Drills affirm Shorty Creek porphyry potential

Freegold Ventures Ltd. Jan. 16 reported that two holes drilled in 2018 cut wide widths of copper-gold-silver-tungsten mineralization at the company's Shorty Creek project about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska.

These holes – SC 18-01 and SC 18-02 – targeted a magnetic high within Hill 1835, the most explored porphyry target so far at Shorty Creek.

Freegold discovered significant porphyry copper-gold mineralization at Shorty Creek during an inaugural drill program carried out there in 2015.

One hole drilled that year, SC 15-03, cut 91 meters grading 0.55 percent copper, 0.14 grams per metric ton gold and 7.02 g/t silver at the Hill 1835 target at Shorty Creek.

Since 2015, the company has extended this porphyry mineralization and confirmed the presence of a sizeable target at Hill 1835.

Hole SC 16-01, drilled at Hill 1835 in 2016, cut 434.5 meters averaging 0.57 percent copper-equivalent, which accounts for the value of the copper, gold and silver. The bottom 12 meters of this hole averaged 0.55 percent copper, 0.15 g/t gold and 9.67 g/t silver.

In addition to the copper, gold and silver, the 2016 drilling also tapped significant tungsten in the form of wolframite.

• SC 16-01 cut 207 meters averaging 0.045 percent tungsten trioxide; and

• SC 16-02 cut 409.6 meters averaging 0.03 percent tungsten trioxide.

The 2017 program continued to cut long sections of porphyry copper-gold-silver-tungsten mineralization.

• SC 17-01 cut 360 meters averaging 0.24 percent copper, 0.07 g/t gold, 4.04 g/t silver and 0.03 percent tungsten trioxide; and

• SC 17-02 cut 408 meters averaging 0.27 percent copper, 0.05 g/t gold, 4.97 g/t silver and 0.05 percent tungsten trioxide.

As a critical mineral in high demand, the tungsten grades at Shorty Creek are expected to be a significant by-product with the tungsten occurring primarily in the form of wolframite and recoverable as a gravity product.

The 2018 program at Hill 1835 cut broad widths with similar metal grades.

• SC 18-01 – drilled to a depth of 555.2 meters and terminated in a significant fault zone – cut 442.2 meters of 0.24 percent copper, 0.09 g/t gold, 4.74 g/t silver and 0.02 percent tungsten trioxide from a depth of 113 meters, including 121.15 meters of 0.45 percent copper, 0.15 g/t gold, 10.5 g/t silver and 0.045 percent tungsten trioxide from a depth of 194 meters.

• SC 18-02 – drilled 175 meters southeast of 18-01 and to a depth of 610.85 meters – cut 442.4 meters of 0.22 percent copper, 0.13 g/t gold, 4.03 g/t silver and 0.02 percent tungsten trioxide from a depth of 92 meters, including 126 meters of 0.36 percent copper, 0.09 g/t gold, 6.3 g/t silver and 0.018 percent tungsten trioxide from a depth of 281 meters.

The 12 holes drilled at Hill 1835 so far has outlined a 750- by 300-meter area of porphyry mineralization, which represents a small portion of the larger magnetic and geochemical anomaly found there.

And Hill 1835 is only one of several such anomalies found across the roughly 39-square-mile (100 square kilometers) property that lies alongside the paved Elliot Highway.

Hill 1710, situated about 2,000 meters northwest of Hill 1835, hosts a large copper and molybdenum geochemical anomaly coincident with a 6,000-meter-long magnetic anomaly. Four widely spaced holes drilled in 2016 tested 1,600 meters of this magnetic high. Each hole intersected porphyry style mineralization, with copper grades increasing to the northeast.

Follow-up rock sampling at Hill 1710 returned values between 0.11 to 0.39 percent copper in rhyolite porphyry northeast of the previous drilling. The magnetic anomaly extends another 2,500 meters northeast from the limits of the 2016 drilling.

Quarry, where oxidized porphyritic rock with stockwork veining returned values of 500 ppm copper in rock samples, is among the untested targets on the property. This target is about 3,000 meters northeast of Hill 1836 and at the northern end of an 11,000-meter magnetic high.

Freegold Ventures said the success of the 2018 program further validates the Shorty Creek project as an exciting copper porphyry discovery with significant size potential.

–SHANE LASLEY