Freegold seeks lode source of Alaskan placer prospect

Residents familiar with the golden past of this northern city wink knowingly when reciting official reports that eight million oz. of placer gold and 375,000 oz. of lode gold have been produced from the Fairbanks district since the first discoveries were made in the early 1900s.

More familiar than the rest of us with the ways and means of the early miners to produce gold and not report every ounce, these residents predict actual production is far higher than the official reports suggest. Placer mining is still much in evidence here, but it is the largely unexplored lode gold deposits that are now attracting the most attention from a new generation of prospectors and would-be miners.

One of the most active exploration programs for lode gold in the region is being carried out by Freegold Recovery (VSE) on the Golden Summit property 20 miles by road from Fairbanks. The junior can earn up to 60% by spending US$1.79 million on exploration and arranging production financing. Certain vantage points on this large 30,000-acre property offer spectacular vistas of the neighboring Fort Knox gold project being developed by Amax Gold (NYSE), which plans a large open pit operation turning out more than 300,000 oz. gold annually. Reserves here are reported at 122.5 million tons grading 0.026 oz. gold per ton, and local reports are that Amax has been successful in defining a higher-grade starter pit of at least 10 million tons grading about 0.1 oz..

Relative to Fort Knox, Golden Summit is an early-stage exploration project, although it does have preliminary reserves amenable to open pit mining totalling 5.2 million tons grading 0.062 oz. gold equivalent (with 75% of the value in gold) on five separate prospects.

During a recent site visit by The Northern Miner, Freegold was focusing on one of its more advanced targets, the Too Much Gold zone, which was explored by a previous operator by six trenches and eight drill holes. This zone is estimated to contain preliminary reserves of 1.6 million tons grading 0.065 oz. gold equivalent to a depth of 50 ft. from surface, and is still open along strike and downdip. The potential to increase reserves is considered excellent.

Freegold has already re-excavated previous trenches and added several more, so that a total of 5,515 ft. of excavation in 13 trenches has been completed to date. Recent sampling in trench six returned 235 ft. averaging 0.045 oz., while 115 ft. of 0.046 oz. was reported from trench two (1,400 ft. from trench six). Silver results are still awaited.

This work is providing the geological team with a better understanding of the controls for the mineralization in an area which features little outcrop, so as to select the best possible drill sites for a program later this summer. The exploration program, managed by independent consultant Curtis Freeman, began with soil geochemistry, followed by trenching and sampling to define the drill targets. This strategy is similar to that being used at the Brewery Creek gold project of Hemlo Gold Mines (TSE) and Loki Gold (VSE) near Dawson, Yukon, also located in a world-famous placer mining district. During the site visit, Freeman explained that the Too Much Gold zone and other priority targets on the property are hosted by metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks of the Cleary Sequence which have been cut by multiphase shear zones.

“We are looking for bulk-tonnage targets where these structures intersect favorable host rocks,” Freeman said.

The presence of skarn material was noted in recent trenching. Freeman said this indicates the presence of a nearby intrusive mass which may host gold mineralization similar to the Fort Knox gold “porphyry.”

Since the discovery of Fort Knox, intrusives are recognized as the best possible host rock for bulk-tonnage deposits in the district. It appears, however, that on the Golden Summit property, schists are the most likely host rock for deposits such as the Too Much Gold zone.

Freegold also has a number of former lode producers on its property that have received little or no exploration effort in recent decades. A portion of the property hosting one of the largest past producers was recently optioned to Carlin Gold (ASE) which now has an exploration program in progress. A number of major mining companies have made or plan to make visits to the Golden Summit property, and Freegold would welcome their participation because of the large number of exploration targets on its property. Besides gold targets, the property hosts a previously explored massive sulphide grading 10-20% combined lead-zinc, 12-15 oz. silver per ton and 0.05 oz. gold.

But another big plus for the property (besides road access and availability of power), according to Freegold’s team of geologists, is that mining and exploration activity is made welcome in the Fairbanks district. The property is on land zoned as mineral land, giving mining first priority land-use rights.