International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. June 25 released an updated gold resource estimate for the Money Knob deposit at its Livengood gold project near Fairbanks, Alaska. The Livengood project has an estimated indicated gold resource of 145.8 million metric tons averaging 0.863 grams per metric ton of gold, or 4.04 million ounces. The deposit also contains an estimated inferred gold resource of 142.6 million metric tons with an average grade of 0.79 g/t gold, or 3.6 million ounces. At a 0.5 g/t cutoff, the average grade of the overall deposit increased by 5.4 percent.
The independent estimate incorporates all drilling results from International Tower Hill’s 2009 winter program plus previous drilling, for an overall total of 189 diamond and reverse circulation holes. The company said the new resource estimate will form the basis for an initial preliminary economic assessment, which is scheduled to be completed July 2009.
The new resource estimate shows the expansion of the higher-grade Core Zone of the deposit with a 20 percent increase in total ounces at a cut off of 0.7 grams of gold per metric ton. The Core Zone area has an estimated indicated gold resource of 84.9 million metric tons at an average grade of 1.06 g/t gold, or 2.88 million ounces of gold. The Core Zone has an estimated inferred gold resource of 68.8 metric tons at an average grade of 0.99 g/t gold, or 2.2 million ounces of gold.
The drilling incorporated into the new resource estimate was primarily from two areas of permafrost that are best accessed in the winter months and added an average of over 20,000 ounces of gold per hole to the resource. The generally higher grade intervals in the SW target area raised the overall grade of the resource by about 5.4 percent.
The 45,000-meter summer 2009 drill program at Livengood began on June 1 and, to date, has completed 25 holes of the 120 holes planned. Three reverse circulation drills and one core drill are currently operating on the summer drilling program and the next resource update is anticipated for October 2009.
“This most recent resource expansion has now placed the Livengood project into a small and unique group of 100 percent owned junior deposits, with the potential to support a very large production profile. The increase in overall grade by 5.4 percent and the higher confidence level of the resource will have a significant impact on the current economic modeling. The overall size and configuration of the deposit and its favorable gold recovery characteristics continue to support the project's potential for large scale, low cost production with a significant starter pit component,” said Jeff Pontius, International Tower Hill’s president and CEO.
