The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - October 23, 2024
A Felix Gold geologist beside an antimony-rich rock dug from NW Array at Treasure Creek.
Felix Gold Ltd. Oct. 23 announced that it has taken several steps toward the goal of establishing a 5,000-metric-ton-per-year antimony mine on its Treasure Creek project about 12 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska, by the end of next year.
Treasure Creek is part of a larger land package Felix began assembling in 2020 that covers roughly 151 square miles of the Fairbanks Mining District.
Upon completing reconnaissance mapping and sampling across this large land package in 2021, Felix focused its exploration on building a resource at the NW Array target on the Treasure Creek gold-antimony property.
Based on drilling carried out in 2022 and 2023, an initial 25 million metric tons of Australian Joint Ore Reserve Committee- (JORC) compliant inferred resource averaging 0.58 grams per metric ton (467,000 oz) gold was outlined for NW Array.
Combined with a resource for the Grant Mine project, which lies about nine miles to the southwest, Felix's Fairbanks District properties host approximately 831,000 oz of gold in the inferred resource category.
Felix Gold has assembled roughly 151 square miles of mineral exploration properties in the Fairbanks Mining District, Alaska.
Treasure Creek, however, also hosts deposits of very high-grade antimony, a metalloid that is highly critical to the U.S. Department of Defense due to its importance to a wide range of military applications, coupled with China and Russia's near total control over global supply.
"In addition to ongoing work to commercialize our 831koz inferred gold resources, our recent focus is advancing the near-term production potential of antimony at Treasure Creek, Alaska, which boast two historic antimony mines that have historically supplied high grade antimony multiple times to the U.S. market," said Felix Gold Executive Director Joe Webb.
The larger of the two historic antimony mines at Treasure Creek is Scrafford, which produced an estimated 1.08 million kilograms (2.4 million pounds) of antimony from 2,800 metric tons of ore averaging 38.6% stibnite – an antimony mineral – during intermittent operations from 1915 to 1977.
The Goodwin Mine, about 1,500 meters east of Scrafford, also supplied the U.S. with antimony during World War I, but the quantities and grades of the stibnite produced from this underground mine are unknown.
Felix's gold resource drilling at NW Array, which lies about 2,000 meters west of Scrafford, also encountered significant high-grade antimony.
High-grade antimony intercepts from 2022 and 2023 holes drilled at NW Array include:
• 1.5 meters averaging 15.99% antimony from a depth of 88.9 meters in hole 22TCRC041.
• Three meters averaging 14.24% antimony from a depth of 7.6 meters in hole 22TCRC071.
• 7.5 meters averaging 3.3% antimony from a depth of 141.7 meters in hole 22TCRC122, including 1.5 meters averaging 28% antimony.
• 1.5 meters averaging 26% antimony from a depth of 38.1 meters in hole 23TCRC135.
• 15.2 meters averaging 5.5% antimony from a depth of 21.3 meters in hole 23TCRC155, including 6.1 meters averaging 13% antimony.
• 6.1 meters averaging 7.7% antimony from a depth of 3.1 meters in hole 23TCRC176, including 1.5 meters averaging 28% antimony.
Given the high-grade antimony potential identified so far, Felix is assessing the viability of a standalone, high-grade, and low-capital antimony mine at Treasure Creek.
To gain a better understanding of the extent and grade of outcropping antimony mineralization, Felix completed trenching at Scrafford and NW Array, as well as detailed mapping and sampling along a five-mile (eight kilometers) antimony prospective corridor at Treasure Creek.
Trench samples from both targets were sent to a lab for metallurgical studies to inform exploration and development strategies.
"These studies are critical, as they directly inform the design of the processing facility, ensuring it is optimized for our unique needs," said Webb. "We're fortunate to build on historical resources and proven flow sheets from the Scrafford Antimony Mine, but with Felix Gold's high-grade antimony discovery at NW Array, additional metallurgical work is required to confirm the suitability of these historical flow sheets for this newly identified mineralized zone."
Felix also initiated hydrology studies to support the near-term permitting and development of a high-grade antimony mine at Treasure Creek.
"These studies mark an important milestone, as they underpin our aggressive goal to start antimony production at Treasure Creek by the end of 2025," Webb added.
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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