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The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Ragusa acquiring large gold project near Estelle and Whistler North of 60 Mining News – July 16, 2021
Rock samples collected from Monte Cristo in 2010 assayed up to 4.2 g/t gold and sampling of talus accumulated at the base of steep rock faces returned grades as high as 3 g/t gold.
A new Australian company has entered the Alaska gold exploration scene with a deal to acquire Monte Cristo, a 125-square-mile (324 square kilometers) underexplored project in the Kahiltna Terrane area.
Consisting of 500 state mining claims, Monte Cristo covers a 35-mile-long (55 kilometers) under-explored stretch of Southcentral Alaska east and south of two projects with multi-million-ounce gold resources – GoldMining Inc.'s Whistler gold-silver-copper project and Nova Minerals Ltd. Estelle gold project.
Ragusa Minerals Ltd., the Australia-based exploration company acquiring Monte Cristo, plans to explore for similar intrusion-related targets at several prospects already identified on its new Alaska project.
"The Monte Cristo gold project will target areas near the multi-million-ounce gold deposits discovered by Nova Minerals Ltd and Gold Mining Inc.," said Ragusa Minerals Chair Jerko Zuvela.
Monte Cristo, St. Eugene, Old Man Breccia, and Old Man Diorite are the four priority targets on the property.
All of these targets were briefly explored about a decade ago, but these early staged investigations were halted due to tough market conditions in 2011.
Rock samples collected from the Monte Cristo prospect in 2010 assayed up to 4.2 grams per metric ton gold and sampling of talus fines, rocks accumulated at the base of a very steep rock face, returned grades as high as 3 g/t gold.
Located about five miles (eight kilometers) southwest of Monte Cristo, the St. Eugene prospect covers three separate zones. Rock samples collected from the largest zone in 2010 returned grades as high as 2.1 g/t gold and 1% copper.
The Old Man Breccia and Old Man Diorite are located in the northern part of the Monte Cristo property. Channel sampling of three trenches cut across Old Man Breccia in 2009 cut 16 meters averaging 0.74 g/t gold, 24 meters of 1.94 g/t gold, 28 meters of 3.34 g/t gold, and 10 meters of 7.12 g/t gold.
The Monte Cristo property also covers gold staged gold targets south of Nova Mineral's Estelle property.
Upon closing of the acquisition, Ragusa plans to develop an exploration strategy for Monte Cristo and intends to secure experienced consultants to assist with advancing this new Alaska gold project.
In addition to Monte Cristo, Ragusa owns the Lonely Mine gold project in Zimbabwe and is acquiring the Burracoppin halloysite, an aluminosilicate clay mineral, project in Western Australia.
"The proposed acquisitions will diversify Ragusa's global footprint and provide an opportunity to utilize our exploration and development experience to rapidly progress both projects, given their prime positions adjacent to major gold and halloysite projects in Tier 1 jurisdictions," Zuvela said in regard to the Monte Cristo and Ragusa acquisitions.
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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