Millrock pinpoints West Pogo drill target

Millrock Resources Inc. Oct. 9 reported that the results from its recently completed geophysical program has identified a compelling drill target on the company's West Pogo property in Alaska's Goodpaster Mining District.

The company completed 13 kilometers (eight miles) of controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotellurics (CSAMT) geophysical surveys at West Pogo. This is the same geophysical technique used to identify buried structures that commonly host gold veins on the Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s Pogo property, including the Goodpaster discovery.

In mid-September, Northern Star reported that it has traced the Goodpaster zone for 2,300 meters along strike and to a depth of 500 meters with drilling.

Highlights from Northern Star's drilling in the Goodpaster zone include: 2.1 meters of 44.5 g/t gold; 2.2 meters of 28.1 g/t gold; 0.6 meters of 100.1 g/t gold; and 0.3 meters of 170.2 g/t gold.

This drilling has traced the zone to the West Pogo property boundary and Millrock's CSAMT survey has detected a high conductivity geophysical response beneath the south side of Aurora Creek and along strike of Northern Star's Goodpaster discovery.

Millrock says this CSAMT conductor is coincident with a magnetic low – indicating gold-mineralizing fluids may have altered the rock – and is also associated with strong gold, arsenic and bismuth soil geochemical anomalies at surface.

The most compelling target was identified on line six, which is 450 meters west and parallel to the Pogo property border. This strong conductor is only about 80 meters below surface and appears to be gently dipping, which is consistent with low-angle regional shear zones that host most of the roughly 10 million ounces of gold identified on Northern Star's Pogo property.

"We have developed a compelling drill target at West Pogo," said Millrock Resources President and CEO Greg Beischer. "Numerous lines of evidence are pointing to the area along Aurora Creek, which is directly along strike to the southwest from a new, high grade discovery reported by our neighbors next door."

Millrock hopes to drill this target as early as February and has applied for permits to build a three-mile-long road between the Pogo Mine access road and the West Pogo drill targets in Aurora Creek valley.

The company is also pricing the installation of a well that would provide water for year-round drilling.

"We plan to construct a drill trail from the Pogo Gold Mine road to Aurora Creek and drill a well to provide a nearby, winter water source. This will give the flexibility to begin drilling in the winter months of 2020," said Beischer.

In addition to the compelling target next to Aurora Creek, line six encountered a conductor roughly 5,000 meters north of Aurora Creek that is also coincident with a magnetic low. Millrock said this conductor is situated where the down-dip projection of Northern Star's Goodpaster deposit is expected to be.

Line three, which is about 1,250 meters west of and parallel to line six, also identified a conductor zone in Aurora Creek. This zone, however, is much deeper and at the edge of the survey's capacity, making it a less confident target for immediate drilling. This conductor lies about 120 meters below the depth of a historical drill hole that cut gold in near vertical quartz veins. Such veins on the Pogo property have shown to be feeders to the more flat-lying veins that host the bulk of the gold mineralization.

Millrock, however, has more confidence in the Aurora Creek target along line six, which would be the initial target of any drilling carried out this winter.

–SHANE LASLEY