The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Boasting Fort Knox as a neighbor, Freegold Ventures' 6M oz gold project is ideally situated for low-cost exploration, production
When it comes to multimillion-ounce bulk-tonnage gold deposits in Alaska, one would be hard pressed to find one more ideally located than Freegold Ventures Ltd.'s Golden Summit Project.
Situated alongside the paved Steese Highway some 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Fairbanks, a city of 87,000 that embraces its gold mining heritage, the project has direct access to an able work force, grid power and the full range of services needed to operate a low-cost drill program.
"Exploration and development costs in the Fairbanks area are at or below those common in the western United States," Mark Abrams and Gary Giroux penned in a December 2012 technical report for the Golden Summit property.
Not only is the Fairbanks region an efficient place to explore for and develop a deposit, Kinross Gold Corp. has demonstrated that a low-cost mine also can be operated here.
Fort Knox, located roughly five miles (eight kilometers) southeast of Golden Summit, is one of Kinross' most efficient operations.
Fort Knox General Manager Dan Snodgress told the mining community gathered at the 2012 Alaska Miners Association convention, "Fort Knox is by far the lowest cash-cost (open-pit) producer within the Kinross portfolio."
The ideal location has enabled Freegold to overcome the extreme cold of Interior Alaska to successfully operate drill programs at Golden Summit nearly year-round.
"Winter drilling is possible because of the excellent infrastructure in place," Freegold Ventures President and CEO Kristina Walcott told Mining News at the onset of the 2012 program early last year.
The 15,000-meter drill program, launched during temperatures hovering around 40 degrees-below zero Fahrenheit, is one such example. The carefully orchestrated campaign merged the 1.3-million-ounce Dolphin gold deposit with the adjacent Cleary Hill area, resulting in an explosive 325 percent expansion of the resource.
At a 0.35 grams-per-metric-ton gold cut-off grade, the Dolphin-Cleary Hill deposit at Golden Summit now boasts an indicated resource of 62.62 million metric tons averaging 0.73 g/t gold for 1.46 million ounces and an inferred resource of 191.92 million metric tons averaging 0.67 g/t gold for 4.1 million ounces.
The Golden Summit property also hosts three historical mines - Cleary Hill, Hi Yu and American Eagle. These high-grade gold operations - which together produced more than 450,000 ounces of gold from ore that averaged about 1.5 ounces-per-short-ton gold - are among 80 known gold occurrences scattered across Freegold's 12,257-acre (4,960.8 hectares) land package.
An aggressive 20,000-to-25,000-meter drill program currently being drafted by Freegold management for 2013 will continue to expand and upgrade the six-million-ounce Dolphin-Cleary Hill gold deposit as well as investigate other promising prospects across the Golden Summit property.
6M oz. deposit
When Freegold kicked off its 2012 drill program in early January, the company had already outlined 1.3 million ounces of gold at the Dolphin deposit and some 6,400 meters of reverse circulation and core drilling completed at Cleary Hill indicated this adjacent prospect was of similar size and tenor.
Highlights from this past drilling at Cleary Hill include hole CHD9704, which cut 55.2 meters averaging 1.95 g/t gold; hole CHD0301 with 124.5 meters averaging 1.02 g/t gold; and hole CHD001 with 61 meters averaging 1.87 g/t gold, including 14.3 meters averaging 6.4 g/t gold.
The 47 holes drilled by Freegold in 2012 was a balance of upgrading and expanding the Dolphin zone, establishing a resource at the Cleary Hill area and filling in the 400-meter gap between these two exploration areas:
GSCL1201, drilled in the heart of the Cleary Hill Mine area, cut 6.24 meters near the surface that average 2.93 g/t gold and a deeper intercept of 102.7 meters averaging 1.12 g/t gold.
GSDL1201, drilled in the gap between Dolphin and Cleary Hill, returned 314.1 meters averaging 0.69 g/t gold, including 132.7 meters of 1.19 g/t gold.
GSDL1204, about midway between Dolphin and Cleary Hill , cut 115.06 meters grading 1.08 g/t gold.
GSDL1207, between Dolphin and Cleary Hill about 100 meters north of 1204, cut 39.6 meters averaging 1.88 g/t gold, further demonstrating the tenor of mineralization between Dolphin and Cleary Hill.
GSDL1210, between Dolphin and Cleary Hill, cut 20.9 meters grading 34.69 g/t gold.
GSDL1213, about 100 meters east of 1204, cut 136.7 meters averaging 1.57 g/t gold.
GSDL1218, testing the depth potential of the Dolphin resource , cut 531.3 meters averaging 0.59 g/t gold, including 90.5 meters averaging 1.1 g/t gold.
GSCL1221, drilled in the Cleary Hill area roughly 150 meters southwest of GSCL1201, cut 50.43 meters averaging 1.46 g/t gold; and
GSDL 1224, drilled along the northeast side of the original Dolphin deposit, cut 606.2 meters averaging 0.57 g/t gold.
Now merged, the six-million-ounce Dolphin-Cleary Hill deposit is a continuous northeast trending orebody measuring nearly 1,400 meters long, some 400 meters wide and, in places, more than 600 meters thick.
Adding ounces in 2013
The Dolphin-Cleary Hill deposit lies at the western end of a series of prospects that stretch some four miles (6.5 kilometers) along the Golden Summit property. The aggressive 2013 drill campaign planned by Freegold management will continue to expand and upgrade the six-million-ounce deposit, while investigating other promising areas along this trend.
"We will probably look to do another 10,000 meters in the Dolphin-Cleary area that will be both infill and expansion drilling, and we will do about another 10,000 to 15,000 (meters) out in the other areas," Walcott told Mining News during a Jan. 22 interview.
Christina, a 1,500-meter-long sheer zone that has hosted several historical high-grade gold mines, lies immediately to the northeast of the Dolphin-Cleary Hill deposit. While remnants of high-grade veins may still exist, Freegold believes it to be a bulk-tonnage gold prospect. Holes drilled there in late 2011 and early 2012 underscore this potential. Highlights of the results include hole GSDC 11-75, which cut 84.9 meters averaging 0.64 g/t gold; GSDC 11-76, with 64.7 meters averaging 1.75 g/t gold; and hole CH 12-05, the best hole of the latest assay results from Christina, with 34.7 meters of 0.67 g/t gold and 15.7 meters of 1.07 g/t gold.
Goose Creek, the next prospective area east of Christina, is another target Freegold wants to test in 2013. Several holes drilled at this target in the 1990s cut enticing gold and silver mineralization over significant widths. Those drill results include hole GCR9701, with 4 g/t gold over 48 meters and 30 g/t silver over 55 meters; hole GCR9204, with 1.7 g/t gold over 20 meters and 38 g/t silver over 33 meters; and hole GCR 9202, with 0.5 g/t gold over 23 meters and 28 g/t silver over 23 meters.
No drilling has been completed at Goose Creek since 1998.
Too Much Gold is the easternmost of the prospects Freegold plans to drill in 2013. Though this prospect may not hold the overabundance of gold its name suggests, drilling here in 1996 shows its potential. Those results include hole TMG9606, which cut 15 meters averaging 3.8 g/t gold; hole TMG9608 with 38 meters averaging 0.9 g/t gold; and hole TMG9611 with 47 meters averaging 0.6 g/t gold.
Freegold is studying the historical drill results along with a comprehensive geochemical and geophysical database as it puts the finishing touches on its plan to investigate these Golden Summit prospects in 2013.
"We just want to take our time, compile the results and look at everything to make sure we have the best targets," Walcott explained.
The Freegold CEO anticipates the company being ready to kick off the 2013 exploration season at Golden Summit in February, a program that surely attract the attention of its gold-producing neighbor.
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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