The Emerson Project, British Columbia

Overview

The Emerson project is located within British Columbia’s Stikine Terrane in west-central British Columbia (Figure 1). Several intrusive suites cut Stikine Terrane volcanic and sedimentary rocks in the vicinity of the property, the most important of which are the Bulkley (61 – 85 Ma) and Babine (~50 Ma) Plutonic Suites. Successful open pit mines have been developed on Cu-Au porphyry deposits belonging to both the Bulkley and Babine suites over the past few decades including past producers Granisle, Bell Copper and Huckleberry (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Location map for the Emerson project

Emerson Project Exploration

Harvest Gold Corp.'s review of technical data on the 56-square-kilometre (5,600-hectare) Emerson project has provided historic drill log evidence of a strong mineralized system.

During 2021 the Company successfully completed three stages of its pre-drill exploration plan with the completion of an airborne magnetic survey in January, 2021, top-of-bedrock RAB drilling in July/August, 2021 and a 3D IP survey in September, 2021. Results of these programs have been previously disclosed in news releases dated January 14, February 10, March 25, April 8, July 8, July 21, August 5, August 12, August 25, September 16, October 21, November 10 and November 30, 2021 and were summarized the Management Discussion and Analysis for the period ending December 31, 2021.

On February 14, 2022, the Company began drilling on the Emerson property. This drill program was managed by Equity Explorations Inc. with the assistance of local subcontractors.

Drilling targeted chargeability and conductivity anomalies encountered in a 2021 induced polarization survey, coincident with anomalous soil geochemistry and rock geochemistry from a 2021 rotary air blast drilling program. The presence of white mica mineralogy, associated with anomalous gold values in 2018 prospecting programs, was another factor in choosing hole locations.

On March 31, 2022, the Company announced that it had completed the drill program at Emerson by drilling 3,018 meters in seven holes to investigate potential gold and copper mineralization.

On April 19, 2022 the Company announced that 2,432 samples from the drill program were sent for assay while the Company awaited the analysis and reporting of the program.

On June 6, 2022 the Company provided an update on the project, which included the following highlights:

  • Initial diamond drill testing at the Emerson project uncovered strong evidence for a large porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum system. Diamond drilling found that the large, induced polarization (IP) anomaly at Emerson is associated with strong to intense quartz-sericite-pyrite-clay alteration in feldspar porphyries and hydrothermal breccias intruding Kasalka group volcanic rocks. Anomalous copper, gold and molybdenum are specifically hosted within the feldspar porphyry. This direct association provides support that this intrusion may be part of a larger metalliferous complex that Harvest Gold has just begun to uncover.
  • Drilling along Section A-A' (Figure 2) indicates that the intrusive system is tilted to the west. Cu-Au mineralization is coupled, indicating a geological relationship between the metals. The hydrothermal breccias intersected in holes EMR22-019 and EMR22-020 have elevated Cu and Au relative to coherent sections of the porphyry intrusion. The hydrothermal breccias contain clasts of truncated, mineralized quartz veins in a weakly mineralized matrix. This geological relationship suggests that a stronger, better mineralized system at depth was sampled by these breccias.
  • The feldspar porphyry drilled in holes EMR22-019 and EMR22-020 hosts intense quartz stockwork zones with 2 to 20 per cent quartz veining. This quartz stockwork zone is associated with anomalous Mo. The Cu-Au-bearing hydrothermal breccias appear to intrude into this quartz stockwork zone suggesting that the Cu-Au mineralization may have intruded into an earlier Mo porphyry system or into the upper levels of a larger porphyry Cu-Au-Mo system at depth.
  • Drill hole EMR22-025 on Section B-B' to the northwest of A-A' was drilled into volcanic rocks separated from the Cu-Au-Mo mineralized feldspar porphyry by a fault. Drilling intersected polymetallic veins that were moderate to highly anomalous in Cu plus or minus Ag plus or minus Au. These veins are characteristic of polymetallic veins that occur in the halo of many porphyry systems.

Since beginning work at Emerson, Harvest Gold has continually built evidence for a large hydrothermal system. Assay results from drilling provides further evidence of geologic features characteristic of strong porphyry systems. Specifically, the Emerson prospect is characterized by:

  1. A large quartz-sericite-pyrite plus or minus clay footprint that remains open to the northwest that is of a magnitude to host one or more porphyry centres.
  2. Drilling intersected intense quartz stockwork-style veining indicative of high fluid flow.
  3. Cu-Au mineralization intersected is coupled and has a high Au:Cu ratio.
  4. Multiple intrusive types were encountered.

To follow-up the initial drill program, Harvest Gold has developed plans for additional drilling to test for the stronger mineral system indicated by this initial program. The proposed drilling will test the down-dip continuation of the porphyry system to the west of EMR22-019. Additional holes would be drilled to the north and would also explore the northwest continuation of the mineral system. Additional 3-D-DC induced polarization may be conducted to define the northern extents of the Emerson hydrothermal system. The results of drilling reported here diminishes Emerson's potential for hosting significant Au-Ag mineralization analogous to the Blackwater deposit. Gold values ranged from 0.005 ppm to 1.44 ppm within extensive intervals of clay-pyrite alteration encountered by drilling, but were generally below 0.10 ppm.

Figure 2: Plan map of the Emerson prospect. Drill collars and traces in blue indicate drill hole locations. Interpreted quartz-muscovite-pyrite-clay alteration, and chargeability anomaly are all open to the west-northwest

Quality Assurance/Quality Control

Mr. Warren Bates, P. Geo (APGO#0211), the Company’s Director of Property Investigation, is the Qualified Person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101, and has reviewed and approved the technical information herein.