Teryl hits gold at West Ridge

All of the first six drill holes punched this spring on Teryl Resources' West Ridge property near Fairbanks, Alaska, encountered anomalous gold mineralization, according to a company press release issued April 28.

Drilling work completed between March 16 and April 1 included 2,650 feet of reverse circulation drilling at the Old Glory prospect at West Ridge. Teryl's 100 percent owned West Ridge property is just south of the True North Mine, a Fort Knox satellite mine operated by Kinross Gold from 2001 through early this year.

Kinross announced plans in March to temporarily stop mining at True North this spring and summer for three to seven months. Earth-moving equipment will be used for a tailings dam lift at Fort Knox, the company said.

Teryl's drilling at the neighboring Old Glory prospect produced a 35-foot section grading 0.049 ounces of gold per ton of rock, including a 20-foot section that graded 0.064 ounces.

"Based on encountering a 35-foot intersection of potentially economic grade gold mineralization, additional reverse circulation drilling is warranted within the area previously covered by soil auger drilling," the company said in its press release.

A budget for additional exploration, to include more auger drilling, ground geophysics and reverse circulation drilling, will soon be announced, company president John Robertson said.

"There's some targets we want to keep pursuing," he said in a telephone interview on April 30. "One economic zone - we want to trace where it goes using more detective work, more geophysical work at where it comes to the surface."

Geochemical results were released from one drill hole, ranging from the 395 to 430 foot level. Elevated levels of arsenic are associated with the gold mineralization, according to the lab results.

"Gold mineralization is preferentially hosted in quartzites and quartz mica schists and consists of brecciated zones containing sulfides and polyphase quartz veining," the press release said. "Mineralization is open to expansion in all directions."