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

An Alaska-based mineral explorer that has long attracted Australian companies to projects it has generated, Millrock Resources Inc. is actively working with two such companies on gold exploration projects in Interior Alaska – Felix Gold Ltd. in the Fairbanks Mining District and Resolution Minerals Ltd. in the Goodpaster Mining District.

"The exploration season is in full swing in Alaska," Millrock Resources President and CEO Greg Beischer said earlier this month. "Our funding partners are mounting very significant campaigns that could result in new gold discoveries in the emerging Fairbanks and Goodpaster gold districts."

A newly formed private exploration company that is working on becoming listed on the Australia Stock Exchange, Felix entered into a strategic alliance with Millrock on several Interior Alaska projects – Treasure Creek and Ester Dome near the Interior Alaska city of Fairbanks, plus the Liberty Bell project about 70 miles to the southwest.

The name of the new Australian explorer pays homage to the Italian prospector who first discovered placer gold in the streams draining the hardrock gold it is seeking in the Fairbanks district.

"The new company, Felix Gold, of which Millrock will become a significant shareholder, is named after Felix Pedroni, the prospector credited with the initial discovery of gold in Fairbanks in 1902," said Beischer.

Recently, the partners have expanded Felix Gold's already large landholdings in the Fairbanks District with agreements on two additional properties – the GST claim block held by Fairbanks Exploration Inc. and the Bank Project Vault and Treasury claim blocks owned by DG Resources.

Situated about 25 miles northeast of the city of Fairbanks, GST is a large block of claims bordering Freegold Venture Ltd.'s Golden Summit property. Millrock says GST appears to cover the eastern strike extent of geological structures the partners believe to control gold mineralization on Golden Summit.

Collectively known as the Bank project, the Treasury and Vault claims border both Golden Summit and Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox property. Millrock says Bank hosts a number of interesting gold occurrences. The 2021 program at Bank is expected to include soil sampling and prospecting with the goal of developing drill targets for the 2022 season.

In the meantime, a major soil sampling program in preparation for potential drilling later this year is being carried out at Treasure Creek.

Situated about 13 miles west of Kinross's Fort Knox Mine, Treasure Creek hosts numerous prospects with interesting drill intersections reported by prior workers. Roughly 2,000 soil samples are being collected to further delineate drill targets at four of these prospects – NW Array, Big Birch, Old Dog, and Pipeline prospects.

Located about five miles south of Treasure Creek, the Ester Dome property is home to the past-producing Grant gold mine. Millrock says all historical geological data from Ester Dome has been imported into a database and is being evaluated using 3D visualization software.

According to a calculation completed in 2008, the Grant Mine property hosts 126,000 ounces of gold in 613,600 tons of indicated resource averaging 0.21 oz per ton, or about 6.5 grams per ton gold, and 214,100 oz of gold in 2.55 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.08 oz/t, or about 2.5 g/t gold.

Felix is evaluating this resource to determine what, if anything, needs to be done to bring the estimate up to date and in compliance with the Australian Joint Ore Resources Commission (JORC) standards for resource calculations.

While Felix and Millrock evaluate the very large land package they have accumulated in the Fairbanks district, Resolution is drilling targets at 64North, a roughly 160,000-acre land package surrounding Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s Pogo gold mine in the Goodpaster district.

Under a deal signed at the end of 2019, Resolution has the option to earn up to a 60% interest in this large land package by investing US$20 million in exploration spending over four years.

Upon earning a 60% interest on the entire 64North project, Resolution will have the option to increase its interest on one of nine claim blocks that make up the larger project – West Pogo, Shaw, Eagle, LMS-X, South Pogo, East Pogo, North Pogo, Last Chance and Divide – by funding a feasibility study and Millrock's portion of mine development on the selected block.

With the recent completion of a 12-hole drill program at East Pogo, Resolution has invested enough to earn a 42% interest in 64North.

Resolution Minerals Ltd.

Resolution Minerals recently completed a 12-hole drill program at East Pogo, one of nine claim blocks that make up the 64North project in Alaska's Goodpaster Mining District.

This 1,663-meter reverse circulation program tested shallow, gently dipping conductive zones detected by geophysical surveys carried out last year. A total of 1,663 meters was drilled in 12 holes. Resolution reports that seven quartz veins up to 4.6 meters thick were cut in five of the holes drilled.

"We are encouraged to see seven zones of likely Pogo-style flat lying quartz veining up to 4.6 meters thick, amongst intensely altered host rock in RC drill chips at the East Pogo Prospect, however, assay results will be the real test and are expected shortly," said Resolution Minerals Managing Director Duncan Chessell.

Resolution geologists investigated the North Pogo and South Pogo claim blocks and the Australian company is currently reprioritizing targets for late summer and fall exploration at 64North.