The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News – September 16, 2022
Felix Gold has completed more than 12,400 meters of reverse circulation drilling in 131 holes since this first hole was collared at Treasure Creek early in Alaska's 2022 drill season.
A crewmember loads up core from Resolution Minerals' 2022 drilling at the Tourmaline Ridge prospect on the 64North gold project in Alaska's Goodpaster Mining District.
Australian mineral exploration companies have been busy this summer with drill programs targeting gold prospects on the Treasure Creek and 64North projects that Millrock Resources Inc. has generated in Alaska's Fairbanks and Goodpaster mining districts.
Treasure Creek is one property that makes up an enormous land package that Millrock and Felix Gold Ltd. have accumulated in the Fairbanks Mining District.
As a private company, Felix entered into a strategic alliance with Millrock Resources Inc. in 2021 on several Interior Alaska gold exploration projects – Treasure Creek and Ester Dome near the city of Fairbanks, plus the Liberty Bell project about 70 miles to the southwest.
In exchange for becoming a roughly 6% shareholder of Felix after its early 2022 listing on the Australia Stock Exchange, Millrock assigned the company all rights to the Fairbanks District and Liberty Bell properties.
In the Goodpaster District, Resolution Minerals Ltd. is exploring Tourmaline Ridge on the West Pogo Block of the roughly 106,250-acre 64North gold project.
Under a deal signed at the end of 2019, Resolution has the option to earn up to a 60% joint venture interest in 64North, which consists of nine claim blocks Millrock assembled around Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s Pogo gold mine property.
While drill programs have been carried out this summer at Treasure Creek and Tourmaline Ridge, only a handful of results have been returned for both projects due to slow turnaround times at the assay labs.
Since its deal with Millrock, Felix has expanded its land position to roughly 151 square miles (392 square kilometers) in the Fairbanks District, a region that has produced more than 8 million ounces of placer gold. The Australian exploration company's name is a nod to Felix Pedro, who discovered gold about 20 miles north of the now city of Fairbanks in 1902.
A soil sampling program carried out last year identified two key targets for 2022 drilling – Northwest Array and Eastgate.
So far this year, Felix has completed 12,424 meters of reverse circulation drilling in 131 holes to test these two prospect areas, Scrafford Shear, and reconnaissance lines to gain a better understanding of the geology and mineralization around the three prospect areas.
So far, the company has reported results from the first nine holes drilled at Northwest Array; highlights include:
• 29 meters averaging 1.4 grams per metric ton gold from a depth of 24.4 meters in hole 22TCRC002.
• 33.5 meters averaging 1.63 g/t gold from a depth of 1.5 meters in hole 22TCRC005.
• 89.9 meters averaging 1.2 g/t gold from a depth of 32 meters in hole 22TCRC008.
"The thick, shallow intercepts of strong gold tenor that we reported in early August were a strong validation of the reasons that we focused our attention on the Fairbanks Gold Mining District and, in particular, secured the Treasure Creek Project," said Felix Gold Managing Director Joe Webb.
The primary objective of the RC drill program was to identify one or more key areas for infill and potential resource definition drilling in 2023.
Felix is now having four diamond holes drilled at NW Array and Eastgate. The key objective for these holes is to test the depth extent of mineralization encountered with RC drilling, test new induced polarization geophysical targets at Eastgate, and gain further geological information.
"We now have a big pipeline of RC drill assays to flow over coming months and are excited to have commenced diamond drilling at Treasure Creek to test potential depth extent and target zones at depth, including the key Eastgate IP target," said Webb.
Felix Gold also flew a virtual time domain electromagnetic (VTEM) airborne geophysical survey over Treasure Creek to complement a previously flow magnetic survey.
"Felix Gold executed an excellent drilling program this year and we look forward to seeing the results," said Millrock Resources President and CEO Gregory Beischer. "We think the potential of the Fairbanks District has not been fully recognized, but that it soon will be."
Millrock currently owns 9.96 million Felix Gold shares and holds 1% to 2% net smelter return royalties on all claims currently held by Felix Gold in the Fairbanks District.
Resolution has completed its 2022 drilling at Tourmaline Ridge, a 64North gold prospect about three miles west of Northern Star's Pogo Mine.
Tourmaline Ridge covers a 1,850- by 750-meter prospective area detected by soil sampling.
Earlier this month, Resolution reported results from two of the five holes drilled this year.
Although no significant gold results were encountered in these holes, Resolution says anomalous gold is common and shows distinctive trends associated with Pogo-style quartz veins.
Hole 22TR001 intersected altered rocks with indications of multiple hydrothermal fluid flow events, and hole 22TR003 intersected quartz veins containing bismuthinite and pyrite.
"Elevated gold results from this batch were associated with narrow Pogo-style quartz veins with sulphide minerals and, if thicker occurrences of this type of material occur at Tourmaline Ridge, then there is good potential for economic accumulations of gold at the prospect," said Resolution Managing Director Steve Groves.
The Australia-based exploration company anticipates receipt of the remaining assay results, representing 84% of the total samples submitted to assay labs, in November.
"This sample batch represents only about 16% of the material sampled and given the distance from other holes and the complexities of 22TR001, are not considered by the RML (Resolution Minerals) team as representative of the gold potential from the remaining 84% of submitted sample material," Groves added.
So far, Resolution has earned a 42% interest in the 64North gold project, and Millrock owns 23.1 million Resolution shares.
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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