Japan Gold Corp (CVE:JG) (OTCQB:JGLDF) (FRA:2LD) has revealed that its Barrick Alliance partner has approved a budget of US$4 million, solely funded by Barrick Gold Corporation, to complete planned exploration programs for 2021 across the group's extensive land package.
The alliance, in which Japan Gold is the operator, was formed in February last year and has been expanded to cover 30 out of Japan Gold's 32 projects, or 1,889 square kilometres (sq km) in the south-east Asian country.
READ: Japan Gold's Barrick alliance expands company's largest project in Japan to over 41,000 hectares
Regional exploration is aimed at identifying new gold prospects through sampling of stream sediments for bulk leach extractable gold (BLEG) and gold and multi-element analysis of rock samples.
Results from last year's programs, which were completed on eight projects on the island of Kyushu and three on Hokkaido, identified 19 distinct gold in BLEG anomalies with supporting geochemistry.
"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," Japan Gold said in Tuesday's statement.
So far, 73% of the 1,889 sq km project portfolio, across the islands of Hokkaido, Honshu and Kyushu, have been covered by BLEG and rock float sampling.
Gravity surveying has been completed over 51% of the southern Kyushu project portfolio.
The regional BLEG, rock sampling and project-scale gravity surveying are expected to be completed across 29 projects by July this year, the company said.
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