The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2024 - January 15, 2025
The Aurora Borealis lights up the night sky over the mill at Northern Star's Pogo gold mine in Alaska.
A drill at the 1.1-million-ounce Goodpaster deposit at the north end of a five-mile-long corridor of high-grade gold mineralization outlined so far at Pogo.
Now that Northern Star Resources Ltd. has the mill at Pogo outperforming its 1.3-million-metric-ton per year nameplate capacity, the Australia-based mining company is looking to build upon the 5.88 million metric tons of reserves averaging 8 grams per metric ton (1.52 million oz) gold at its Alaska mine and is looking to expand its presence in America's Last Frontier state.
With the goal of ramping up gold production at Pogo to 300,000 oz per year, Northern Star invested in a 30% expansion of the mill that came with the high-grade underground mine it purchased in 2019.
Upon the 2023 completion of the mill expansion, the company has focused on ensuring that there is plenty of high-grade ore to keep the mill steadily running at and above its expanded capacity.
The 92,078 oz of gold recovered from 381,643 metric tons of ore averaging 8.5 g/t gold fed through the mill during the second quarter of 2024 was an exceptional showing of Pogo's potential – nearly 370,000 oz of gold per year, with the mill running at a 1.5-million-metric-ton-per-annum pace.
Coming off this quarter, Northern Star Resources CEO Stuart Tonkin told analysts and investors that Pogo is a "fantastic asset" that is "worth investing in."
His conviction in Pogo's potential is rooted in the Alaska operation's 20.5 million metric tons of resources averaging 10.1 g/t (6.7 million oz) gold, which includes the reserves mentioned above.
These higher-grade resources extend from the more than 1 million oz Goodpaster deposit about 1,600 meters northwest of the Leise and North zones currently being mined to the Leise East (formerly Hill 4021) zone about 2,500 meters to the southeast.
In 2023, Northern Star reported a new discovery named Star about midway between Leise and Leise East. Highlights from drilling at Star include:
• 9.7 meters averaging 52.9 g/t gold in hole DH23-001.
• 7.8 meters averaging 5.4 g/t gold in hole DH23-002.
• 1.7 meters averaging 22.1 g/t gold in hole DH23-006.
• 22.7 meters averaging 3.8 g/t gold in hole DH23-012.
The company also reported early last year that underground drilling has identified high-grade gold in East Deep, which is accessible by underground mine infrastructure and about 1,000 meters northwest of the Star area outlined so far.
East Deep is a previously mined area east of the Liese deposits that has provided most of the ore at Pogo and is separated from the main Liese lodes by a diorite intrusive.
Because East Deep was being used to store mine water, it has not been accessible for further resource drilling. Northern Star, however, completed a dewatering campaign that allowed drilling to resume in this area of the Pogo underground mine. The company reports that this drilling has tapped high-grade gold. Highlights from East Deep drilling include:
• 6.7 meters averaging 26.7 g/t gold in hole 24U0036.
• 5.5 meters averaging 31.4 g/t gold in hole 24U0037.
• Two meters averaging 50.3 g/t gold in hole 24U01658.
The next phase of mine expansion will be the Central Zone immediately north of the Liese deposits, which have contributed most of the more than 5 million oz of gold produced so far at Pogo and the Goodpaster deposit about 1,000 meters further north.
A drill at the 1.1-million-ounce Goodpaster deposit at the north end of a five-mile-long corridor of high-grade gold mineralization outlined so far at Pogo.
According to a 2022 calculation, Goodpaster hosts 3.2 million metric tons of resources averaging 10.3 g/t (1.1 million oz) of gold. While this resource has been expanded and upgraded, Northern Star has not published a standalone resource for the deposit in the past two years.
At a November presentation in Alaska, Norther Star Pogo General Manager Michael Eckert said crews will portal new underground development this year that will pass through the Central Zone deposit and continue on to Goodpaster.
In addition to deposit expansion and property-wide exploration, Pogo Exploration Manager Paul Hohbach said the company is looking for projects across Alaska, as well as elsewhere in North America.
As part of its wider search for Alaska projects, Northern Star has invested in PolarX Ltd. and owns a roughly 16% stake in the Australia-based junior exploring the Alaska Range copper-gold-silver project about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of the Pogo Mine.
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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