophysical gravity surveys are also being carried out over all projects to gain better definition of regional and prospect scale structures associated with gold mineralization.”

According to Japan Gold, to date, 73% of the 1,889-square-kilometer project portfolio, across the islands of Hokkaido, Honshu and Kyushu, has been covered by bulk leach extractable gold and rock float sampling, while gravity surveying, on the other hand, has been completed over 51% of the southern Kyushu project portfolio.

The company said it plans to complete the regional bulk leach extractable gold, rock sampling and project-scale gravity surveying across all 29 projects by July 2021.

“Results from the 2020 exploration programs completed on eight Kyushu projects and three Hokkaido projects have identified 19 distinct gold in BLEG anomalies with supporting pathfinder element geochemistry,” the release states. “Detailed evaluation of all anomalies generated will be carried out to confirm prospectivity and assist in target ranking. The detailed evaluation of these anomalies will commence immediately and is expected to be complete by November 2021.”