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

Freegold Ventures Ltd. Jan. 19 announced that South32 Ltd. has agreed to fund at least US$2 million of exploration at the Shorty Creek porphyry copper project in Interior Alaska this year.

Early last year, South32 entered into an option agreement with Freegold to acquire 70% interest in Shorty Creek for US$30 million, less any money the Australia-based major invested in exploring the promising copper-gold-silver-tungsten targets that have been identified across the property.

To keep the option in good standing, South32 has agreed to fund up to US$10 million on exploration over a four-year span – US$2 million per year in 2019 and 2020, and US$3 million annually in 2021 and 2022.

South32 budgeted roughly US$2.3 million for the 2019 exploration program at Shorty Creek, which included a five-hole drill program; induced polarization and magnetic surveys; and geochemical sampling.

The best hole, SC 1901A, cut 99.1 meters averaging 0.29% copper, 0.014 grams per metric ton gold and 1.61 g/t silver from a depth 225.3 meters. This hole was drilled to the northeast of Hill 1835, the primary target of previous drilling at Shorty Creek.

Freegold has drilled 12 holes at the Hill 1835 target since 2015. Highlights from this drilling include:

• 91 meters of 0.55% copper, 0.14 g/t gold and 7.02 g/t silver in SC 15-03.

• 93.5 meters of 0.38% copper, 0.07 g/t gold and 8.96 g/t silver in SC 16-02.

• 360 meters of 0.24% copper, 0.07 g/t gold, 4.04 g/t silver and 0.03% tungsten trioxide in SC 17-01.

• 442.2 meters of 0.24% copper, 0.09 g/t gold, 4.74 g/t silver and 0.02% tungsten trioxide in SC 18-01.

The 2019 program included three other holes at Hill 1835 and one hole at Hill 1710, a very large porphyry target about 2,000 meters northwest of Hill 1835. Due to difficult drilling conditions, however, only one of these holes reached targeted depth.

Further details on the 2019 program can be read at Freegold, South32 tap Shorty Creek copper in the Jan. 17 edition of North of 60 Mining News.

Freegold Ventures Ltd.

The highly prospective Shorty Creek property encompasses numerous other porphyry exploration targets.

One of the most enticing is Quarry, an undrilled target about 3,000 meters northeast of Hill 1835 and at the northeast end of an 11,000-meter-long magnetic high feature. Samples of oxidized porphyritic rock with stockwork veining collected from Quarry contained as much as 500 parts per million copper. Sampling and mapping at Quarry have confirmed both the presence of copper mineralization and quartz feldspar porphyry intrusive rocks.

The 2020 program is expected to focus on additional drilling at Shorty Creek. Freegold Ventures said further details on the coming program will be released over the coming months.

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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