TNM Drill Down: Top gold assays for the week of Oct. 28-Nov. 4

Our TNM Drill Down feature highlights the top gold assays of the past week. Drill holes are ranked by gold grade x width, as identified by our sister company Mining Intelligence (www.miningintelligence.com).  

Donlin Gold LLC, the equal partnership in Alaska of Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) and NovaGold Resources (TSX: NG; NYSE: NG), had the top-rated assays of the past week followed by i-80 Gold (TSX: IAU; US-OTC: IAUCF) at Granite Creek in Nevada and Tudor Gold (TSXV: TUD) in British Columbia.  


Drill hole DC22-2068 at the Donlin project in southwest Alaska cut 42.3 metres grading 30.68 grams gold per tonne (starting at 117.5 metres depth) for a grade x width of 1,297. It included a sub-interval of 23.16 metres grading 54.22 grams gold per tonne. 

Greg Lang, NovaGold president and CEO, called the hole “one of the most significant intercepts in terms of grade-thickness ever reported at the Donlin gold project.”  
 
Donlin reported results from about half of this year’s 141-hole drill program of 42,331 metres. The final assay results are due in early 2023.   
 
The Donlin project, one of the world’s largest and highest grade gold projects, aims to construct a conventional open pit mine consisting of several pits for an estimated US$7.4 billion. It would extract 30 million oz. gold over the 27-year mine life with sustaining costs of US$1.7 billion. Proven and probable reserves are 504.8 million tonnes grading 2.09 grams gold per tonne for 33.8 million ounces. 
 
The company is working towards preparing an updated feasibility study and a development decision, it said last month in its third-quarter results. It reported a “robust treasury” of US$125 million in cash and term deposits. 
 
However, the project, located 450 km northwest of Anchorage, faces opposition from Indigenous peoples over concerns about potential mercury and cyanide pollution of the Kuskokwim River. A state hearing review of clean water permits granted to the project is expected to last six months, Donlin said.  
 
Second for the week was drilling in the Ogee zone at i-80 Gold’s Granite Creek project about 320 km northeast of Reno, NV.  
 
Hole iGU22-47 cut 17.8 metres grading 28.2 grams gold per tonne for a grade x width of 499. Hole iGU22-43B returned 7 metres of 10.7 grams gold.  
 
“Drilling in the Ogee Zone continues to intercept impressive high-grade mineralization over substantial widths,” senior geologist Tyler Hill said in a news release. “The Ogee and South Pacific zones remain open at depth, providing substantial upside.” 
 
A preliminary economic assessment released last November envisioned output of 1.2 million oz. gold over a nine-year mine life at an all-in sustaining cost of US$963.40 per oz.  
 
Measured and indicated resources for the potential open-pit project stand at 20.5 million tonnes grading 1.94 grams gold per tonne for 1.3 million oz. of contained gold. 

Completing the top three of the week is hole GS-22-158 at Tudor Gold’s Treaty Creek in northwestern B.C. It cut 592.5 metres grading 0.73 gram gold per tonne for a grade x width of 433.  
 
“This hole confirms the consistency of mineralization throughout the porphyry system and that no boundary on the northern side of the system has been encountered,” Tudor said in a news release. “Future exploration will target the northerly extension of this system.”  
 
The project, 12 km east of the past-producing Eskay Creek gold mine, has measured and indicated resources of 815.7 million tonnes at 0.66 gram gold and 3.6 grams silver per tonne and 0.06% copper for 17.3 million oz. contained gold and 93.4 million oz. contained silver. Tudor says it is one of the largest gold discoveries anywhere in the last 30 years.