Drills churning at Cleary

Golden Summit gave up some of its glory in high-grade gold samples taken during a 4,900-foot drill program completed this spring at the gold property about 25 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska.

Partners in the hard-rock property, Freegold Ventures and Meridian Gold, released assay results July 7 from six core holes. The best results included a 10.5-foot interval that assayed 0.449 ounces of gold per ton, and a two-foot interval that measured 0.968 ounces.

Gold mineralization was "in the form of fine grained and visible free gold associated with quartz veins, stockworks and quartz-rich shear zones containing between 1 to 3 percent pyrite, arsenopyrite and jamesonite," Freegold said in its press release. "Coarse gold was observed in Phase 1 drill core suggesting that a nugget effect may be present."

Drill holes successfully intersected a vein 410 feet below previously mined workings of the Cleary Hill Mine. Drilling also indicated additional mineralized zones above and below the vein, the company said.

Six holes were drilled to confirm the structural and grade continuity of a portion of the Cleary Hill vein system. "The results confirm that the old mine longitudinal sections from the 1940s accurately portray the trend of high-grade mineralization associated with the Bankers Stope chute on the Cleary Hill vein," the company said. "These sections indicate several other mineralized vein systems."

Phase II exploration initiated

Freegold and Meridian have initiated Phase II exploration at Golden Summit on the recently acquired Tolovana prospect immediately adjacent to and approximately 750 meters (2,400 feet) west of the Cleary Hill mine area.

The companies submitted regulatory permits to "…allow the trenching and drilling of known and suspected high grade veins previously mined at the old Tolovana underground mine," Freegold said.

In mid-June, Freegold announced an agreement to acquire the rights to a 20-year lease on the Tolovana gold property. The company also submitted an exploration application to state officials requesting permission to re-excavate trenches cut in 1981 and 1982 in order to collect rock chip channel samples.

Trenching will utilize a John Deer 450 bulldozer with a backhoe excavator to expose bedrock, with efforts to confine surface disturbance to existing trenches, Freegold's consultant Avalon Development said in the permit application.

The company requested permission to re-cut eight trenches, each up to 250 feet in length, 3.5 feet wide and up to four feet deep, on the property.