Kinross back to early stage projects

Kinross Gold, owner and operator of the Fort Knox gold mine, said during a company-wide exploration presentation that Fairbanks area work will focus on in-pit expansion, the Gil and Ryan Lode prospects and six early stage properties.

Company executives described 2003 results from Kinross properties in North and South America, and in Russia. The company will spend $20 million in 2004, spread throughout those properties, officials said in a Jan. 29 conference call.

The company did not provide specific spending plans for Fairbanks area projects in 2004, but said Kinross spent about $2 million in the district in 2003.

In Alaska in 2004, Kinross will focus on exploration targets within the ever-growing Fort Knox pit, as well as the shuttered Ryan Lode mine on Ester Dome, some 30 miles from the company's existing mill facilities at Fort Knox, according to Ron Stewart, vice president of exploration. (See Ryan Lode story on page 8.)

Kinross will also continue exploration and development work on the Gil property, some six miles east of Fort Knox. In 2003, the company and its partner Teryl Resources completed 38,000 feet of drilling, Stewart said. He described Gil as a "small satellite ore body."

Mineralization at Gil remains open and while the property has "good opportunity for growth, it is unlikely to have a significant impact on mine life," Stewart said.

Pit increases limited

The Kinross presentation included three slides showing past and planned exploration work within the Fort Knox pit, attempts to extend the mine's life that have resulted in "real incremental gains," Stewart said.

Mineralization occurs below the ultimate pit bottom, which ranges from 100 to about 500 feet deeper than the current mined hole, according to two cross sections shown. Six proposed drill holes were shown on the two diagrams, along with pit expansion targets.

Mineralization of the known Fort Knox deposit extends to the south and to the southwest of the existing pit.

"We traced (mineralization) to the adjacent NOAA property, about 1,500 feet, but we are unable to pull that into the pit design, which is disappointing," Stewart said.

In 2003, state regulators said Kinross drilled seven reverse circulation holes on the adjoining property associated with the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, also called NOAA.

That property was not among the six early stage drill targets that will receive work in 2004, according to the Kinross presentation.

Those properties include Treasure Creek and Vault Creek, 15 to 20 miles northwest of Fort Knox and west of the True North satellite mine; Dark Hollow, just west of the mine; Last Chance, between the mine and the Gil claims; Fourth of July Creek, north of the Gil project and Alder Creek, some 16 miles north of Fort Knox.

"We'll be doing some drilling, to see if we get any exciting hits," Chris Hill, vice president of investor relations, told Mining News on Feb. 9. "We'll be doing drilling in and around the Fairbanks area."

He declined to define the current estimated mine life at Fort Knox, saying reserves have been added in past years and that a new reserve number will be released with the company's year end results in March.

At the end of 2002, Fort Knox listed 2,678,000 ounces of gold in both the proven and probable categories. At current production rates of a little more than 400,000 ounces of gold per year, that translates to a little less than seven years of ore left to be mined.