Could this be a new gold district?

1 of 4The Justin property in southeastern Yukon is currently being explored for gold potential. — Photo courtesy Bernie Fox/TerraLogic Exploration Inc.

2 of 4(L to R) Senior geologist Jo van Randen, GIS specialist Jason Kolcun and TerraLogic's project manager and geologist, Mike McCuaig, are hard at work in the core shack. — Photo courtesy Bernie Fox/TerraLogic Exploration Inc.

3 of 4Jim Pettit is president of Aben Resources Ltd. — Photo courtesy Aben Resources Ltd.

4 of 4Jordan Trimble is manager of corporate development and communications with Aben Resources Ltd. — Photo courtesy Aben Resources Ltd.

Jordan Trimble isn’t being glib when he describes Aben Resources Ltd.’s Justin property in southeastern Yukon as “a golden opportunity.” Trimble, manager of corporate development and communications at Aben, is in agreement with numerous renowned geologists who believe they’ve got their finger on the pulse of a major system.

The Justin property has been generating interest since 1964 when it was first explored for copper and tungsten as a followup to the establishment of the Cantung Mine, situated approximately 30 kilometres away in the Nahanni region of the Northwest Territories. The first few sniffs yielded interesting results, but then the property lay dormant until the mid-1990s, when Viceroy Exploration Ltd., under the leadership Ron Netolitzky, began evaluating the Justin for gold potential. (Netolitzky is currently the chair and a director of Aben).

Eagle Plains Resources Ltd., based in Cranbrook, B.C., acquired the property from noted Yukon prospector Bernie Kreft in 2000, and along with exploration consultants from TerraLogic Exploration Inc., continued to assess mineral potential with various systematic exploration programs over the years that included prospecting, geological mapping, and geophysical and geochemical surveys. The efforts paid off in 2010 when grab samples returned anomalous gold values in an area of the property now dubbed the POW Zone.

Aben had been working closely with Eagle Plains in 2010 to secure a precious metal property in Yukon, and in early 2011, Eagle Plains sold the property to Aben for share consideration and retained royalties. Aben later that year funded an aggressive diamond drilling program, testing various areas of the property. The final two holes of that program intersected significant gold mineralization at the POW Zone. The mineral potential found at the POW Zone made the Justin property more than attractive—it soon established itself as Aben’s flagship project.

Like real estate, location is an important consideration in exploration. The Justin’s proximity to existing serviced roads increased the viability of the project. The property is in the exploration-friendly Yukon, where a number of recent discoveries have taken place along the Tintina Gold Belt that runs through a large portion of the territory. Nearby projects such as Northern Tiger’s 3 Ace have had encouraging results as well that helped to spotlight the region. So expectations for the Justin have definitely been heightened—and early drill samples indicate that the excitement is well founded.

An aggressive diamond drill program in 2012 focused on followup and expansion work to last year's drilling, geophysical/geochemical surveys and detailed geological mapping. Results from the first hole returned significant results—gold values of 1.49 grams per tonne over 46.4 m, including an interval grading 3.88 grams per tonne over 9.2 m were reported recently by Aben.

“The two drill holes last season at the POW Zone and the first hole this season have all intercepted significant gold intervals in this rapidly expanding zone,” said Jim Pettit, president of Aben. “The notable consistency of the skarn-hosted gold mineralization seen amongst these initial three drill holes at the POW Zone suggests strong continuity of the mineralized zone. Surface samples in the eastern POW Zone located 400-plus metres away from the initial discovery area have returned multi-gram gold numbers.

“We’re looking for a system, and the Justin’s got scale potential . . . We might be looking at a new gold system—Dr. Hart called it a district.”

Pettit was referring to Craig Hart from the Mineral Deposit Research Unit at the University of British Columbia, who backed this assertion up in a report prepared for TerraLogic.

“The Justin property, and the POW zone specifically, represents a new discovery of an auriferous sheeted vein array and related styles of mineralization that directly comprise a reduced intrusion‐related gold system,” said Hart. “This gold system developed in a region of Yukon previously better known for tungsten, and contributes to further increasing the region’s development as a new gold district.”

Tim Termuende, P.Geo., is CEO of Eagle Plains and a director of Aben; Termuende is also a qualified person for the Justin project, and he agreed with Hart’s assessment.

“We are extremely encouraged by drilling and surface sample results to date at Justin and are confident that we have made a significant new discovery in an underexplored area of the Yukon,” said Termuende. “The geology and mineralization observed at Justin show striking similarities to Kinross Gold’s Fort Knox deposit in Alaska and Victoria Gold’s Eagle Gold deposit in Yukon. Both of these projects underline the multimillion-ounce potential for this deposit type.”

However, it’s one thing to have geologists and exploration company executives on board; it’s another to convince investors in a bear market. Pettit said financing is the biggest challenge Aben is facing, but the company hopes to continue drilling in order to gather more data on what lies below the surface of the Justin.

“We’ve got a great project with the Justin and something we’d like to work on for years,” said Trimble. “The market is like a pendulum that’s swung really hard in one direction and is due to swing back the other way. With the notable geological potential at the Justin backed by early drill results, I believe the project and the company represent a bona fide investment opportunity—a golden opportunity.”