The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Drill taps 3.1m of 55.6 g/t gold within 281m of 1.35 g/t gold North of 60 Mining News – February 12, 2021
Even when temperatures dip to 40 degrees below zero, drills continue to test the high-grade and bulk tonnage gold targets at Golden Summit, thanks in large part to the project's highway access about 25 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska.
When it comes to what global mining companies are looking for in a gold exploration project, Freegold Ventures Ltd.'s Golden Summit property in Alaska seems to have it all.
Broad zones of bulk tonnage intrusive related gold? Freegold tapped 573 meters averaging 1.21 grams per metric ton gold during its 2020 program at Golden Summit.
More interested in high-grade gold? The 2020 program also tapped grades as high as 169.5 g/t (4.9 ounces per metric ton) gold over two meters.
Want easy access, industrial grade electricity, and access to a workforce? Golden Summit lies along a paved highway about 25 miles north of Fairbanks.
And the latest batch of assay results continue to validate Freegold's idea that high-grade gold vein systems historically mined at Golden Summit extend to the large bulk tonnage deposit the company has already outline on the property.
According to a 2016 calculation, the Dolphin deposit at Golden Summit hosts 61.5 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.69 g/t (1.36 million oz) gold; and 71.5 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.69 g/t (1.58 million oz) gold.
This bulk tonnage deposit lies southwest of the historic Cleary Hill Mine, which produced 281,000 ounces of gold from ore averaging 1.3 oz per ton before the operation was shuttered during World War II.
Freegold's 2020 drill program focused primarily on confirming broad zones of higher than resource grade mineralization from Cleary Hill to Dolphin.
The first hole of this program, which got underway in March, cut 188 meters averaging 3.69 g/t gold from a depth of 360 meters. This includes a two-meter intercept from 365.2 meters that averaged 169.5 g/t (4.9 ounces per metric ton) gold – impressive, even by the standards of the high-grade veins historically mined at Cleary Hill.
After being interrupted by COVID-19, Freegold completed an additional 17 holes at Golden Summit during the 2020 season. Highlights from previously released holes include:
• GSDL2002, drilled 150 meters east of GSDL2001, cut 136 meters averaging 1.02 g/t gold from a depth of 370.6 meters.
• GSDL2005, drilled about 100 meters north of GSDL2001, cut 573 meters averaging 1.21 g/t gold from a depth of 18 meters, including three meters averaging 131.5 g/t (4.2 oz/t) gold at the bottom of the hole.
• GSDL2007, drilled about 125 meters southwest of GSDL2001, cut 348 meters averaging 1 g/t gold from a depth of 225 meters, including 90 meters averaging 1.55 g/t gold.
• GSDL2008, drilled about 400 meters northeast of GSDL2001, cut 231.5 meters averaging 1.2 g/t gold from a depth of 175 meters, including 57.3 meters averaging 2.07 g/t gold.
GSDL2008 was the first 2020 hole reported from the Cleary zone, all the rest were drilled at Dolphin.
Drilled 500 meters apart, the two latest holes tapped broad zones of mineralization in both Dolphin and Cleary.
GSDL2009, drilled in the Cleary zone, cut 280.6 meters averaging 1.35 g/t gold from a depth of 171.6 meters, including 3.1 meters averaging 55.6 g/t gold.
Drilled about 325 meters northeast of GSDL2001, the intercepts in GSDL2009 indicates the linkage of both bulk tonnage and high-grade gold between Dolphin and Cleary.
GSDL2010, drilled in the Dolphin zone, cut 209 meters averaging 1.16 g/t gold from a depth of 203 meters, including three meters averaging 31 g/t gold.
Assays remain outstanding for the final seven holes of the 2020 season, which targeted the northern extension of the Dolphin zone and deeper extension of the Cleary vein system.
As the final results of the 2020 season trickle in, Freegold reports that the 2021 drill program is already underway at Golden Summit.
The company has three rigs turning on the property and a fourth is on its way.
The 2021 program at Golden Summit has multiple objectives:
• Expand and upgrade the resources in preparation for a prefeasibility study.
• Determine the orientation of the high-grade gold mineralization.
• Further test expansion of the Cleary vein system.
• Test other areas of gold mineralization on the property.
Golden Summit hosts roughly 80 documented but relatively unexplored high-grade lode gold occurrences. Some of the better-known of these targets are American Eagle, which produced 60,000 oz of gold from ore grading 44.5 g/t (1.3 oz/t); and Hi Yu Mine, which produced 110,000 oz from ore grading 54.8 g/t (1.6 oz/t).
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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