Donlin Gold partners opt to move forward

Impressed by the wide sections of high-grade gold encountered by drilling and encouraged by positive input from Alaska stakeholders and regulators, top executives at Barrick Gold Corp. and Novagold Resources Inc. have decided to advance the world-class Donlin Gold project up the value chain.

This decision to update the feasibility study for developing a mine at the 39-million-ounce Donlin Gold project follows September workshops that included Barrick and Novagold executive management meeting with stakeholders in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region of Southwest Alaska where the proposed mine is located, as well as senior Alaska-based federal and state government officials who expressed their continued strong support for the project.

"Getting together in Alaska, visiting the Donlin project site and sitting down with stakeholders drove home the significance and importance of Donlin to both partners," Barrick Gold President and CEO Mark Bristow.

This significance is further bolstered by the continued stream of impressive assay results from the 24,264-meter drill program carried out this year by Donlin Gold LLC, a joint venture partnership owned equally by Barrick and Novagold.

Highlights from the latest batch of assay results include:

• 37.85 meters averaging 6.28 grams per metric ton gold from a depth of 110.65 meters in hole DC21-1964.

• 19.15 meters averaging 12.57 g/t gold from a depth of 173.19 meters in hole DC21-1970.

• 57.25 meters averaging 6.87 g/t gold from a depth of 270.35 meters in hole DC21-1976.

• 12.18 meters averaging 19.02 g/t gold from a depth of 293.4 meters in hole DC21-1980.

• 33.53 meters averaging 5.89 g/t gold from surface in hole DC21-1994.

This follows up on equally exceptional results released in September:

• 24.44 meters averaging 14.6 g/t gold from a depth of 378.85 meters in DC21-1959.

• 5.74 meters averaging 42.2 g/t gold from a depth of 275.54 meters in hole DC21-1961.

• 40.97 meters averaging 10.5 g/t gold from a depth of 114.2 meters in DC21-1963A.

• 47.78 meters averaging 9 g/t gold from a depth of 400.51 meters in DC21-1969.

• 92.02 meters averaging 7.8 g/t gold from a depth of 69.7 meters in hole DC21-1970.

So far, Donlin Gold has received assays from 15,700 meters, or roughly 65%, of the drilling completed during 2021.

Novagold says the high-grade intercepts from the results received thus far point toward the potential feeder zones of the enormous gold system at Donlin.

"This campaign is not only yielding high-grade intercepts in the future open-pit areas; Donlin Gold's 2021 drill program is producing some of the best drill results seen lately in the gold mining industry, from juniors to majors," said Novagold Resources President and CEO Greg Lang.

Overall, the 2021 drilling focused on validating and increasing the confidence in recent geologic modeling concepts for the Donlin deposit, especially in terms of confirming continuity in various areas of the deposit.

This is helping the Donlin partners better understand the deposit ahead of completing an updated feasibility study that will detail an optimized design for a world-class operation at the deposit that hosts 541.3 million tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 2.24 g/t (39 million oz) gold. This calculation does not include the roughly 48,000 meters of drilling completed over the past two years.

For Barrick and Novagold, however, having local support for a future Donlin Gold mine is just as important as the impressive gold intercepts that are expected to support an optimized operation at the world-class project.

Confirming this support was an important aspect of the September visit by Barrick and Novagold top executives.

"We enjoyed hosting the senior management teams from both Barrick and Novagold here in person in Alaska," said Donlin Gold General Manager Dan Graham. "We are also energized with the interest and resources the owners are dedicating to the Donlin Gold project. It is a great economic opportunity for the region and the state."

With plans to resume drilling with a winter program slated to begin in January, it seems that the Barrick and Novagold executives were also energized.

Part of the objective of this drilling will be to confirm mineralization continuity and key geologic controls in representative areas of the deposit.

Subject to the results from this drilling, the partners are well-positioned to be able to proceed with a feasibility study update in 2022.

"We have a unique opportunity to progress a world-class project in both a jurisdiction and with local partners that recognize the contribution such an asset can bring to the lives of future generations of Alaskans," said Bristow. "Our priority is to do that responsibly and sustainably and it is an illustration of Barrick's and Novagold's strong partnership that we were able to have such a productive workshop and come away with next steps to move the project forward."

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

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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