The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Four phase-1 holes slated for Aurora gold target at West Pogo North of 60 Mining News – March 6, 2020
The surface facilities at Northern Star Resources' Pogo gold mine can be seen on the hillside behind this water well drilled last November at the Aurora target on 64North.
Millrock Resources Inc. March 2 reported that a camp and drill rig are being mobilized to support the upcoming drill program at 64North, a gold exploration project that is just west of the Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s Pogo Mine.
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 Minerals Ltd. has an option to earn a 60 percent joint venture 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.
The Resolution-funded exploration will begin with this winter drill program to test the Aurora target on the West Pogo claim block.
Northern Star has traced high-grade gold in the Goodpaster discovery zone to the western border of the Pogo property and just east of the Aurora target on 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 proximity to a high-grade mine, and proximity to a new high-grade gold deposit discovery made by our neighbors just on the other side of our mutual claim boundary, along with strong geological, geochemical and geophysical anomalies, make the Aurora target highly compelling," said Millrock President and CEO Greg Beischer.
Millrock and Resolution technical teams have collaborated to analyze data and choose targets for roughly 2,000 meters of drilling to be completed in four holes during this first phase of 2020 drilling at Aurora, a target that is only about 3,000 meters from the Pogo mine.
The 1,500- by 4,000-meter zone of low-magnetic rocks adjacent to a late diorite intrusion at Aurora is very similar to the setting that hosts the 4 million ounces of gold that has been mined and 6 million oz of gold resources remaining at Pogo.
Millrock postulates that the late diorite body intruded along a westerly extension of the Liese Creek fault which is known to have played a key role in the genesis of the Pogo gold deposits. Highly anomalous gold-bismuth-arsenic in soil is documented at Aurora. High-angle gold-bearing quartz veins have been intersected by prior drilling, however, the few holes drilled by earlier workers did not go deep enough to intersect the low-angle, regional shear zone that is known to host gold, including the Goodpaster discovery that trends toward Aurora. A recent controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotellurics (CSAMT) geophysical survey, which has proven to be successful in identifying gold-bearing structures on the Pogo property, indicates that the shear zone Millrock and Resolution are targeting is at a depth of 150 meters on the east and 450 meters on the west end of the Aurora.
Drilling will begin at the east end of the target and is scheduled to be complete by early April. A second contingent drilling phase in the vicinity of a second prospect known as Half-Ounce-Gulch is tentatively scheduled for May.
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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