The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Resolution raises $3M to get drills turning at Aurora Creek North of 60 Mining News – February 7, 2020
A well drilled in November will provide the water needed for winter drilling at the Aurora Creek gold target at West Pogo.
CSAMT geophysics indicate that shear zone known to host high-grade gold in the Pogo area is only 150 meters below the surface at the Aurora target.
Millrock Resources Inc. and Resolution Minerals Ltd. are gearing up for an early March start of drilling on the West Pogo property, part of the larger 64North gold project in Alaska's Interior.
Previously known as the Goodpaster project, 64North includes nine claim blocks – West Pogo, Shaw, Eagle, LMS-X, South Pogo, East Pogo, North Pogo, Last Chance and Divide – covering roughly 160,000 acres in the Goodpaster District, a gold-rich area anchored by Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s Pogo Mine.
Australia-based Resolution recently entered into an option to earn a 60 percent JV interest in this large gold project by investing US$20 million in exploration spending, plus making US$200,000 in cash payments and issuing 38 million Resolution shares to Millrock over four years.
Millrock and Resolution are now in the final stages of preparation for a winter drill program at West Pogo, currently expected to be the claim block that Resolution selects to earn an 80 percent interest in.
Resolution Feb. 3 announced that it has received investor commitments for a A$4.5 million (US$3 million) financing slated to close in mid-February.
This financing involves the issuance of 91 million shares at A5 cents per share.
This provides cash for the 2020 drilling on the West Pogo property.
"We believe that 2020 will be a watershed year for the company, and we are particularly excited to begin exploration work in earnest at the 64North gold project," said Millrock Resources President and CEO Greg Beischer. "We will begin with a drill program at the compelling Aurora target located immediately west of the Pogo gold mine in Alaska."
Northern Star Resources Ltd., owner of the Pogo Mine, has traced high-grade gold in the Goodpaster discovery zone on the Pogo property westward to the border of West Pogo.
Highlights from Northern Star's drilling in the Goodpaster zone include: 2.1 meters of 44.5 grams per metric ton 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.
The stacked zones of high-grade gold mineralization in the Goodpaster zone appear to continue into the Aurora Creek area of the West Pogo property. Two lines of controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotellurics (CSAMT) geophysics, the same technique used to identify gold-bearing structures on the Pogo property, has detected a high conductivity geophysical response beneath the south side of Aurora Creek and along strike of Northern Star's Goodpaster discovery.
Millrock said the Aurora target is a 1,500- by 4,000-meter zone of low-magnetic rocks adjacent to a late diorite intrusion, very similar to the deposits that host the roughly 4 million oz of gold that has been mined and 6 million oz in resources at Pogo.
The winter program at West Pogo is expected to include four or five holes to test this compelling target at Aurora.
In addition to gearing up for winter drilling at 64North, Millrock has agreed to provide Northway Resources Corp. with proprietary geological and geochemical on the Napoleon gold exploration property in exchange for a 0.5 percent net smelter return royalty on this property in Alaska's Fortymile Mining District.
Millrock is also looking for a new exploration partner for Dragonslayer, a copper-gold prospect within the company's larger Chisna project.
First Quantum Minerals Ltd., which had an exclusive right to enter an option for Dragonslayer, has decided not to pursue further work on the property.
A program of stream sediment and soil sampling carried out in September did not clearly demonstrate the presence of a porphyry copper deposit at Dragonslayer. However, thick overburden and extensive organic cover made sampling conditions difficult. Despite the poor sampling conditions, Millrock says anomalous values of copper and pathfinder elements warrant further exploration.
Millrock also plans to raise C$1 million in a non-brokered private placement financing. Existing Millrock shareholders are being given priority. Proceeds of the financing are to be used primarily to acquire early stage gold projects in the Alaska portion of the Tintina Gold Belt.
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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