The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Bigger budget and greater milestones are expected in 2022 North of 60 Mining News – January 28, 2022
Donlin Gold LLC has budgeted $60 million for a 2022 program at the world-class gold project in Southwest Alaska.
The 2022 program is slated to include 34,000 meters of technical, in-pit, and below-pit exploration drilling at Donlin.
Following the completion of a robust 2021 program that culminated in a decision to move forward with updating the feasibility study for developing a mine at Donlin Gold, Novagold Resources Inc. announced that the project partners have approved a $60 million budget for the 2022 program at this world-class gold project in Southwest Alaska.
"While 2021 was an exceptional year and represents yet another positive turning point for Novagold and for the Donlin Gold project, 2022 offers even greater milestones with the largest project budget in more than a decade and a path forward as the owners approach the launch of an updated feasibility study," said Novagold Resources President and CEO Greg Lang.
This large budget for 2022 will be funded equally by Novagold and Barrick Gold Corp., which each owns a 50% interest in Donlin Gold LLC, the joint venture advancing a 39-million-ounce gold project toward a production decision.
The previous Donlin Gold Mine feasibility study, completed in 2011, detailed plans for a mine that would produce more than 1 million oz of gold annually over an initial 25 years of mining. This was based on 504.81 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 2.09 grams per metric ton (33.9 million oz) gold.
Optimization drilling carried out over the previous two years has focused on validating and increasing the confidence in recent geologic modeling concepts for the world-class gold deposit in preparation for updating the feasibility study.
This includes roughly 24,264 meters of drilling completed last year in 79 holes.
Significant new high-grade drill hole intercepts at ACMA, and in areas between ACMA and Lewis, point toward potential feeder zones of the world-class gold system at Donlin.
Highlights from the 2021 Donlin Gold assay results received so far include:
• 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.
• 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.
So far, Donlin Gold has received assays from 15,700 meters, or roughly 65%, of the drilling completed during 2021.
Once all the assays have been received, it is expected that the results from the roughly 48,000 meters of drilling completed over the previous two seasons will be incorporated into a new resource estimate for Donlin. This updated resource calculation will form the basis for the new feasibility study for Donlin.
With the project moving into the feasibility stage, the 2022 budget will be used for:
• Updating geologic modeling and interpretation work for an updated resource model and engineering activities for use in an updated project feasibility study.
• Undertaking approximately 34,000 meters of planned technical, in-pit, and below-pit exploration drilling.
• Supporting field work and permitting for the Alaska Dam Safety certifications.
• Ongoing environmental activities.
• Continued community and external affairs efforts.
"Tremendous work by all was undertaken to plan the path forward for the Donlin Gold project, and we look forward to the next phase with enormous enthusiasm," said Lang.
Ending its fiscal year (November 30) with $169.1 million in cash and term deposits, Novagold is well-positioned to fund its $30 million share of the 2022 program and beyond. The company is also expecting an additional $25 million payment from Newmont in 2023 related to the sale of Novagold's 50% interest in the Galore Creek copper-gold project in British Columbia's Golden Triangle.
Lang says Novagold will prudently manage its funding to "continue our efforts to deliver on the strategy to increase shareholder wealth in a safe and socially responsible manner."
For 2022, this should include a feasibility study that unveils a new optimized plan for developing a mine at the world-class Donlin Gold project in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region of Southwest Alaska.
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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