The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
A recent piece in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner newspaper indicated that the U.S. Department of Labor has determined that mining employment has hit a 4-year low in Alaska. I'm not sure who the Department of Labor was talking to but the world I live in happens to be drastically short of qualified manpower with no immediate relief anywhere in sight that might affect this demand surplus and supply shortfall. When you ask mining companies what they are up to, the most common response is "the drills have just started turning on ..." and this trend will result in new results being released in the next month. Here is a summary of where those drills are turning.
Western Alaska
NovaGold Resources Inc. said JV partner Barrick Gold Corp. has budgeted $87 million for the 80,000 meter Donlin Creek project drill campaign for 2007. The focus of this work will be on converting Inferred Resources to the Measured and Indicated category. Project operator Barrick Gold continues to work toward completion of a pre-feasibility and first feasibility study for the project and has indicated it will not submit the draft applications to begin the permitting and environmental approval process until 2008.
NovaGold Resources also said that construction activities at it Rock Creek project near Nome are on schedule. Construction of the tailings facilities and mill site continue. The company anticipated a third-quarter 2007 mine startup.
Eastern Interior
Freegold Ventures announced additional results from a rotary air blast drilling program on its Golden Summit project in the Fairbanks district. Highlights from the two additional drill fences in the Cleary Hill mine prospect include 15 feet averaging 5.03 grams of gold per tonne in hole 177; six feet averaging 20.5 grams of gold per tonne in hole 191; two feet averaging 22.18 grams of gold per tonne in hole 194; six feet averaging 13.42 grams of gold per tonne in hole 211; 12 feet averaging 11.22 grams of gold per tonne in hole 279; and 12 feet averaging 12.17 grams of gold per tonne in hole 273.
Additional drilling was conducted 2,300 feet away on the Tolovana mine prospect and returned high grade-results including three feet averaging 23.01 grams of gold per tonne in hole 303; three feet averaging 23.01 grams of gold per tonne in hole 303; 21 feet averaging 4.26 grams of gold per tonne in hole 312; and three feet averaging 18.1 grams of gold per tonne in hole 325. Additional drilling work is planned for 2007.
Rimfire Minerals Corp. announced that drilling had begun on its Goodpaster project joint venture with Rubicon Minerals Corp. in the Goodpaster district. The partners plan to spend $1 million in exploration to test high priority targets on the Cal-Surf prospect where previous work by Rimfire identified well developed gold and/or bismuth soil geochemical anomalies.
Rubicon Minerals Corp. reported that crews have been mobilized to commence a $2 million first-phase exploration program on its Goodpaster district land holdings acquired earlier this year. First pass surface exploration conducted in 2006 identified several promising areas for follow up. One of these is associated with a 10 kilometer by seven kilometer arsenic stream silt-and-pan concentrate anomaly within which samples of quartz veins interpreted as bedrock or rubble-crop returned values ranging from a trace up to 12 grams of gold per tonne.
This anomaly will be followed up by additional detailed mapping, hand trenching and auger-soil sampling prior to carrying out up to 7,000 feet of diamond drilling which is expected to be carried out during July.
International Tower Hill Mines announced new drilling results from its Livengood project north of Fairbanks. Results from the first five holes (1,291 meters) of its 8,000 meter 2007 drilling program returned significant intervals of gold mineralization. To date the company and previous operators have completed 21 drill holes in the core target area, which covers a zone of mineralization more than two kilometers long by at least 0.5 kilometers wide.
The overall average thickness of the mineralization encountered in these holes is approximately 70 meters, with an overall grade of 0.9 grams of gold per tonne. Within this stratigraphically controlled, low-grade body, the company has defined a number of higher-grade structurally controlled zones which appear to be acting as higher-grade feeders. Highlights of drilling within two areas of higher grade mineralization include the Lillian zone which returned 140.99 meters grading 1.30 grams of gold per tonne in hole MK07-15; 127.14 meters grading 1.44 grams of gold per tonne in hole MK06-07; and 41.89 meters grading 1.07 grams of gold per tonne in hole MK07-12.
Mineralization at Lillian is hosted in two volcanic units that contain disseminated pyrite and arsenopyrite which has been overprinted by northwest and northeast striking quartz-carbonate-arsenopyrite veins which appear to increase overall gold grades. Drill results from the Radio target include 190.2 meters grading 0.96 grams of gold per tonne in hole BAF-7 and 65.8 meters grading 0.80 grams of gold per tonne in hole BAF-8.
Mineralization at Radio is hosted in siltstone-sandstone units and appears to be of similar age as that at Lillian. However mineralization at Radio appears to be associated with a nearby intrusive body.
International Tower Hill Mines also announced that drilling had begun on its West Tanana project under option from Doyon Ltd. The company believes that this high-grade gold anomaly is related to a stacked, low-angle vein system. The 2007 work program calls for an initial phase of 7 drill holes to test a number of gold vein related targets.
Alaska Range
International Tower Hill Mines also said that drilling had begun on its Terra gold project under option from Anglo Gold Ashanti. The current two-drill program will follow-up on encouraging drill results from 2006, focusing on developing an initial resource in the Ben Zone, one of four vein systems discovered to date. The company expects to complete approximately 15 drill holes in order to assess approximately 500 meters of strike length and 300 meters down dip in the vein system.
Southern Alaska
Alaska newcomer Hemis Corp. announced that it had acquired Aspen Exploration Corp.'s Anchor Point submarine alluvial gold project in the Cook Inlet. Under the terms of the agreement, Aspen was paid $50,000 at signing and will be paid this amount on each anniversary of the agreement. Aspen also is entitled to a 5 percent production royalty.
Hemis also announced that a preliminary oceanographic survey was begun in early June. On board instrumentation included a high-precision cesium magnetometer, a fathometer, side-scan sonar and a StrataBox. The StrataBox is an instrument capable of imaging through sediments up to 40 meters thick. This survey was intended to both confirm previous results and to provide baseline information for a drilling program planned for later in 2007. Welcome to Alaska Hemis Corp.!
Northern Alaska
NovaGold Resources' 3,000 meter drilling program is under way on its Ambler volcanogenic massive sulfide project in the Brooks Range. The 2007 company said its exploration program includes the goal of releasing a new mineral resource summary and further drill testing of both the Arctic deposit and nearby targets. NovaGold has initiated a preliminary economic assessment for the Ambler project.
Southeast Alaska
Bravo Venture Group Inc. reported commencement of the 2007 mineral exploration program on its Woewodski Island project in Southeast Alaska. The company said final permits have been issued, exploration crews are on site and diamond drill equipment is en route for a planned 2,400 meter drill program.
Initial exploration targets include the Red Quartz, Miami Beach and Matt's Trench gold prospects as well as at the East Lake volcanogenic massive sulfide prospect. Follow-up rock sampling at Red Quartz in 2007 has identified a new epithermal gold-vein occurrence located approximately 500 meters to the south of the Red Quartz trend. The initial four rock chip samples have returned values from 0.9 to 5.6 grams of gold per tonne.
Gold mineralization at Red Quartz has a strong association with elevated silver, arsenic and antimony, which is in sharp contrast to the relatively low values of silver and pathfinder elements typically associated with gold mineralization in other parts of the project. The recent identification of bladed quartz-after-calcite along with drusy and banded quartz provide textural evidence of boiling within an epithermal environment.
Up to 600 meters of drilling is anticipated on this target as part of the 2007 exploration program. Surface sampling and mapping will continue in order to refine additional drill targets and determine the full strike extent of mineralization. At the East Lake prospect surface gravity and three-dimensional induced polarization geophysical surveys are planned.
Previous exploration on the prospect has identified well-preserved Late Triassic volcanic and sedimentary stratigraphy and a series of strong east west-trending electromagnetic conductors. Argillites hosting broad intervals of base-metal and precious-metal enriched iron sulfides occur both on surface and in historic drill intercepts with grades up to 3.3 meters grading 4.2 grams of gold per tonne and 4.68 percent zinc. Up to 800 meters of drilling is anticipated as follow-up to the geophysical targeting.
Curt is President of Avalon Development Corporation, a mineral exploration consulting firm based in Fairbanks, Alaska. He is a U.S. Certified Professional Geologist with the American Institute of Professional Geologists (CPG #6901) and is a licensed geologist in the State of Alaska (Lic. # AA 159).
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