Freegold Ventures Ltd. Aug. 24 announced the start of a modest drill program at its Shorty Creek Project property in Interior Alaska, where previous drilling has cut long sections of porphyry copper-gold-silver-cobalt-tungsten mineralization.

Lying alongside the paved Elliott Highway about 75 miles northwest of Fairbanks, Shorty Creek is adjacent to International Tower Hill Mines Ltd.'s 11.5-million-ounce Livengood gold project.

Freegold's inaugural drill program at Shorty Creek in 2015 discovered significant copper-gold mineralization after stepping out and extending the previous shallow reverse circulation drilling completed by Asarco in 1989-1990.

Hole SC 15-03 cut 91 meters grading 0.55 percent copper, 0.14 grams per metric ton gold and 7.02 g/t silver at the Hill 1835 target at Shorty Creek.

Since the 2015 discovery hole was drilled, Freegold has completed roughly 4,500 meters of drilling that has extended this porphyry mineralization and confirmed the presence of a sizeable target at Hill 1835.

Hole SC 16-01, drilled at Hill 1835 in 2016, 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, 0.15 g/t 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.

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

Highlights from the 2017 program include:

• 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 in hole 17-01;

• 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 in 17-02;

• 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 in 17-03 (this hole was lost in strong copper mineralization at a depth of 362.2 meters);

• 192 meters averaging 0.11 percent copper, 0.13 g/t gold, 1.48 g/t silver and 56 ppm cobalt in 17-04; and

• 165 meters averaging 0.29 percent copper, 0.18 g/t gold, 6.81 g/t silver and 135 ppm cobalt in 17-05.

The last hole of the 2017 season, 17-07, only reached a depth of 41 meters before winter conditions forced a halt to the program. Despite this early ending, the top 34 meters returned 0.07 g/t gold and 1.7 g/t silver.

Freegold said 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.

Geophysics and surface geochemical sampling indicate the potential for Shorty Creek property to host several copper porphyries across a 25,000-square-acre area.

Steel Creek, one such large magnetic high target about 1,500 meters northeast of Hill 1835, was tested with one reconnaissance hole in 2017.

This hole, 17-06, encountered anomalous copper, gold, silver, cobalt and tungsten, a suite of metals that is consistent with those found at Hill 1835.

In addition to drilling, Freegold Ventures has initiated a metallurgical program for Shorty Creek and results are expected shortly.

–SHANE LASLEY