Resource World Magazine

54 www.resourceworld.com O C T O B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7 MINING "We're proud to be first mover in Japan," said John Proust, Chairman and CEO of new Vancouver mining exploration company Japan Gold Corp. [JG-TSXV], in a recent interview. As mentioned in the past two issues of Resource World, gold exploration in Japan opened to foreign mineral explo- ration companies with a mining law change in 2012. Established exploration compa- nies with experience in the Pacific, such as Southern Arc Minerals, took advantage of that by applying for mineral prospect- ing rights in historical mining districts. Sky Ridge Resources Ltd. then acquired Southern Arc Minerals Japan KK in September 2016 in a share deal and changed its name to Japan Gold Corp., becoming the first international mineral exploration com- pany to focus solely on Japan. The company now has a dozen exploration projects from one end of Japan to the other. Gold has been mined in Japan for at least a thousand years, with some mines pro- ducing continuously for centuries. Japan imposed a moratorium on gold mining in 1943, during World War II, to focus min- ing efforts on strategic metals for the war. As a result, many gold mines were sim- ply stopped in ore. The mines that were reopened after the war stopped produc- tion in the mid-1970s. For example, Sado Kinzan, a gold mine on the island of Sado off the western coast of Honshu, produced some 2.5 million ounces between 1600 and 1970. Now it's a famous tourist destination demonstrating traditional mining methods. The next largest historical gold mine, at Konomai on northern Hokkaido, produced more than 2.3 million ounces between 1917 and 1974. Gold mining and exploration waned, but then in the 1980s, the Hishikari deposit on Kyushu was discovered by sur- prise even though the district had been mined since the 1600s. From 1985 to the present Hishikari has produced a whopping 7.2 million ounces (224.2 tonnes) grading 30-40 g/t gold! It continues to produce 7 tonnes of gold per year (225,055 oz). With possibilities like that, what modern exploration company would not want to try its luck in Japan? Following extensive research by its team of experienced geolo- gists and mining advisors in Japan, Japan Gold now has a portfolio of prospective gold properties on all three major islands (total- ing nearly 60,000 ha), with 180 prospecting applications accepted over 12 project areas, all in historical mining districts. Eight projects are in geological settings with high- grade, low-sulphidation epithermal gold mineralization, seven on Hokkaido, and one on Kyushu. Four projects target high-sul- phidation lithocaps indicative of potential porphyry mineralization located on south- ern Hokkaido and northern Honshu. Japan Gold is concentrating on properties where the prospecting rights have first been granted, such as the Ikutahara epithermal gold project. On a map of Japan Gold's Hokkaido projects, they are mostly in the area of Konomai, which, after Hishikari and Sado, was the third richest gold producer in Japan. About 40 km from Konomai, the Ikutahara Project includes 17 more historic mines and workings in a sparsely popu- lated, forested hilly area in the Yubetsu River basin. Already having completed preliminary exploration (geological map- ping, stream sediment sampling, magnetic geophysical studies), Japan Gold has planned a drill program (especially at the Ryuo and Akebono showings), as well as ongoing compilation of data. Samples from the Ryuo area have yielded up to 474 g/t gold and 1,607 g/t silver, with historical intervals such as 72 metres averaging 40.8 g/t gold and 168 g/t silver. High-grade mineralization at Akebono has been tested with intervals including 1.2 metres of 446 g/t gold and 376 g/t silver, and 0.65 metres with 72.3 g/t gold and 7,406 g/t silver. In addition to the Ikutahara Project, the other project areas also look promising and will be explored in order of priority. For instance, the Hakuryu Project is located within 2 km of the southern edge of the Konomai Mine area, and is underlain by similar Miocene andesitic and rhyolitic rocks. In the southern end of Japan, the Kamitsue Project is close to the old Taio Mine, one of the three mines on Kyushu that produced more than 1 million ounces. The four lithocap porphyry projects lie along the Plio-Pleistocene Northeast Japan Arc, and show gold anomalies in argillic alteration. Japan Gold is owned 53% by Southern Arc Minerals Inc. [SA-TSXV] and shares some of the same principal people , such as John Proust. "Japan is a unique destination," according to Proust, "and a great opportu- nity for new gold explorers, with prospects of finding something extraordinary." n Canadian company moves into gold exploration in Japan by Jennifer S. Getsinger, PhD, PGeo Chairman and CEO, John Proust and Takashi Kuriyama, General Manager of Exploration of Japan Gold tour historic mine sites in Northern Kyushu, Japan, with Professor Izawa of Akita University. Photo courtesy Japan Gold Corp.

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