Twin Canyon Gold Project
La Plata District, Colorado
AVAILABLE FOR JV
Overview
The Twin Canyon gold property is a sandstone-hosted gold prospect in southwest Colorado, approximately 20 km from the town of Mancos. The property is road-accessible and hosts a series of underground workings (Charlene Mine) that date back to the 1980s and 1990s. A small family operation mined and crushed the sandstone to recover gold. Alianza acquired a lease on the property in June of 2020 to explore the potential for widespread gold mineralization similar to that seen at the Charlene mine.
Geology
Native gold is hosted within the bleached and altered, bitumen-spotted Junction Creek Sandstone with minor limonite after pyrite. This mineralization is found within the crest of an anticlinal structure and is capped by overlying sandstones and shales of the Morrison Formation.
Sampling of the underground workings of the Charlene Mine (approximately 150 metres in total) has yielded gold values from grab samples ranging from 0.1 to 15.77 g/t gold. Channel samples of the workings from a 1986 program report results ranging from 0.1 to 8.1 g/t gold over a 3 m sample. Numerous multi-gram gold results are noted from samples ranging from 1.5 to 9.1 m in length but have not been fully verified and must be considered historic.
Alteration of the sandstone is the result of acidic fluids that have altered feldspars to clay and created secondary porosity within the unit through the removal of matrix cement.
While controls on mineralization are poorly understood at this time, it is thought that there may be a structural control to the gold mineralization. Gold is preferentially associated with bitumen, and the lack of high temperature alteration typical of gold systems suggests that the gold mineralization may be related to an oxidized petroleum system.
A preliminary soil geochemical sampling program in 2017 highlighted that anomalous gold-in-soil values are found along 400 metres of strike in both directions of the Charlene Mine within the Junction Creek Sandstone. This indicates that gold mineralization may be more widespread than the mine itself. This is further corroborated by historic soil geochemical sampling that indicates other anomalies exist away from the mine workings. Alianza conducted additional soil geochemical sampling and tested the extent of potential mineralization.
Next Step
Seek a partner to conduct a ten-hole RC drilling program under the approved permit.