Drills continue churning at Pebble

This summer's exploration, engineering and environmental baseline data work at the Pebble prospect in southwest Alaska is progressing "exceptionally well," according to a spokesman for the deposit's developer, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd.

Northern Dynasty, a Hunter Dickinson-managed mine-development company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, is on track to spend $25 million (C$33.5 million) this year on the Pebble project, a gold-copper-molybdenum deposit several miles north of Lake Iliamna, a little more than 200 miles southwest of Anchorage.

Northern Dynasty said Aug. 13 that it completed $10 million in financing, money that will primarily be used for the Pebble project to provide "a buffer," according to Bruce Jenkins, director of corporate affairs. "We're spending more money and we don't want to spend it all."

Neighboring prospector Liberty Star Gold Corp. will spend roughly $3 million on its first season of work on claims staked last December adjoining the Pebble prospect.

Field work at Pebble includes completion of about 110,000 feet of core samples this summer, roughly three-quarters of the total footage planned for this year, Jenkins said on Sept. 7. "We've been planning for 145,000 feet, so we've got about 34,000 feet left to go," he said. The company has five core drill rigs on site, peaking at seven earlier this summer, Jenkins said. Five helicopters are working to service those drill crews, as well as other contractor needs, he said.

Drilling will continue through September and into October, Jenkins said. Results will be released later this fall. "There's no final date, but I would be surprised if it were before November," he said. "It takes a long time to analyze 100,000-plus drill core samples."

Engineering, environmental work continues at Lake Iliamna

Workers on-site at the Lake Iliamna area prospect have ranged from 60 to 100 this summer, Jenkins said.

In addition to drilling work, Northern Dynasty crews have been completing some preliminary engineering work, such as determining potential site locations for a mill, waste stockpiles and other infrastructure needs.

"We started with 16 or 17 possible locations for waste rock, and we've narrowed that down to one or two," Jenkins said.

Contractors have begun baseline environmental data collection in a number of different studies, he said.

All of this year's work is geared towards preparing a bankable feasibility study, planned to be completed in 2005, and for permit applications to build a large-scale, open pit mine and mill.

Northern Dynasty's preliminary plans call for a facility capable of processing from 90,000 to 200,000 tonnes of ore per day, over a 30 to 60-year mine life.

The company released a new resource number for the deposit early this year, estimating that Pebble contains 2.74 billion tons of gold, copper and molybdenum mineralization, grading 0.55 percent copper-equivalent (0.3 grams of gold per tonne, 0.27 percent copper and 0.015 percent molybdenum).

The prospect's inferred resource, calculated by independent consultant Norwest Corp., contains 26.5 million ounces of gold and 16.5 billion pounds of copper in the near-surface mineralized zone.

This summer's drilling includes substantial infill work, designed to move that inferred resource to the measured and indicated category.

Northern Dynasty holds options to acquire a 100 percent interest in 36 mineral claims that host the Pebble deposit, discovered by a geologist working for Cominco American in 1987.

St. George returns to Pebble

That geologist credited with the Pebble discovery, Phil St. George, is back to work in the Iliamna area, but on a different prospect and for a recently formed Tucson-based exploration firm called Liberty Star Gold Corp.

St. George, exploration vice president for Liberty Star, is leading the company's exploration crew of about 15 workers, according to a late July press release.

"Iliamna is great, I love working here," he said, in early August. "It is really busy, with Northern Dynasty's four to five helicopters, our helicopter and Alaska Earth Science's occasional helicopter. It's like a three-ring helicopter circus, with no ringleader."

Liberty Star currently holds 981 mineral claims, spanning 237 square miles of land staked last December by Fairbanks-based Avalon Development. Liberty Star's holdings, called Big Chunk, adjoin the Pebble claims on the north border and form a large donut shape adjoining Northern Dynasty's holding on the southeast.

Recent work completed by Liberty Star includes collection of 10,700 samples, which includes soil, vegetation, stream sediments and water samples, according to company President James Briscoe. "Even with all that sampling, it's only 43 samples per square mile," he said Sept. 7.

Those samples were added to geological, geostructural, space imagery and detailed aeromagnetic studies, resulting in identification of 21 anomalies representing potential mineral centers, the company said in an Aug. 23 release.

IP surveys ongoing, drillingslated for October

Zonge Engineering geophysical crews began a 30-day program on Aug. 15 to complete induced polarization electrical surveys on key areas of the property.

"With computer technology, results of individual lines can be plotted within 24 to 36 hours of the field survey," Liberty Star said in its release. "Thus results from surveys done a few days prior will be used to adjust and optimize succeeding lines."

Roughly 90 line kilometers of induced polarization surveys will be completed, Briscoe said, depending on the terrain encountered by crews.

The induced polarization geophysical surveys will be integrated with other geotechnical data to determine drill sites. Liberty Star plans to begin drilling later this fall, probably about the first of October, Briscoe said.

With a drilling budget of $300,000, Liberty Star will use a core rig currently working on Northern Dynasty's property, he said. The amount of footage will depend on the amount of helicopter time needed to move the drill rig and also the weather, he said.

Earlier this year, Liberty Star announced plans to spend roughly $3 million on exploration at its Big Chunk prospect. Actual spending may be a little lower, Briscoe said, but close to that figure.

"We'd like to get five to 10 holes drilled, but we want to be drilling good targets, not just willy-nilly drilling because the rig is there," Briscoe said. "We hope to get a few sniffs so we can get an early start next spring. We'll have the winter to fully digest all the data, then we've got the full season next year for drilling."