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

Freegold Ventures Ltd. Jan. 22 reported that results from its 2017 drill program at Shorty Creek continue to confirm the size potential of this large porphyry copper project in Interior Alaska.

Highlights from the latest round of results was a 165-meter intercept in hole 17-05A that averaged 0.60 percent copper-equivalent, which includes the value of the copper, gold, silver and cobalt encountered. This hole was drilled at Hill 1835, a Shorty Creek target where the company has already intercepted significant widths of copper, gold, silver, cobalt and tungsten mineralization in several holes.

Since the 2015 discovery hole was drilled, Freegold has completed roughly 4,200 meters of drilling at Hill 1835.

Hole SC 16-01, drilled last year at the property's Hill 1835 target, cut 434.5 meters averaging 0.57 percent copper-equivalent, which accounts for the value of the copper, gold and silver.

The bottom 12 meters of this deepest hole at Hill 1835 averaged 0.55 percent copper, 0.145 grams per metric ton gold and 9.67 g/t silver.

In addition to the copper, gold and silver, the 2016 drilling also tapped significant tungsten in the form of wolframite.

SC 16-01 cut 207 meters averaging 0.045 percent tungsten trioxide; and SC 16-02 cut 409.6 meters averaging 0.03 percent tungsten trioxide.

This year, Freegold drilled several step-out holes testing the extent of the porphyry target at Hill 1835.

Holes SC 17-01 and SC 17-02 continued to encounter copper, gold, silver, tungsten and cobalt mineralization up to 200 meters southwest of the 2016 drilling.

Hole 17-01 cut 360 meters averaging 0.24 percent copper 0.07 g/t gold, 4.04 g/t silver, 100 parts per million cobalt and 0.03 percent tungsten trioxide; 17-02 cut 408 meters averaging 0.27 percent copper 0.05 g/t gold, 4.97 g/t silver, 85 ppm cobalt and 0.05 percent tungsten trioxide.

Holes 17-03 and SC 17-04 were drilled on the eastern edge of the magnetic high at Hill 1835.

Hole 17-03, which was lost at a depth of 362.2 meters in strong copper mineralization due to mechanical difficulties, cut 105.2 meters averaging 0.27 percent copper, 0.05 g/t gold, 6.75 g/t silver, 114 ppm cobalt and 0.06 percent tungsten trioxide; 17-04, which encountered significant fault material, cut 192 meters averaging 0.11 percent copper, 0.13 g/t gold, 1.48 g/t silver and 56 ppm cobalt.

Hole 17-05A, drilled about 125 meters north of 15-03, cut 165 meters averaging 0.29 percent copper, 0.18 g/t gold, 6.81 g/t silver and 135 ppm cobalt.

Hole 17-07, drilled 90 meters northeast of 17-05, only made to a depth of 41 meters before winter conditions caused drilling to halt before the hole was finished. However, the top 34 meters returned 0.07 g/t gold and 1.7 g/t silver. Freegold plans to complete this hole when drilling resumes this year.

Drilling at Hill 1835 is still very early stage with the spacing between holes averaging 120 meters and a large area of this target remains untested.

“Considerable infill drilling will be necessary in order to define a resource, however, each hole drilled to date has intersected broad zones of mineralization, despite the wide spacing, and results continue to confirm both the grade and overall tonnage potential of this sizeable target area,” the company said.

Hill 1835 is only one of the several magnetic highs identified at the expansive Shorty Creek property.

An initial hole was drilled to test Steel Creek, one such large magnetic high target about 1,500 meters northeast of Hill 1835.

Drilled in the center of the magnetic feature, hole 17-06 returned anomalous metals values. Freegold said the anomalous copper, gold silver, cobalt and tungsten encountered in this hole is consistent with the suite of metals found at Hill 1835.

The company said additional drilling will be necessary to further test this promising target area.

–SHANE LASLEY

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

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