The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
40 holes planned for bulk-tonnage gold target along Pogo road North of 60 Mining News – March 26, 2021
Drill crews prepare to collar the first hole at the Sunrise gold prospect on the 64North gold project in Alaska.
The Sunrise prospect is associated with a poorly exposed and previously undrilled granite body? identified while pushing a road into the Aurora target at 64North.
Resolution Minerals Ltd. March 24 announced the start of 2021 drilling at the 64North gold project in Interior Alaska. This early season program is expected to include 40 shallow rotary air blast holes to test the potential at Sunrise, a new gold prospect identified when a road was pushed into Aurora target area last year.
"A fantastic opportunity was generated by RML's trenching and geophysics programs in 2020 which identified the potential of the outcropping Sunrise prospect gold mineralization," said Resolution Minerals Managing Director Duncan Chessell.
Recognizing that the road cut across a granite body with veining reminiscent of Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine about 75 miles to the west, Resolution collected samples along 137 meters of the new road. The company says assays from this sampling returned gold values across the entire width sampled. Samples collected across a 93-meter section of this road cut an average 0.29 grams per metric ton gold, including 27 meters of 0.53 g/t gold. The best one-meter sample returned 1.89 g/t gold.
Lying alongside the access road to Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s Pogo Gold Mine about three miles to the northeast, Sunrise falls within a 1,100- by 400-meter historic gold-in-soil anomaly. One historical hole drilled in this area cut 32 meters averaging 0.28 g/t gold. Resolution interprets the gold mineralization at Sunrise to be derived from a poorly exposed and previously undrilled granite body that extends some 1,000 meters to the south.
"Sunrise is an intrusion hosted gold prospect, analogous in style to Kinross's Fort Knox Gold Mine which is one of Alaska's most profitable mines," said Chessell. "Assessment of the extent of mineralization through low-cost shallow reconnaissance fence-line RAB drilling along an existing year-around access road sets this prospect apart from most Alaskan prospects."
The roughly 3,000-meter winter drill program at Sunrise is expected to take about one month to complete.
In addition to testing the bulk-tonnage gold potential at Sunrise, Resolution plans to test new targets this year at East Pogo, one of nine claim blocks that make up the roughly 160,000-acre 64North project – West Pogo, Shaw, Eagle, LMS-X, South Pogo, East Pogo, North Pogo, Last Chance and Divide.
Located about 40 miles east of the West Pogo block where Sunshine is located, East Pogo encompasses the Boundary high-grade gold target.
Resolution said airborne Z-Axis Tipper Electromagnetic (ZTEM) and ground-based controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotelluric (CSAMT) geophysical surveys, along with mapping, prospecting, and geochemical sampling carried out this year delineated strong drill targets for 2021.
"The identification of shallow 50- to 150-meter Pogo-style drill targets as a result of our extensive field work in 2020 at the East Pogo Block, along strike from historic high grade drill intersections of up to 35 g/t gold, is very encouraging and has been the driver to snap up 19 new claims," Chessell said earlier this year. "The East Pogo Block is sandwiched between the Pogo gold mine to the west and the Tibbs project to the east on the high-grade gold endowed Pogo trend and will be a focus for shallow drilling next season."
Drilling at East Pogo is expected to be completed during the summer program at 64North.
Resolution can earn a 60% interest in this district-scale project from Millrock Resources Inc. by investing US$20 million in exploration spending over four years. Upon completing this earn-in, Resolution will have the option to increase its interest on one of the 64North blocks to 80% by funding a feasibility study for the selected block and funding Millrock's portion of mine development, in the form of a loan.
Resolution has earned an initial 30% interest in 64North by completing stage one expenditure requirements and issuing 10 million Resolution shares and paying US$50,000 in cash to Millrock.
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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