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

Full Metal Minerals Ltd. has launched an eight-hole drilling program covering 1,200 meters at the Lucky Shot Gold Project, about 40 miles north of Anchorage.

The program - the initial phase of exploration at Lucky Shot by the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company - will target an extension to the Coleman Vein at the Lucky Shot Mine.

The mine is in the second largest historic lode-gold producing region in Alaska.

From 1908 to 1951 Lucky Shot operated as one of the richest in Alaska, producing 252,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 1.48 ounces per ton.

Limited drilling by Enserch Oil and Gas in the mid-1980s intercepted gold values including 24.6 ounces per ton over 0.24 meters and 12.9 ounces per ton over 0.24 meters.

At least 620,000 ounces of gold have been produced in the Lucky Shot/Independence Mine area, at historic grades ranging from 2.0 to 0.4 ounces per ton, according to unaudited estimates.

Full Metal also said it will target gold-bearing fault zones that are the structural controls to the vein-hosted gold mineralization. This style of gold mineralization is similar to bulk-tonnage gold mining operations in Northern China, the company added in a July 15 statement.

The core drilling and sampling program will be supervised by Robert McLeod, P.Geo. and vice president of exploration for Full Metal.

Full Metal currently has interests in 10 gold, copper-gold and uranium properties in Alaska and Nunavut, including the highly prospective Ganes Creek Gold, the South Pebble Copper/Gold and the 1.4-million-acre Aleutian Island Project.