Japan Gold says Barrick has kicked off sampling program at its Sanru gold project in Japan

Japan Gold Corp (CVE:JG) (OTCQB:JGLDF) said Tuesday that Barrick Gold Corp (TSE:ABX) (NYSE:GOLD) is progressing exploration work at its Sanru project in Japan. Sanru is Japan Gold’s largest project and covers a 25-kilometre-long strike length on the prospective Omu-Kamikawa trend in Hokkaido, one of Japan’s major epithermal gold provinces. The project is included in the country-wide alliance with mining major Barrick that Vancouver-based junior Japan Gold signed earlier this year. READ: Japan Gold kicks off the first of this year's drill programs at Ohra-Takamine project In a statement, Japan Gold said Barrick has sent field teams to northeast Hokkaido to undertake regional sampling at Sanru, collecting bulk leach extractable gold and rock float samples across the 31,800-hectare property. The sampling program is expected to be complete by the end of August, according to the firm. A historic mine at Sanru produced nearly 225,000 ounces at an average grade of around 7.4 grams per ton (g/t) gold. The project is also located right near the boundary of the Omu project owned by Irving Resources Inc (CSE:IRV) in an alliance with Newmont Corporation. Japan Gold has nine projects with applications and prospecting rights covering 737 square kilometres of prospective ground within the Kitami region, eight of which are included in the Barrick Alliance. Kitami is home to more than 40 historic mines and prospects, including the Konomai mine where historic production totaled nearly 2.4 million ounces at an average grade of 6.4 g/t gold. Japan Gold holds a portfolio of 30 gold projects in areas with known gold occurrences, a history of mining and are prospective for high-grade epithermal gold mineralization on the three largest islands of Japan. Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com Follow her on Twitter @AHarmantas