Fairbanks expands drill program

The company and its joint venture partner recently approved a $1.57-million(US) increase to bring the 1989 budget to $4.15 million. The expanded drill program is expected to continue with three rigs until about the beginning of November. Robert Sibthorpe, a Vancouver mining analyst with Yorkton Securities, said the bulk tonnage project has also attracted the attention of a number of major mining companies.

Fairbanks President Eric Friedland confirmed that the company is indeed talking to several majors about future development of the intrusive-hosted porphyry gold deposit 15 miles by road from Fairbanks.

“I think we are capable of taking this project to feasibility ourselves, but I don’t think Fairbanks’ corporate direction is to be operator of a project this size,” Friedland said.

“Eventually we would have to get the expertise and input of a company that’s capable of overseeing this kind of operation,” he added. “But it’s still open-ended and we want to get a handle on what we have first.”

Based on the trenching program, the company estimates the strike length of the mineralized intrusive to be about 1,600 ft wide, close to 6,000 ft long, and open at both ends and to depth.

To date Fairbanks has drilled about 89 holes in the deposit. Although it is too early to make projections about tonnage, Friedland estimates the current average gold grade to be about 0.042 oz gold per ton using an 0.02 oz cut-off.

The most recent hole, 89-069, intersected 700 ft averaging 0.108 oz gold entirely in oxides, with the bottom 125 ft of the hole averaging 0.256 oz per ton.

This hole, combined with several others that improved in grade with depth, suggests that thick zones of higher grade gold are present in the mineralized intrusive. But because this season’s drilling is mostly on 200-ft spacings, Friedland said it’s too early to tell how consistent this feature will be.

“We have encountered some higher grade zones but we don’t yet know if it’s structurally controlled or part of a high grade feeder zone,” he said.

The objective of the current program is to determine the limits of the mineralized intrusive. Next season the company will do infill drilling aimed at proving up an oxidized, open-pittable gold deposit and advancing it to the feasibility stage.

Friedland said early indications suggest a combined seasonal heap leach and year-round milling operation, with a low over-all strip ratio. Permitting and baseline studies are already in progress.

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