The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Plans drill target exploration programs at Healy, Napoleon North of 60 Mining News – May 29, 2020
Northway Resources drilled 10 shallow reverse circulation holes last year at the Bronk target on the Healy gold project southeast of the Pogo Mine in Alaska's Goodpaster District.
Northway Resources Corp. May 26 announced plans to carry out mapping, sampling, and geophysics to refine gold targets on its Healy and Napoleon gold projects in Alaska's Eastern Interior region.
Formed in 2018 and taken public last year, Northway is TSX Venture Exchange-listed company that focused its 2019 exploration primarily on Healy, a discovery stage gold project in the vicinity of Northern Star Resources 10-million-ounce Pogo Gold Mine property.
Healy was first identified and staked by Newmont Corp. in 2012.
Follow-up soil sampling on this property in the Goodpaster Mining District identified three 1,000- to 2,000-meter long gold-arsenic-antimony anomalies.
Based on the large soil anomaly and encouraging results from the backpack drilling, a technical report completed for Healy at the end of 2018 recommends using a reverse circulation drill to drill fences of holes across the main zone identified at Healy.
Northway cut a deal with Newmont to earn up to a 70 percent joint venture interest in Healy by completing at least US$4 million of exploration on the property by the end of 2022.
Northway's 2019 reconnaissance drill program involved 800 meters of reverse circulation drilling in 10 shallow holes at Bronk, one of the larger soil anomalies on the Healy property. This work led to the discovery of widespread gold mineralization hosted within a 150- to 200-meter-wide, steeply dipping shear zone. The style of mineralization and alteration at Bronk is consistent with other orogenic gold systems in the Tintina Gold Belt – a 150-mile wide gold province that hosts numerous multi-million-oz gold mines and deposits – and represents one of seven compelling target areas that require further exploration.
"We are excited to follow up on the 2019 drill program which led to the discovery of a new gold system in the Tintina Gold Belt," said Northway Resource CEO Zach Flood. "Our planned work in 2020 aims to build on this exciting new discovery and advance the project towards a more significant diamond drill program."
Northway's Napoleon project is located near the community of Chicken in the Fortymile Mining District. While more than 600,000 oz of placer gold has been mined from the streams and benches in the district, a large lode source of this alluvial aurum has yet to be identified.
The property was explored by Kennecott Exploration and Teck Resources at the turn of the century.
In 1998 and 1999 Kennecott carried out soil sampling, prospecting, geophysics, trenching and drilling across the project area. This work led to the discovery of five target areas – Main zone, Saddle zone, Trench 24 area, Twin Peaks and Burnt Ridge. One hole drilled at Main cut 0.61 meters averaging 34.71 grams per metric ton gold and another drilled at Burnt Ridge cut 1.52 meters of 6.56 g/t gold.
Teck Resources encountered drill intercepts with as much as 20.59 g/t gold over 0.9 meters at Twin Peaks and 8.49 g/t gold over three meters at Saddle during exploration carried out at Napoleon in 2000 and 2001.
The high-grade gold mineralization previously identified at Napoleon is hosted in quartz veins which are related to a regional shear zone that intersects a pluton at the headwaters of several streams that have contributed to much of the placer gold production in the Fortymile District.
Northway's 2020 exploration at Napoleon is expected to include high-resolution drone lidar and ground-based magnetic geophysical surveys over areas where historical drilling encountered high grade gold mineralization. Combined with the historical data, this work will assist in delineating drill targets.
"Our 2020 surface program at Napoleon should help better define structural controls on mineralization and aid in future drill targeting," said Flood.
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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