North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Freegold Ventures is planning a 2005 summer program on its Grew Creek epithermal gold deposit 22 miles west of the town of Ross River. The Yukon project is just over half a mile from the Robert Campbell Highway and the Whitehorse power grid.

Freegold acquired the Grew Creek project last summer and has since completed 12 diamond drill holes predicated on a new geological theory that proposed mineralization trended north-south, as opposed to previous interpretations which assumed the mineralization trended east-west.

"This new interpretation suggests the original deposit area may be open for potentially significant expansion. Results from last year's drilling program indicate that the mineralization does trend north and that the quartz-adularia vein and vein stock work system in the Golden Spike Zone is faulted into at least four separate segments," the Vancouver-based junior said in a May 10 press release.

Freegold said segments 1, 2, and 4 are open to the north, south and to depth. Segment 3 is open to north and to depth.

A new 43-101 compliant resource calculation is under way and will be completed by the end of May, its "main purpose is to aid in the planning of additional drilling both internal to and on the margins of Golden Spike Zone."

Step out holes drilled in March 2005 on the Rat Creek Zone 1.5 kilometers to the east "intersected intense phyllic alteration associated with anomalous values in gold, silver, mercury and arsenic. The drilling intersected local fine quartz-adularia stringer zones up to 40 meters in length that yielded anomalous values up to 0.174 grams of gold per tonne and 2.3 grams of silver per ton. These results are similar to assays obtained 50 meters along trend from gold-silver mineralized quartz-adularia stockwork at the Golden Spike Zone and may indicate the presence of another Golden Spike type zone in the Rat Creek area," Freegold said.

The company said the step out drilling "has apparently tested the western limit of a potential northerly trending mineralized structure."

Analysis of the recent and previous drilling also "appears to have located the structure limits to the east. Gold and mercury anomalies and alteration in the existing drill holes indicate that a mineralized structure may extend north and south of the drill section," Freegold said.

The company is looking at an east-oriented drill hole this summer to test the northern and southern extensions of the anomalous target. Freegold said it will first conduct ground geophysics to help delineate targets.

Looking at internal funding

Freegold's development strategy for its projects has been based primarily on joint venture partnerships. However, with the "high quality of projects that Freegold possesses" the company said May 10 that it is "turning its attention to internal funding" for its projects.

The company said updated 43-101 reports have been recently completed on its most significant projects - Grew Creek, Golden Summit in Alaska, and Almaden in Idaho - and have been filed on SEDAR. Freegold said the Almaden gold project is of "particular interest" because of the "potential for this project to host a higher grade resource at depth."