The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Drills 44 resource expansion, upgrade, and exploration holes North of 60 Mining News - November 8, 2023
Freegold Venture's 2023 program included 37 holes to upgrade and expand Dolphin-Cleary, and seven exploration holes at the Saddle target about 2.5 miles east of this 19.7-million-oz gold deposit at the Golden Summit project in Alaska.
Click on image for larger Dolphin-Cleary deposit drill map.
Freegold Venture Ltd. Nov. 7 announced the completion of a 44-hole drill program at Golden Summit that included 37 holes focused on expanding and upgrading the 19.7-million-ounce Dolphin-Cleary gold deposit and seven holes testing the Saddle discovery target about 2.5 miles to the east.
The Dolphin-Cleary deposit hosts 407.54 million metric tons of open-pit mineable indicated resource averaging 0.92 grams per metric ton (12 million oz) gold, plus 282.3 million metric tons of open-pit inferred resource averaging 0.85 g/t (7.7 million oz) gold.
With a preliminary economic assessment based on this world-class resource in the works, Freegold's 2023 drill program primarily targeted the northwest boundary of Dolphin zone, where mineralization trending toward the surface area could help reduce the strip ratio for a future open-pit mine, and a resource expansion area that extends 1,500 meters west of the deposit.
Highlights from previously reported intercepts from the 2023 resource upgrade and expansion drilling include:
• 56.7 meters averaging 1.02 g/t gold in hole GS2301 (Northwest).
• 256 meters averaging 1.01 g/t gold in hole GS2306 (Infill).
• 44.7 meters averaging 1.13 g/t gold in GS2309 (West).
• 21.4 meters averaging 1.67 g/t gold in GS2310 (North).
• 113.3 meters averaging 5.42 g/t gold in GS2314 (West).
• 164.3 meters averaging 1.05 g/t gold in GS2318 (Northwest).
On Nov. 2 and Nov. 7, the company reported results from two additional resource upgrade and expansion holes drilled this year. Highlights include:
• 444.9 meters averaging 0.75 g/t gold from a depth of 289.1 meters in hole GS2329, including 24.5 meters averaging 2.6 g/t gold (West).
• Three meters averaging 40.5 g/t gold from a depth of 163.7 meters and 100.7 meters averaging 1 g/t gold from a depth of 239.8 meters in hole GS2330 (Infill).
Assays remain pending from 16 resource expansion holes. This includes results from nine holes drilled to define the extent of mineralization to the north and northwest. And seven holes to define the mineralization extent in the north and immediate northwest.
Freegold says the northern extension holes have successfully encountered the up-dip extension of mineralization and the western expansion drilling includes one hole (GS2337) that encountered visible gold along a previously untested geochemical trend to the southwest of the Dolphin-Cleary deposit.
The company reports that visible gold was also observed in SZ2307, the seventh reconnaissance hole drilled at the Saddle discovery target about 4,000 meters east of the Dolphin-Cleary deposit.
Assays are pending from all holes drilled this year at Saddle, but Freegold is encouraged by what it sees in the core.
"Based on visual inspections it is apparent that additional drilling is warranted in the Saddle Zone," the company penned in an Oct. 23 update.
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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