Fairbanks sees bulk tonnage potential in Alaskan gold bet

Located just 15 miles northeast of Fairbanks, the 51%-owned Fort Knox project is one of two gold properties in Alaska that will be explored and developed during the 1989 season by the new junior company.

Eric Friedland, president, told The Northern Miner in a recent interview that the Fort Knox gold property contains a large mesothermal gold deposit with the potential to host 15-30 million tons grading about 0.06 oz gold per ton. The deposit is hosted in a Cretaceous granodiorite intrusive.

Friedland bases his projection on results of last season’s trenching and drilling program at Fort Knox — work that was privately and quietly funded by Friedland, who is a geophysical engineer, and his brother Robert, president of Galactic Resources.

About 10,605 ft of bulldozer trenching, 7,043 ft of reverse circulation drilling plus extensive sampling was carried out during the 1988 program to follow up a gold discovery made the previous year.

A 2,600-ft length of the mineralized intrusive was exposed by trenching, with 1,500 ft of this tested by 24 reverse circulation drill holes to an average depth of 300 ft.

Using a 0.02 oz per ton cutoff, the mineralized zones identified by the engineering firm of Watts, Griffis and McOuat are estimated to contain a reserve of 15 million tons grading about 0.06 oz to a depth of 300 ft. The deposit is still open to east, west, south and to depth.

Friedland noted that because the mineralization is present from the surface down, the deposit should be suitable for open pit mining at a favorable strip ratio. The fractured, altered and weathered nature of most of the mineralized areas suggest a low work index, he also pointed out.

Surprisingly for a mesothermal deposit, only oxidized mineralization has been encountered to date. Metallurgical recoveries are therefore expected to be good, although this may change should sulphides be encountered in drilling below 300 ft. Preliminary cyanide leach and bottle roll cyanide extraction tests are reported to have averaged about 87%, and up to 96.6% on material ground to about 70% minus 200 mesh.

Costs of the $2.5-million(US) program on the Fort Knox property this season will be shared by Fairbanks and by the Nye family/ VenturesTrident partnership which controls the remaining 49% interest.

A total of 50,000 ft of reverse circulation drilling is planned to determine the size of the deposit and to outline drill-proven reserves. About 10,000 ft of core drilling is also planned to test for possible high grade feeder zones at depth. If the program is successful, this work will lead to a full-scale, bankable feasibility study in 1990.

The partners have as a general target for an open pit mining and milling operation some 30 million tons of about 0.06 oz gold, which could be developed on a similar scale as the successful Ridgeway mine in South Carolina (owned 48% by Galactic Resources). Should this target not be fully realized, Friedland said a smaller heap leach operation could be a possible alternative.

The only known intrusive-hosted deposit in the Fairbanks district, the Fort Knox property is considered a possible geological model to explain the occurrence of about eight million oz of placer gold that was mined in the district in the early 1900s. Last year the company located a second intrusive on the Fort Knox property which will be further tested this season.

This geological model was also used to acquire a 80,000-acre property near Flat, Alaska. District placers are reported to have yielded 1.45 million oz from drainages radiating outward from a compact lode source situated on the 100%-owned Flat gold property.

A $1-million program is planned this year to test further an area where a large volume of oxidized, altered and gold-bearing monzonite was outlined by rotary drilling and trenching last season.

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