The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
First 2021 hole extends Dolphin deposit closer to Cleary Hill North of 60 Mining News – June 4, 2021
The cold and dark winter days in Interior Alaska did not prevent Freegold from carrying out drilling at Golden Summit late into 2020 and getting off to an early start this year.
Freegold Ventures Ltd. June 3 announced that the first hole of its 40,000-meter 2021 drill program at Golden Summit cut a more than 420-meter-thick zone of strong gold mineralization between the current bulk-tonnage Dolphin resource and the spectacularly high-grade Cleary Hill area on this highway accessible property about 25 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska.
Prior to the 2020 program, most of the drilling at Golden Summit focused on Dolphin, a deposit that hosts 61.5 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.69 grams per metric ton (1.36 million ounces) gold; and 71.5 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.69 g/t (1.58 million oz) gold.
With grades reminiscent of the ore feeding the mill and heap leach facility at Kinross Gold Corp.'s neighboring Fort Knox Mine, this deposit holds promise for future bulk tonnage mining.
Last year, Freegold began tracing very high-grade gold mineralization from the historic Cleary Hill Mine, which produced 281,000 oz of gold from ore averaging 1.3 oz per ton before the operation was shuttered during World War II, westward towards the Dolphin deposit.
Details on the bonanza grade gold and an apparent gold mineralized link between Dolphin and Cleary Hill can be read at Golden Summit living up to its moniker in the April 16, 2021 edition of North of 60 Mining News.
The first hole of the 2021 season, drilled northeast of the contact with the Dolphin intrusive and on the projected trend of mineralization extending towards the Cleary vein system, cut broad zones of strong gold mineralization.
This hole, GS2101, cut 421.6 meters averaging 1.11 g/t gold from a depth of 210.1 meters, including a 110-meter subsection that averaged 1.54 g/t gold from 467 meters.
Freegold says the Dolphin intrusive encountered in this hole likely extends further east under the Cleary Hill area.
In addition to this first assay from the 2021 drilling, Freegold reported assays from the final three holes of the 2020 program – GSDL2012, GSDL2013, and GS2018.
• GSDL2012 was terminated before the target was reached on two attempts due to ground conditions. The company is planning additional holes in the Cleary area targeted by this hole.
• GSDL2013, successfully drilled in the Cleary Area, cut 40.4 meters averaging 1.29 g/t gold. Freegold says this hole demonstrates that gold mineralization extends beyond the depth of previous drilling in this area, which is open to deeper expansion.
• GS2018, drilled north of the Tolovana vein zone that runs along the northwest side of the Dolphin deposit, indicates weakening of the mineralization to the northwest, although still cutting 350.9 meters averaging 0.51 g/t gold.
A second 2021 hole for which Freegold received assay results for, however, did cut much stronger gold mineralization north of the Tolovana vein zone but about 175 meters to the northwest of GS 2018. This hole, GS2108, cut 41.1 meters averaging 3.99 g/t gold within a 296.3-meter-thick zone averaging 1.4 g/t gold.
Freegold says the results of the 2020 program and first two 2021 holes continue to confirm its interpretation that there is potential for a higher-grade corridor, effectively a vein swarm, extending from the old Cleary Hill mine workings towards the Dolphin intrusive.
The company says its 2021 drill program is continuing to focus on determining the orientation of the higher-grade zones successfully identified so far, particularly to the north, east, and west of the Dolphin intrusive.
In addition, drilling will also be directed to the south of the Cleary Hill mine workings where the historical Colorado, Wackwitz, and Wyoming vein zones have never been tested to depth or along strike to the east.
Since the 2021 drill program began in February, more than 14,700 meters of drilling has been completed in 27 holes this year at Golden Summit.
Freegold, however, reports that turnaround on assay results continues to be slow, largely due to a backlog at the assay prep facility in Fairbanks.
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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