The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
A geologist working for Avalon Development completes reconnaissance exploration of one of the many exploration targets identified across the 843,000-acre Tetlin project near Tok, Alaska.
Contango Ore Inc. May 9 reported that 5,236 meters of drilling was completed in 47 holes during the initial phase of drilling at the Tetlin gold project near Tok, Alaska.
Carried out by Peak Gold LLC, a joint venture between Contango Ore and an Alaska subsidiary of Royal Gold Inc., this program tested the boundaries of the North Peak deposit and an outlying prospect known as Blue Moon.
"The phase 1 2017 drilling program finished up in early April 2017, consisting primarily of holes around the edges of the North Peak deposit area in an effort to better define the mineral resource," said Contango Ore President and CEO Brad Juneau. "There were also six initial holes drilled in the True Blue Moon target area, a new prospect generated from airborne magnetics/resistivity and surface recon data. We have received assays on four of these holes which showed one gold-bearing interval in one hole but no material gold in the other holes. We expect to receive assays on the other two holes within the next few days, and will evaluate these results before deciding whether to drill further holes in this area."
Highlights from the latest round of drill results include 6.26 meters of 11.98 grams per metric ton gold in hole TET17326, drilled at the southeast end of the deposit; 25.5 meters of 4.87 gg/t gold and 12.3 meters of 14.04 g/t gold in hole TET17335, drilled at the northwest end of the deposit; and 22.6 meters of 3.64 g/t gold in hole TET17344, drilled about 50 meters west of TET17326.
Drilling has delineated a zone of skarn mineralization at North Peak that measures 600 meters long by about 200 meters wide.
Calculated in 2013, the latest resource calculated for Tetlin includes 6 million metric tons of indicated resources averaging 3.46 g/t (664,112 ounces) gold, 11 g/t silver and 0.25 percent copper; and 3.9 million metric tons of inferred resources averaging 2.07 g/t (256,000 oz.) gold, 14.28 g/t silver and 0.23 percent copper. All of this resource is contained in the main Peak zone, which has been expanded with drilling.
An updated resource that includes North Peak and the additional drilling at Peak is expected to be completed in the coming weeks.
Peak Gold is gearing up for a summer drill program the will test some of the outlying targets at Tetlin.
"While there are still areas with potential room for expansion of North Peak, we intend to focus our summer 2017 program drilling exploration targets both near Main/North Peak as well as more remote targets relative to our existing infrastructure," Juneau explained.
"While all exploration activity by definition has risks, these prospects are sizeable in potential area with similar geophysical and geochemical properties to our Main Peak and North Peak properties."
During the quarter, Peak Gold expanded the Tetlin property by staking 68,000 acres of state mining claims covering Noah and other prospects the Alaska Division of Geological & Geological Surveys identified on state lands adjacent to the Tetlin property.
Royal Gold, which is the operator of the JV, can earn up to a 40 percent interest in Tetlin by investing US$30 million in Contango Ore's 843,000-acre underexplored project by October 2018.
Through the end of the first quarter, the Denver-based royalty company has contributed roughly US$20 million to Peak Gold and earned a 24.9 percent interest in the JV.
-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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