GOLD – Freegold Ventures Ltd. March 9 reported staking of 141 Alaska mining claims covering 15,360 acres adjacent to its Rob gold project in the Goodpaster Mining District in eastern Interior Alaska. The new claims bring the total Rob Project land holdings to 19,600 acres, or about 7,935 hectares. Previous exploration by Freegold on the Rob property has included limited drilling at the Grey Lead, which intercepted 4 meters at 28 grams per metric ton gold and 5.7 meters averaging 19 g/t gold. Freegold said public-sector geochemical data from the newly acquired claims indicates widespread anomalous gold, arsenic, bismuth and tungsten in rocks, stream sediments and pan concentrate samples. The elevated bismuth and tungsten values are indicative of intrusive-related gold mineralization similar to that at the Grey lead prospect at Rob and to Sumitomo’s Pogo gold mine located northwest of Rob. Freegold has commissioned a revised NI 43-101-compliant technical report on the Rob project that is expected to provide additional information on the newly acquired claims and will include a recommended work program and budget for the project. Completion of this report is expected before the end of March.
FINANCE – NovaGold Resources Inc. March 9 said it has closed a non-brokered offering of 18,181,818 common shares of the company at a price of US$5.50 per common share for gross proceeds of nearly US$100 million to several investment funds managed by Paulson & Co. Inc. The company intends to use net proceeds from the offering to fund general exploration and development at its Donlin Creek, Galore Creek and Rock Creek projects, at its early-stage Ambler property, and for general corporate purposes, including funding potential future acquisitions. Closing of the offering is expected to occur on or about March 9. “Paulson & Co. Inc. is a renowned institutional investor in the gold space, and we are pleased to have them as a substantial shareholder of the company,” said NovaGold President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse. “With this offering we have accomplished financing objectives that will position NovaGold to continue to unlock value from its ownership of some of the largest and most prospective gold and polymetallic deposits in the world.” The offering, which is non-brokered, is being made under a prospectus supplement to NovaGold’s base shelf prospectus, dated Dec. 30, 2009.
FINANCE – NovaGold Resources Inc. March 11 said it has closed a non-brokered offering of 13,636,364 common shares of the company at a price of US$5.50 per common share for gross proceeds of about US$75 million to Quantum Partners Ltd., a private investment fund managed by Soros Fund Management LLC. This is in addition to the US$100 million financing that closed March 9. The gross proceeds to be raised under the two financings total US$175 million. “We are very pleased to have internationally recognized investors like Soros Fund Management and Paulson & Co. increase their positions in NovaGold and become two of our largest shareholders,” said NovaGold President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse. “These groups have been following NovaGold for some time, recognizing both the near and long-term strategic value of our world-class gold and copper-gold assets. With the US$175 million raised in these financings, we have fulfilled our current equity objectives and are exceptionally well positioned to advance and maximize the value of our projects for the benefit of all NovaGold shareholders.”
GOLD - International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. March 8 announced initial metallurgical test results for mill processing of the major types of mineralization at the Livengood Project located about 70 miles, or 110 kilometers, north of Fairbanks in Interior Alaska. On average, 88 percent of the gold reported to the concentrates during initial combined gravity and flotation gold recovery tests, the company said. These initial pre-concentration gold recovery results suggest that the economics of a mining operation at Livengood could benefit significantly from the use of standard flotation and gravity circuits. The initial test results indicate that concentration produces an 80 percent reduction in the material volume, requiring further treatment to recover gold. The company is currently engaged in further testing and optimization of both the concentration process and the extraction of gold from the concentrates. Initial tests of conventional milling using gravity recovery combined with intensive carbon-in-leach leaching of gravity recovered gold concentrate and CIL leaching of the tails produced gold recoveries averaging 86 percent for the major types of mineralization identified in the Money Knob deposit. International Tower Hill President and CEO Jeff Pontius said, “These initial results are highly encouraging for ITH as we move the Livengood project up our value expansion curve. The data provides an opportunity to make a major increase in the economic value of the project through a low-cost, pre-concentration milling circuit, which would significantly increase gold recovery and provide a game-changing direction for the project and its development path.” The company intends to use the results of ongoing metallurgical test work in a mill-heap leach-based preliminary economic assessment of the Livengood Project currently being conducted by SRK Consulting and scheduled for completion in the second quarter.
GOLD - International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. March 10 also reported results of an updated resource estimate for the Livengood Project. The new resource includes the final 64 drill holes completed in late 2009. Using a 0.5 gram per metric ton gold cut-off grade, the new estimate yielded an indicated resource of 9.3 million ounces of gold and an inferred resource of 3 million ounces of gold. Using a 0.7 g/t gold cut-off, which the company envisions as a possible milling cut-off grade, the indicated resource is 5.8 million ounces of gold and the inferred resource is 1.8 million ounces of gold. Using a 0.3 g/t gold cut-off grade, which is about the expected average grade for a heap leach operation at Livengood, the indicated resource is 13.5 million ounces of gold, and the inferred resource is 5 million ounces of gold. The new resource estimate and recently reported mill metallurgical data will form key elements in a preliminary economic assessment scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2010. International Tower Hill also said 21 drill holes were completed at Livengood in February.
