The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Geologist Curt Freeman says a number of areas are seeing increased levels of interest and investment for the first time in five years; and gold exploration has resurfaced, but base metal, platnium group metal exploration continue strong
Drilling, trenching and prospecting results are pouring in from all over the state as the 2002 summer season hits its annual mid-point. The most active place in the states continues to be the Seward Peninsula although a number of other areas are seeing increased levels of interest and expenditure for the first time in five years.
Tire kicking has increased across the board and new property acquisitions are expected to make their way to the public domain in August.
Gold exploration has resurfaced after a long hiatus but base metal and platinum group metal exploration continue in a number of areas of the state.
Western Alaska
Teck-Cominco's Red Dog mine continued its record-setting production pace in the second quarter of 2002 but low zinc prices contributed to a $4 million loss during the quarter.
For the quarter, the mine generated 136,200 tonnes of zinc in concentrate, a 5 percent increase over the second quarter of 2001.
The mine also produced 26,300 tonnes of lead in concentrate during the second quarter of 2002 and sold 86,700 tonnes of zinc and 6,900 tonnes of lead.
Zinc prices average 36 cents per pound during the quarter versus 42 cents per pound in the second quarter of 2001.
The company also announced that it was no longer pursuing expansion of the port facility on the Chukchi Sea citing improvements in lightering procedures and the low metals prices as the cause.
The U.S. Corps of Engineers indicated that it planned to continue with the $8.8 million port expansion scoping study that is in progress.
NovaGold Resources reported additional drilling results from its Donlin Creek deposit in southwestern Alaska.
Follow-up drilling at the Akivik zone intercepted high-grade gold mineralization in hole DC02-723 which returned 16 meters grading 32.95 grams of gold per tonne.
Other significant intercepts came from the Vortex zone (14.2 meters grading 5.22 grams of gold per tonne in hole DC02-697 and 15.2 meters grading 5.71 grams of gold per tonne in hole DC02-698), step-out drilling at Akivik (17.5 meters grading 6.81 grams of gold per tonne in hole DC02-727) and North Acma (9.1 meters grading 9.85 grams of gold per tonne in hole DC02-752).
NovaGold has completed 17,800 meters of drilling in 71 core and 84 reverse circulation holes since drilling began in April.
Initial drilling in the Far East zone also has intercepted significant sulfide mineralization over a 175 meter by 500 meter area.
Assays from this area are pending.
The company indicated that results to date suggest that year-end resource updates will significantly increase the size of the Donlin Creek deposit.
Northern Dynasty Minerals said the new discoveries at its Pebble copper-gold project near Iliamna now total three for the 2002 season.
The season's first discovery came in drill holes 34 and 38, spaced 450 meters apart and located 12 kilometers southwest of the Pebble deposit.
Hole 34 intersected 64 meters grading 0.30 percent copper and 0.20 grams of gold per tonne.
Hole 38 intersected 160 meters grading 0.32 percent copper and 0.33 grams of gold per tonne.
The new discovery is open in all directions and occurs in a 10 square kilometer covered area associated with an induced polarization chargeability anomaly.
The second discovery was in chalcopyrite-pyrrhotite skarn-style mineralization in drill hole 37, located 16 kilometers to the southwest of the Pebble deposit.
Drill hole 37 intersected 79 meters grading 0.40 percent copper and 1.00 grams of gold per tonne.
This new discovery is associated with a strong east-west trending gold-copper soil geochemical anomaly.
The third discovery was encountered five kilometers south of the Pebble deposit.
Drill hole 25 intersected 28.90 grams of gold per tonne over 6.1 meters.
This hole is situated within an 800 meter by 800 meter gold in soil geochemical anomaly.
The company has received drill site permits for 141 new holes and plans to commence delineation drilling of the discoveries on Aug. 1.
Both grid-based delineation drilling and reconnaissance style drilling will be conducted.
Rio Fortuna Exploration has begun initial drilling on its Divide gold project in the Nome District, the company said. Drilling at Divide will follow up trenching and drilling conducted by Cominco in 1997 which returned 55 feet grading 0.473 ounces of gold per ton in a trench and 18.5 feet grading 0.236 ounces of gold per ton in a drill hole. The company also announced that initial exploration on its Full Auto prospect, also in the Nome District, got under way in July. Results from the work are not yet available.
Eastern Interior
Kinross Gold released second quarter results from its Fort Knox-True North operations.
The combined operations produced 89,553 ounces of gold at a total cash cost of $253 per ounce compared to 104,743 ounces of gold at a total cash cost of $193 per ounce during the second quarter of 2001.
Total production costs increased to $370 per ounce versus $300 per ounce for the second quarter of 2001.
Production shortfalls were due primarily to trucking declines which slowed delivery of higher grade ore from True North.
During the second quarter the mill processed 3.2 million tonnes of ore grading 1.01 grams of gold per tonne compared to 3.5 million tonnes of ore grading 1.06 grams of gold per tonne during the second quarter of 2001.
Gold recovery was 85 percent compared to 86 percent in the year previous period.
The company indicated that it was upgrading its truck haulage fleet to allow increased delivery of True North ore to the Fort Knox mill.
The company also announced results from in-pit drilling at Fort Knox, including 75 feet grading 0.057 ounces of gold per ton from the North Wall pushback, 85 feet grading 0.064 ounces of gold per ton from the South Wall pushback and 45 feet grading 0.186 ounces of gold per ton from the South Wall pushback.
Several drill holes intercepted 5-foot intervals with grades in excess of 1 ounce of gold per ton.
Current 2002 production estimates from the combined Fort Knox-True North operations are approximately 313,000 ounces from Fort Knox and 205,000 ounces from True North.
International Freegold Mineral Development said a backhoe trenching program would be carried out in August on its Golden Summit project in the Fairbanks District. The program is designed to follow up resistivity surveys over the Currey zone where previous drilling intercepted 64 feet grading 0.148 ounces of gold per ton.
Teck-Cominco said feasibility work, in-fill drilling and condemnation drilling are continuing at its Pogo gold project in the Goodpaster District. The company indicated that the preliminary draft environmental impact study is expected to be released in the third quarter.
North Star Exploration said it has revised its agreement with Alaska Native corporation Doyon Ltd. Under the new deal North Star will have exclusive exploration rights to 1.2 million acres of Doyon land. The three-year agreement included cash payments totaling $225,000 and exploration expenditures of $2.5 million. The agreement covers land where previous work by North Star has indicated significant mineralization.
Alaska Range
Golconda Resources and partner Shear Minerals have found what is thought to be the first ever lode diamond discovery in Alaska at their Shulin Lake property in the southern Alaska Range. The companies said a total of 15 white and transparent micro-diamonds and one macro-diamond were recovered from a 9.9 kilogram sample collected from one of two drill holes which penetrated volcaniclastic-tuffaceous rocks thought to be lamproitic intrusives. Additional samples were collected from above and below the diamondiferous interval. Shortly after this announcement the companies began a follow-up program of 7,500 feet of diamond drilling and reduction of all previous core samples from the project.
Nevada Star Resources has been exploration work on its MAN project (formerly Tangle Lakes-Eureka project) in the central Alaska Range.
The company said the program will include core drilling on the Canwell prospect, induced polarization geophysical surveys over the Tangle block and geologic mapping and prospecting on other areas of the property.
Drilling on the Canwell property will concentrate on three significant showings: the Odie prospect which has returned values up to 0.86 percent nickel, 0.3 percent copper, 12.3 parts per million platinum and 1.2 parts per million palladium; the Canwell West Ridge prospect which has returned values up to 8.56 percent nickel, 0.86 percent copper, 1.86 parts per million platinum and 3.16 parts per million palladium; and the Upper Canwell prospect which returned values up to 6.9 percent nickel, 2.3 percent copper, 3.5 parts per million platinum and 2.6 parts per million palladium.
These massive to semi-massive sulfide showings occur along a 4,500 foot geophysical anomaly.
On the Tangle block the company will carry out an induced polarization geophysical survey to define drill targets.
Anomalous stream and soil geochemistry along with an airborne geophysical survey has outlined a large area favorable for the occurrence of disseminated to massive nickel-copper-PGM mineralization in an area largely covered by glacial till.
Southeast Alaska
Kennecott (70.3 percent) and Hecla (29.7 percent) released second quarter 2002 production results from the Greens Creek mine on Admiralty Island. The total cash cost per ounce of silver at Greens Creek for the quarter was $1.45, a significant decrease over second quarter of 2001 costs of $2.45 per ounce. The average grade of ore during the quarter was 20.07 ounces of silver per ton. During the first quarter the mine produced 2,887,874 ounces of silver, 29,058 ounces of gold, 8,099 tons of lead and 21,567 tons of zinc. Total production costs for the quarter were $4.03 per ounce of silver produced.
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