The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Drilling shows expansion potential on west side of Dolphin North of 60 Mining News - January 25, 2023
Freegold has completed 83,826 meters of drilling at its Golden Summit project near Fairbanks, Alaska since the start of 2020.
Click on image for larger Golden Summit drill map.
Freegold Ventures Ltd. Jan. 23 reported yet another long drill intercept of strong gold mineralization with a bonanza-grade subsection at Golden Summit, a highway-accessible exploration project about 20 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska.
According to a 2016 calculation, the Dolphin deposit at Golden Summit hosts 61.5 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.69 grams per metric ton (1.36 million oz) gold; and 71.5 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.69 g/t (1.58 million oz) gold.
Over the past three years, however, Freegold has significantly expanded the footprint at Dolphin, including tracing the gold mineralization east to the Cleary Hill Vein System, which hosts the historic Cleary Hill Mine that produced 281,000 oz of gold from ore averaging 1.3 oz of gold per ton before the operation was shuttered during World War II.
The latest batch of assays is from five holes drilled in and around the Dolphin deposit, two holes drilled in the Cleary Hill area, and two holes drilled in the area that connects the bulk tonnage deposit to the higher-grade expansion area. Highlights from the latest batch of Golden Summit assays include:
• 370.1 meters averaging 1.71 g/t from a depth of 291.7 meters in hole GS2215 (Dolphin).
• 46.5 meters averaging 2.12 g/t gold from a depth of 179 meters in hole GS2231 (Cleary Hill).
• 190.8 meters averaging 3.83 g/t gold from a depth of 363 meters in hole GS2232 (Dolphin).
• 175.3 meters averaging 1.93 g/t gold from a depth of 451.7 meters in hole GS2236 (Dolphin).
Hole GS2232, which is one of the most impressive 2022 Golden Summit holes in terms of grade times thickness, was drilled along the southwest margins of the deposit. The 191-meter-thick intercept in this hole included a three-meter bonanza-grade subsection averaging 174.5 g/t gold.
Hole GS2215, which was drilled within the Dolphin deposit about 250 meters northeast of GS2232, cut impressive gold below the current resource. A 3.1-meters subsection of the hole GS2215 intercept averaged 119 g/t gold.
Freegold says the gold mineralization encountered in hole GS2236, which was drilled on the west side of the Tolovana Vein structure about 320 meters north of GS2232, further demonstrates expansion potential to the west of the Dolphin deposit. The top 41.2 meters of the mineralized intercept in GS2236 averaged 5.5 g/t gold.
The drilling completed by Freegold has outlined gold mineralization from surface to depths of more than 1,000 meters over a roughly 1,000- by 1,500-meter area that encompasses the Dolphin deposit and the Cleary Hill Mine workings. The gold mineralization in this area is hosted within high-grade quartz veins and silicified zones that occur within a broader lower-grade envelope of quartz stockwork mineralization.
Nearly 84,000 meters of drilling have been completed at Golden Summit over the past three seasons. All the assays from the 2020 and 2021 drill programs and most of the results from 2022 will be incorporated into an updated Golden Summit resource estimate expected to be completed by the end of March.
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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