Freegold Ventures seeks mining permit for Alaska project

Vancouver Freegold Ventures (ITF-T, FGOVF-0) is seeking permits that will allow it to process 130,000 tonnes-per-year of surface material over the next five years at its Golden Summit property near Fairbanks, Alaska.

That number does not include an additional 10,000 tonnes that was collected from a variety of high grade veins on the property, and which the company plans to process using on-site gravity concentration methods.

We think the bulk potential is there for this project, said Freegold chief executive officer Steve Manz.

Operating under new management, Freegold said it will use the cash from that material to finance drilling on the 7,500-acre Golden Summit property, which contains a number of old gold mines.

Together, those operations have produced about 500,000 oz. gold from underground operations, plus another 6.75 million oz. via placer mining in streams that drain onto the property.

Freegolds aim is to outline material that would be amenable to bulk mining methods.

In keeping with that strategy, the company has just launched a phase 2, (20,000 ft.) drill program, following up on a 4,700-ft.-phase one program, which has successfully identified broad zones of gold mineralization in the vicinity of the former Clearly Hill mine.

The company is spending about $600,000 this year to support its view that the best way to identify new structures and veins — while extending the known 3,500 ft. strike length of mineralization previously encountered in the Cleary Hill area is through a large number of shallow, closed spaced drill holes.

Phase one consisted of (93) holes in three parallel lines, spaced 15 ft. apart. Each line consisted of 31 vertical holes, located 20 ft. apart.

The company said this program successfully identified broad zones of gold mineralization over the entire 620-ft. width of the drilled area.

The average grade for the top 51-feet of that area is 0.6 grams gold per tonne (0.017 oz.).

But as the lines move from east to west, the average grades of the drill lines increased by 36% (from 0.51 grams per tonne in Line 1, to 0.70 grams in Line 3) as the holes got closer to a swarm of gold-bearing veins to the south of Cleary Hill.

Shares of Freegold rose 6 to 74 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on March 29, the date that results from phase one were released to the market.

Freegold holds a 93% stake in the Golden Summit property. The other 7% is controlled by privately-owned Fairbanks Exploration Inc.

The company recently hired Jeffrey Woods as vice-president, project development, because of his extensive background in metallurgical engineering.