With gold production on the rise and costs dropping at Pogo, Northern Star Resources Ltd. is focused on outlining resources and reserves to support the next decade of mining at its high-grade underground operation in Alaska.

After the 2022 expansion of the mill to a nameplate capacity of 1.3 million metric tons per year, Northern Star has been working to ramp up gold production at Pogo to 300,000 ounces per year.

The 81,322 oz of gold poured during the second quarter of calendar year 2023 shows that this Interior Alaska operation has that level of production capacity.

This milestone quarter was thanks to accelerated underground mine development that ensured plenty of feed for the mill, which processed 347,524 metric tons of ore averaging 7.7 grams per metric ton gold. This puts the mill throughput higher than nameplate capacity and the grades are 5% higher than the previous quarter, continuing a steady rise as more stope ore and less development material is fed through the mill.

"It is very pleasing to celebrate these milestones with the Pogo team, and I thank them for the efforts to date to demonstrate the exceptional quality of this long-life asset," said Northern Star Resources Managing Director and CEO Stuart Tonkin.

Since acquiring Pogo in 2019, Northern Star has continually expanded gold resources along an eight-kilometer (five miles) corridor centered on the Leise zones that have contributed most of nearly 5 million oz of gold mined at Pogo over the past 17 years.

As of the end of March, Pogo hosted 5.9 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 8.6 grams per metric ton (1.6 million oz) gold.

In addition, the property hosts 9.7 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 10.9 g/t (3.4 million oz) gold, plus 11.5 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 10.7 g/t (4 million oz) gold.

These higher-grade resources extend from the more than 1 million oz Goodpaster deposit about 1,600 meters northwest of the Leise and North zones currently being mined to the Leise East (formerly Hill 4021) zone about 2,500 meters to the southeast.

This year, Northern Star reported a new discovery named Star about midway between Leise and Leise East.

"Pogo drilling results continue to impress with near-mine opportunities underpinning the mine life and investment thesis for this operation," said Tonkin.

Highlights from 17 holes drilled at Star last year include:

• 9.7 meters averaging 52.9 g/t gold in hole DH23-001.

• 7.8 meters averaging 5.4 g/t gold in hole DH23-002.

• 0.9 meters averaging 35.8 g/t gold in hole DH23-004.

• 1.7 meters averaging 22.1 g/t gold in hole DH23-006.

• 10.5 meters averaging 3.9 g/t gold in hole DH23-010.

• 22.7 meters averaging 3.8 g/t gold in hole DH23-012.

Northern Star says this drilling has traced the Liese-style quartz vein system at Star for 450 meters along strike and 1,100 meters down-dip.

Kenny Spann

Northern Star poured 81,322 ounces of gold at its Pogo Mine in Alaska during the second quarter of calendar year 2023.

The wide-spaced exploration drilling being carried out during Northern Star's fiscal year 2024, which ends June 30, has so far successfully mapped the up-dip extents and broad geometry of the Star quartz vein system.

The company says a targeted infill drilling program is slated FY 2025 to quantify resource potential at this newest discovery that underscores the potential for high-grade resources and potentially reserves to feed into the expanded Pogo mill for the next decade and beyond.

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