The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Targeting bonanza and bulk tonnage gold at Alaska project North of 60 Mining News – February 11, 2022
Crews are preparing for the start of the 2022 drill program at Freegold Ventures Golden Summit project about five miles from Kinross Gold's Fort Knox Mine in Alaska's Interior.
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Feb. 9 said crews are preparing for the start of the 2022 drill program at the company's highway-accessible Golden Summit project about 25 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska. An initial 20,000-meter drill program slated for this year will target the continued expansion of the higher-grade gold mineralization encountered within the Dolphin deposit and adjacent Cleary Hill area over the past two years.
Prior to 2020, most of the drilling at Golden Summit focused on the bulk tonnage Dolphin deposit.
According to a 2016 calculation, Dolphin hosts 61.5 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.69 grams per metric ton (1.36 million oz) gold; and 71.5 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.69 g/t (1.58 million oz) gold.
Over the past two years, however, Freegold has traced very high-grade gold mineralization from the historic Cleary Hill Mine, which produced 281,000 oz of gold from ore averaging 1.3 oz per ton before the operation was shuttered during World War II, westward towards Dolphin.
One hole drilled in 2020, GS2017, cut 1.7 meters averaging 588 grams per metric ton (18.9 ounces per metric ton) gold within 219.8 meters of mineralization averaging 1.61 g/t gold.
The wide sections of bulk tonnage mineralization drilled during the 2020 season, such as the 573 meters averaging 1.21 g/t gold encountered in GSDL2005 within the Dolphin deposit area, are equally impressive as the bonanza grades tapped at Golden Summit during the 2020 season.
Though assays are pending from roughly 70% of the 38,000 meters of drilling completed at Golden Summit last year, the results that have come back include further bonanza grade gold intercepts along with broad sections of above-resource-grade bulk tonnage mineralization.
This includes a 1.1-meter intercept in GS2121 that averages 609 g/t (19.6 oz/t) gold. This was a subsection of a 166.8-meter intercept averaging 1.55 g/t gold when the 1.1-meter bonanza-grade portion was cut to 88 g/t gold.
Other highlights from the assays that Freegold has received from the 2021 season include:
• 421.6 meters averaging 1.11 g/t gold from a depth of 210.1 meters in hole GS2101, including a 110-meter subsection that averaged 1.54 g/t gold from 467 meters.
• 231.2 meters averaging 1.22 g/t gold from a depth of 340.6 meters in hole GS2107, including 2.1 meters averaging 44 g/t gold from 521.1 meters.
• 495.8 meters averaging 1.17 g/t gold from a depth of 59.5 meters in hole GS2122, including 111.2 meters of 2.94 g/t gold at the bottom of the hole.
• 198.1 meters averaging 1.44 g/t gold from a depth of 419.7 meters in hole GS2125, including 3.1 meters averaging 25.3 g/t gold from 605.6 meters.
The 2021 drilling also tapped intrusive rocks at depth in the Cleary area. Freegold said this is a significant find that further strengthens its interpretation that the Dolphin intrusive that makes up the bulk tonnage deposit may underlie Cleary at depth.
The initial 20,000-meter drill program slated for Golden Summit this year will continue to focus on further expanding and defining the higher-grade Cleary Vein System, which has significant implications for both the grade and tonnage potential of the project.
Numerous high-grade intercepts have been reported within the broad zones of mineralization that are expected to substantially boost the average grade for a bulk mineable project, as well as significantly expand the ounces of gold in the overall resource.
The initial 2022 program will continue to target the down-dip extent of the higher-grade vein zones found within the historic Cleary, Colorado, Wackwitz, and Wyoming veins east of the Dolphin deposit, as well their broader enveloping stockwork zones.
Freegold says holes drilled during 2021 south of the previous drilling have intersected significant veining, quartz breccia, and visible gold in areas with no previous drilling.
The 2022 program will include further infill drilling to delineate the area to the south of the Cleary, Colorado, Wackwitz, and Wyoming veins, as well as the area between Dolphin and Cleary.
The company says it will continue to drill oriented core this year to better define the orientation of the higher-grade intervals, which are challenging to connect.
In addition to the Dolphin-Cleary Hill area, Freegold plans to drill other areas of the project that have the potential to host additional mineralization.
Once the balance of the 2021 assays is received, the drilling carried out over the past two years will be incorporated into an updated mineral resource estimate later this year.
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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