StrikePoint Gold (SKP.V): Extends Willoughby Mineralized Trend: 9.88 metres of 4.95 g/t Au Equivalent

Vancouver, British Columbia — March 2, 2022, StrikePoint Gold Inc. (“StrikePoint” or the “Company”) (SKP: TSX.V)(STKXF: OTCQB) is pleased to announce the results from the remaining 13 holes of the 2021 diamond drill program at the 100%-owned Willoughby property, located near Stewart in British Columbia’s prolific Golden Triangle. The 2021 drilling program was designed to further narrow the gaps between the seven high-grade mineralized zones within the Willoughby nunataq and explore northeast, one kilometre across the Willoughby glacier at the Willow zone which displays high-grade analog mineralization. Assays were previously announced from the initial four drill holes on December 9, 2021. Assays are still pending from surface sampling on the Willoughby Property. In 2021, 4,050 metres of drilling was completed in seventeen holes as well as 129 metres of surface chip channel samples were completed at both the Icefall and Edge zones following up on 2020 surface results and in-field observations. 

Drilling was successful in extending the 1,300m long high-grade gold and silver mineralization trend on the northern end at the Willow Zone, the northernmost limit of drilling to date on the Property. Mineralization is wide open for expansion. Highlights from the Willow Zone include:

• • W21-115 : 4.95 g/t AuEq over 9.88 m and 10.93 g/t AuEq over 1.50 m within a broader interval of 2.76 g/t AuEq over 26.50 m 
  • W21-116 : 11.26 g/t AuEq over 3.00 m and 2.61 g/t AuEq over 4.00 m
  • W21-123 : 3.07 g/t AuEq over 3.00 m 
  • W21-124 : 37.19 g/t AuEq over 0.50 m 

Drilling on the Willoughby nunatak bridged the gap in mineralization between the Wilby and North zones and confirmed continuity of the mineralized horizon at the Edge zone. Edge zone results include: 

• • W21-117 : 2.76 g/t AuEq over 6.50 m and 10.16 g/t AuEq over 1.50 m within a broader interval of 1.92 g/t AuEq over 19.50 m
  • W21-118 : 2.52 g/t AuEq over 3.00 m within a broader interval of 0.97 g/t AuEq over 10.00 m
  • W21-119: 3.25 g/t AuEq over 3.50 m within a broader interval of 1.54 g/t AuEq over 9.00 m
  • W21-120: 3.38 g/t AuEq over 3.00 m within a broader interval of 1.20 g/t AuEq over 17.00 m 

“Willoughby continues to deliver discoveries of different styles of gold-silver mineralization. The concentration of sulphides encountered at Willow is truly impressive, even by Golden Triangle standards. Receipt of these high-grade assays at the margins of the replacement-style massive sulphides will allow us to target expansion drilling to the north, south, and down-dip mineralization during the 2022 field season,” said Shawn Khunkhun, President and CEO of StrikePoint Gold. 

Figure 1. Overview Map of Willoughby’s Mineralized Zones

Willow Zone

The Willow zone is the northernmost limit of mineralization drilled on the Willoughby property to date, separated by approximately 850 metres from the North Zone by the Willoughby glacier. In 2021, seven holes were completed from two pads in the Willow Zone. The drilling explored extensions of the mineralization trend, followed up on the 2020 surface results and an outlined north-northwest striking, steep westerly dipping structure analog to the faults observed at the Willoughby nunataq linked with bonanza gold and silver grades. 

Figure 2. 2021 Willoughby Drilling – Willow zone drill holes plan view map

The drilling defined mineralization at the Willow zone further to the northeast of the known zone and confirmed close similarities with the mineralization observed on the nunataq in the five other mineralized zones (Wilby, Edge, Wilkie, Upper & Lower Icefall). Drill Hole W21-115 intersected 4.95 g/t AuEq over 9.88 metres and 10.93 g/t AuEq over 1.5 metres, within a broader interval of 2.76 g/t AuEq over 26.50 metres drilling northeast under the Willoughby ice sheet extending the Willoughby mineralization trend 150 metres to the north-east. From the second drill pad, drill hole W21-122 to W21-124 targeted mineralized contact between the Jurassic volcanic rock package and the dioritic intrusion. W21-123 intersected 3.07 g/t AuEq over 3.00 metres, and W21-124 intersected 37.19 g/t AuEq over 0.50 metres. Mineralization observed consisted of massive pyrite with sphalerite-chalcopyrite in limestone near-surface and intersected gold mineralization occurring proximal to Goldslide intrusion suite linked to mineralization at Ascot Resources’ Red Mountain Deposit, located seven kilometres west of Willoughby. The intrusive dykes to sills are interpreted to pool gold-bearing sulphides in the permissive Jurassic-aged rocks creating wide areas of disseminated gold-silver mineralization. 

Figure 3: Massive replacement-style pyrite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite in contact with dioritic intrusive analog to the Goldslide intrusive at the Willow Zone in hole W21-115 grading 4.95 g/t AuEq over 9.88 m.

W21-116 intersected 11.26 g/t AuEq over 3.00 metres and 2.61 g/t AuEq over 4.00 metres mineralized intervals are within a fault breccia with strong pyrite cement interpreted to be the down-dip extension along strike of the north-northwest fault mapped at the surface during the 2020 surface program. These mineralized intercepts extend the Willow north structure, 100 metres southeast under the Willoughby ice sheet. 

Figure 4: Fault breccia with strong pyrite cement in hole W21-116 grading 2.08 g/t AuEq over 10.00 m

Edge Zone

At the Edge zone, significant gold mineralization was encountered in five drill holes completed from the same pad, 1000m south of Willow. The Edge zone is one of seven significant mineralized areas discovered to date on the Willoughby nunataq. 

Figure 5. 2021 Willoughby Drilling – Edge zone drill holes plan view map

The 2021 drilling program at the Edge Zone was designed to step out from and extend gold mineralization along strike from the high-grade encountered during the 2020 surface program (news release December 14, 2020, up to 37.3 g/t Au & 263 g/t Ag in new areas of massive sulphide and veining). W21-117 intersected 2.76 g/t AuEq over 6.50 metres and 10.16 g/t AuEq over 1.5 metres within a broader interval of 1.92 g/t AuEq over 19.50 metres and W21-120 intersected 3.38 g/t AuEq over 3.00 metres within a broader interval of 1.20 g/t AuEq over 17.00 metres. The mineralization intersected in these holes consists of replacement-style sulphides within permeable lapilli tuff strata of the Early Jurassic lower Hazelton group. Mineralization is concordant with bedding and ranges from semi-massive to massive pyrite with accessory sphalerite-chalcopyrite. Goldslide suite dioritic intrusive sills are observed in proximity to the zone. 

Figure 6. Edge zone mineralization in hole W21-120 on the Willoughby nunataq grading  3.38 g/t AuEq over 3.00 m within a broader interval of 1.20 g/t AuEq over 17.00 m.

Future drilling planned for 2022 will step out in all directions from 2021 intercepts at Willow zone and along the mineralized trend on the Willoughby nunataq with a focus between Icefall, Wilby, and Edge zones. Exploration drilling will focus on the unexplored gap between Willow and the North zone as the extension of the mineralized trend to the south of the property.

Table 1: Highlight drill intercepts from oriented core diamond drilling at the Willoughby project. Gold equivalent grade calculated using a 70:1 Ag: Au ratio.

**True widths are not known at this time. All widths reported are drilled widths.

Table 2:  Willoughby property drill hole locations and orientations (NAD83 Zone 9)

2021 Porter Silver property drill results

The 2021 drilling program at the Porter Silver property was designed to extend and confirm mineralization identified historically and in 2018 drilling at the D and Prosperity veins. In 2021, 799.1 metres of drilling in six holes were attempted. Due to a staffing shortage and difficult geotechnical conditions consisting of near-surface conjugate joint sets related to glacial unloading and fault zones,  both of which caused significant  core blocking, only four holes were drilled, none of which adequately tested their intended targets. The number of fractures typically diminishes deeper into the mountain at Porter and elsewhere in the Stewart area. These highly prospective targets adjacent to the historic high-grade silver mines will be tested by drill holes that will be reoriented to be more perpendicular to these prominent joint sets. 

Table 3: Highlight drill intercepts from oriented core diamond drilling at the Porter project

**True widths are not known at this time. All widths reported are drilled widths.

Table 4:  Porter Silver property 2021 drill hole locations and orientations (NAD83 Zone 9N)

Willoughby project

Willoughby is located along the eastern margin of the Cambria Icefield, approximately seven kilometres east of the Ascot Resources advanced-staged Red Mountain Deposit. Upper Triassic Stuhini rocks underlie the property and Lower Jurassic Hazelton volcano-sedimentary rocks that have been intruded by an early Jurassic-aged hornblende-feldspar porphyry, like and potentially comagmatic with the Goldslide Intrusive suite at Red Mountain deposit. Structurally controlled and replacement-style mineralized linked with intrusive input consist of primary pyrite with lesser pyrrhotite, sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, native gold. Eight gold and silver mineralized zones have been identified to date over a one-kilometre strike-length mineralization trend.

Porter project

The Porter Project contains two shears-hosted silver-rich vein systems: the Silverado and Prosperity-Porter Idaho. The showings are 2.35 km apart, located on opposite sides of Mt. Rainey, overlooking the town of Stewart. The Project is located strategically at the head of the Portland Canal, a deep-water port with year-round, ice-free access.

The initial discovery of silver mineralization on Mt. Rainey occurred in the early 1900s. Prosperity-Porter Idaho veins were the focus of the initial work. The mineralization is hosted in six parallel dipping shear zones, traced 200 metres on the surface and one kilometre down dip with widths between 2 and 13 metres. The vein system was mined between 1929 and 1931 and produced 27,123 tonnes with recovered grades of 2,542 g/t silver (73.8 oz/ton) and 1 g/t gold (yielding approximately 2.2 million ounces of silver). Direct shipping ore was transported to the port at Stewart via aerial tramway.

QA/QC

Samples for the 2021 exploration program were all NQ-sized (47.6 mm diameter) drill core labeled, sawn in half, with one-half placed in sealed bags, and shipped with a chain of custody controls to the laboratory. The remaining drill core is securely stored in Stewart, BC. The company implements a rigorous Quality Control/Quality Assurance program, including the insertion of standards, blanks, and duplicates at regular intervals in the sample stream to monitor laboratory performance.

Drill core samples are submitted to the ALS Geochemistry facility in Terrace, British Columbia, for preparation and subsequently to the ALS Geochemistry facility in North Vancouver for analysis. The ALS facility is accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard for gold assays, and all analytical methods include quality control materials at set frequencies with established data acceptance criteria. The entire sample is crushed, split into a representative sub-sample using a riffle splitter, and subsequently, 250g is pulverized. Analysis for gold is by 30g fire assay fusion with atomic absorption (AAS) finish with a lower limit of 0.005 ppm and an upper limit of 10 ppm. Samples with gold assays greater than 10ppm are re-analyzed using a 30g fire assay with a gravimetric finish. All samples are also analyzed using a 33-element geochemical package utilizing 4-acid digestion and ICP-AES. Samples with silver results of greater than 100ppm are re-analyzed using a 30g fire assay with a gravimetric finish. Samples with copper, lead and zinc values of over 10,000ppm are re-analyzed using a four-acid digestion and an ore-grade ICP-EAS analysis. 

Qualified Person

The Qualified Person for this news release for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 is Andrew Hamilton, P. Geo, technical advisor. He has read and approved the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for the disclosure contained in this news release.

About StrikePoint

StrikePoint Gold is a gold exploration company focused on building high-grade precious metals resources in Canada. The company controls two advanced-stage exploration assets in BC’s Golden Triangle. The past-producing high-grade silver Porter Project and the high-grade gold property Willoughby, adjacent to Red Mountain. The company also owns a portfolio of gold properties in the Yukon.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF
STRIKEPOINT GOLD INC.

“Shawn Khunkhun”

Shawn Khunkhun
Chief Executive Officer and Director

Statements in this release that are forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed under the heading “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in the company’s filings with Canadian securities regulators. Such information contained herein represents management’s best judgment as of the date hereof based on information currently available. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, save and except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For more information, please contact
StrikePoint Gold Inc.
Shawn Khunkhun, CEO and Director
T: (604) 602-1440
E: [email protected]
W: www.strikepointgold.com