The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Freegold Ventures Ltd. May 9 announced the start of an initial phase of 2017 drilling aimed at expanding the oxide gold resource at its Golden Summit project about 25 miles north of Fairbanks and about four miles north of Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine. During this this phase-one program, the company plans to drill 20 to 25 shallow holes to the north of the current mineral resource where previous rotary air blast drilling has identified the potential for higher grade material.
In 2016, Freegold published a preliminary economic assessment for Golden Summit that evaluates a 20,000-metric-ton-per-day operation - 10,000 tpd heap leach facility to process the oxide material and 10,000 tpd bio-oxidation plant for the sulfide material - that averages around 96,000 ounces of gold annually over a 24-year mine life.
The area being considered for mining hosts 61.5 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.69 grams per metric ton (1.36 million oz) gold; and 71.5 million metric tons of inferred resource of averaging 0.69 g/t (1.58 million oz) gold.
The oxide portion of this deposit, which is found largely within the upper 60 meters of the overall resource, hosts 16.2 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.66 g/t (345,000 oz) gold; and an inferred resource of 9.6 million metric tons averaging 0.59 g/t (183,000 oz) gold.
Freegold said the oxide resource expansion drilling and the metallurgical work currently underway are aimed at improving the overall project economics.
In addition to the expansion of the oxide resource, Freegold said upgrading of the inferred mineral resource to the measured and indicated category will also be necessary in order to further advance Golden Summit to pre-feasibility.
-SHANE LASLEY
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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