The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Freegold pursues June exploration of Pogo-style Rob property, while confidence builds on drill results from nearby Golden Summit
Freegold Ventures Ltd. is returning to explore the gold-rich hills of the Goodpaster Mining District this summer and follow up on its quest for mineral riches near Fort Knox. The busy miner outlined its 2008 exploration program March 31 for the Rob gold property in Interior Alaska about 110 miles southeast of Fairbanks as well as plans for its Golden Summit property north of Fairbanks.
The 2008 program will include ground geophysics, geologic mapping and additional core drilling to trace and expand the high-grade gold mineralization intersected during its 2007 eight-hole drill program at the Gray Lead vein, Freegold said.
The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior plans to begin exploration at Rob in early June with mapping and ground-based geophysics aimed at tracing the Grey Lead vein farther along strike. This will be followed by 3,000 feet of core drilling likely to start in early July. Step-out drilling of 175 feet in both the north and south directions along strike will test the vein over a strike length of more than 500 feet and to a depth of about 200 feet.
The 2008 campaign at Grey Lead is follow-up to an eight-hole (1,529 foot) drill program completed in 2007. All eight holes intersected gold-mineralization, including one with an average of 29 grams per metric ton of gold over 13 feet.
Freegold said gold-bearing veins found at the Rob property share many geological and geochemical similarities to the high-grade gold mineralization found at the Pogo Mine, owned by Teck Cominco Ltd. and Sumitomo Metal Mining, some 20 miles to the west.
Historic mining and exploration identify targets
Multiple targets of high-grade gold mineralization have been identified on the 4,240 acres of state mining claims at Rob and will be included in future exploration programs, the company said.
The 2008 exploration plan also calls for a 2,000-foot drill program at the Michigan prospect two miles northeast of Grey Lead.
The Blue Lead and Grizzly Bear veins, which appear to be the same structure, also will be included in the 2008 exploration plan.
These two prospects are identified by small high-grade historical mine pits.
About 150 tons of ore mined out of Blue Lead in 1938 and 1939 produced 132 ounces of gold and 25 ounces of silver.
About 350 tons of ore were mined at Grizzly Bear between 1939 and 1942.
There are no reports on the amount of metals recovered from the Grizzly Bear Mine.
Joint venture partners Sumitomo Metal Mining and WGM spent about $1.3 million on exploration on the Rob property in the late 1990s. This work included extensive airborne and ground geophysics, soil and rock geochemical sampling, geologic mapping, trenching and limited diamond drilling. An initial sampling program led to the identification of four target areas that were followed up with limited trenching and a small 20-hole drill program.
The Wolverine prospect, discovered during the JV's exploration in the 1990s, Upper and Lower Trench prospects, and several other prospective areas also have been targeted for Freegold's exploration.
"We are very excited about the new drilling at Rob in the coming months, and hope that the high-grade grab samples we have previously collected at the other prospects on this four-mile-long property are as indicative of the high-grade vein mineralization underneath as they were at Gray Lead," said Freegold President and CEO, Steve Manz.
Drill results reveal structure continuity
The first assay results are in from Freegold's 2008 drill program at the Golden Summit property near Kinross Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine north of Fairbanks. The results are from Fence 24, which consists of 56 holes drilled in two rows with an average spacing of 20 feet and an average depth of 70 feet.
The holes in Fence 24 intercepted high-grade veins within lower-grade wider shear zones. Hole 684 had a 33-foot intercept with an average grade of 8.9 grams per metric ton gold, and included a six-foot intercept of 31.5 g/t gold.
The assay results from Fence 24 and nearby Fences 4 and 5 reveal a good continuity of the mineralized structure within the Wackwitz vein swarm over a 550-foot strike length and 150-foot width, Freegold said.
A 2007 drill program identified vein swarms that parallel the Wackwitz swarm. The continuity of Wackwitz is boosting Freegold's confidence that similar continuity of the parallel vein swarms will continue along the entire 1,200-foot-wide-by-5,000-foot-long area identified through the shallow-hole program last year.
"By drilling the closer spaced holes, we have obtained a much better picture of the overall trend of the mineralization at Golden Summit," Freegold Vice President of Business Development Kristin Walcott told Mining News.
Freegold begins core drill program
Freegold also has undertaken a 15,000-foot core drilling program at Golden Summit aimed at testing the potential for deeper gold mineralization in areas where bulk tonnage and high-grade vein mineralization have been identified with shallow, close spaced drilling and surface bulk sampling.
The Wackwitz vein swarm has been one of the targets of the deep-hole core drilling program. The core drilling of this vein swarm will take place about 800 feet to the east of Fence 24. The company is also performing systematic core drilling of the Beistline area. Freegold has drilled a total of 23 of these deeper core holes in the two areas.
"We have been very fortunate to have secured the drill rigs we need for our various programs for this year, and 2008 is expected to be our most active year ever in terms of the number of drilling programs being undertaken on all of our properties," Manz added.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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