The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - July 22, 2024
Freegold Ventures is testing a resource expansion area that extends nearly one mile west of the Dolphin-Cleary gold deposit on its Golden Summit project adjacent to Kinross' Fort Knox Mine in Alaska.
Freegold Ventures Ltd. July 22 reported bonanza-grade gold intercepts in the first two holes of a 2024 drill program testing a large expansion area west of the 20-million-ounce Dolphin-Cleary gold deposit at its Golden Summit project about 25 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska.
According to an early 2023 calculation, 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.
During the 2023 summer drill season, Freegold began testing a large gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly that indicates that this already world-class gold deposit could extend another 1,500 meters to the west.
Last year's drilling cut strong gold mineralization on the western and southwestern flanks of the deposit. Highlights include:
• 113.3 meters averaging 5.42 g/t gold in hole GS2314.
• 444.9 meters averaging 0.75 g/t gold in hole GS2329.
• 3.1 meters averaging 41.4 g/t gold and 3.1 meters averaging 25.3 g/t gold in hole GS2332.
• 276.5 meters averaging 1.76 g/t gold in hole GS2333.
• 443.7 meters averaging 0.71 g/t gold in hole GS2334.
• 414.5 meters averaging 0.8 g/t gold in hole GS2335.
• 419.6 meters averaging 0.86 g/t gold in hole GS2336.
• 444 meters averaging 0.85 g/t gold in hole GS2337.
An updated mineral resource that incorporates the results from the 2023 resource upgrade and expansion drilling is currently underway.
The first two holes of the 2024 program, which represent the most western and southwestern holes for which assays have been returned, continue to demonstrate the strong gold mineralization in this expansion area.
Highlights from the first two holes of the 2024 season include:
• 65.9 meters averaging 4.63 g/t gold from a depth of 692.1 meters in hole GS2401, including a three-meter subsection averaging 85.9 g/t (2.76 oz/t) gold.
• 45 meters averaging 5.51 g/t gold from a depth of 545 meters in hole GS2402, including a three-meter subsection averaging 67 g/t (2.15 oz/t) gold, and 15.6 meters averaging 3.74 g/t gold from 604.4 meters.
Drilled from the same location as hole GS2333, which was angled to the north, GS2401 was a vertical hole drilled to a depth of 946.1 meters to confirm the south-dipping nature of the mineralization.
Drilled about 50 meters southwest of hole GS2337, GS2402 was angled to the northwest and was also intended to refine the orientation of the higher-grade mineralization in the western portion of the Dolphin-Cleary deposit.
Freegold says the higher-grade gold mineralization it has encountered along three distinct mineral trends extending west for the Dolphin-Cleary deposit, along with promising results from ongoing metallurgical testing, has the potential to enhance the overall economics of establishing a mine at Golden Summit.
To better understand this potential, the 2024 program is focused on expanding the trends of gold mineralization in the western expansion area and will also include large-diameter holes to collect larger samples for additional metallurgical testing.
So far this year, Freegold has drilled 13 holes west and southwest of the Dolphin-Cleary deposit at Golden Summit.
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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