U.S. REPORT Tri-Valley bulk sampling Alaskan gold property

By year-end, Tri-Valley Corp. expects to pour gold from one of the lode prospects on its Richardson, Alaska project. The California- based public company is carrying out a phased plan to bulk sample up to 2,200 tons from a high grade ore zone located near the surface of a quartz-veined rhyolite porphyry dike. Besides generating limited cash flow, the company said its objectives are to further prove up the property, demonstrate its year- round operational potential, “and underscore its desirability as a non- remote, large, high grade prospect.” The first phase saw a mixed grade 50-ton sample sent for milling and testing, and the recovered gold in dore bar form is expected shortly. Additional ore is now being removed by backhoe and trucked to a custom mill in Fairbanks, some 70 miles to the north.

Although no longer involved in the project, Asarco Inc. carried out a $250,000 diamond drilling (18 holes) and sampling program on the property this past summer under an option agreement with Tri-Valley. The best drill hole is reported to have encountered 65 ft of 0.35 oz gold per ton, including 15 ft of 1.45 oz right at surface. A 10 ft intersection from the program assayed 7.5 oz gold, with subsequent sampling carried out by Asarco to determine the parameters of the bulk sample plan.

To further expose the high grade zone, Tri-Valley on its own stripped light overburden from about two acres, and sampled promising areas with the best result averaging 19.0 oz gold over 8 ft. The company said a review of results to date by its consulting geologist “further support the concept of wide spread gold mineralization in the dike along with local very high grade accumulations.”

Tri-Valley has accumulated (in addition to the quartz porphyry area) over 62 square miles of claims covering several other mineralized systems, as well as major placer targets. Trio Petroleum has a 10% working interest in the property being bulk sampled.