NovaGold Resources Inc. Dec. 13 reported new drill results from drilling on the Bornite target located on the recently consolidated 180,000-hectare Upper Kobuk Mineral Project located in the Ambler Mining District of Northwest Alaska.
Highlights include:
• RC11-194 intersected two mineralized intervals totaling 110.6 meters averaging 2.6 percent copper, including 11.8 meters grading 7.5 percent copper;
• RC11-185 intersected 18.1 meters grading 3.8 percent copper. Overall the hole intersected two mineralized intervals totaling 121.3 meters averaging 1.4 percent copper;
• RC11-186 intersected three mineralized intervals totaling 153.1 meters averaging 1.2 percent copper; and
In addition to successful confirmation of historic drilling, NovaGold said exploration drilling to the northeast of Bornite encountered significant mineralization in a new area identified as the South Reef. Specifically, RC11-194, which drilled 110.6 meters of 2.6 percent copper, intersected the South Reef 700 meters along strike from RC11-187. The South Reef will be a focus of Bornite exploration drilling in 2012 to enable a resource estimate to be completed on this highly prospective zone.
In reporting RC11-187 in the previous release certain drill intervals were under-reported because the amount of copper in certain samples exceeded the upper limits of the analytical method. Samples exceeding 40 percent copper have since been re-assayed to account for higher copper values. These over-limit results have increased the grade of this interval to 178 meters at 4 percent copper and 34.7 meters at 12 percent copper.
“Management believes that this is one of the most exciting copper opportunities in the industry and we are planning an increased work program next year to expand the newly identified South Reef deposit at Bornite as well as test a number of other VMS (volcanogenic massive sulfide) targets in the district. These outstanding drill results demonstrate the potential for Ambler to become one of the highest-grade and most- significant poly-metallic copper-dominant districts in the world,” said NovaGold President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse. “It is a particularly welcome development for NovaGold shareholders that, at a time of ever-increasing resource nationalism in a number of the world's copper producing countries, this valuable asset, a company-maker in its own right, is located in the United States, one of the industry’s very safest jurisdictions. We are encouraged by this season’s drilling campaign and believe that our shareholders will derive significant value from direct ownership of these valuable and exciting assets.”
NovaGold recently announced a major re-organization of its asset and management structure whereby, among other measures, Van Nieuwenhuyse will move from his current role to the new position of president and CEO of NovaCopper Inc. It is proposed that the shares of NovaCopper will be distributed to shareholders of NovaGold as a return of capital by way of a plan of arrangement. The plan will be voted on at a special meeting of shareholders of NovaGold, which NovaGold anticipates holding in February. The plan will be subject to multiple conditions including security-holder and court approval, approval by, and listing of the NovaCopper shares on TSX and AMEX and completion of all regulatory filings. NovaCopper owns the Ambler project and will have a 100 percent interest in any mining project in the recently consolidated 180,000-hectare property located in the Ambler district of northwestern Alaska subject to the rights of NANA Regional Corporation, Inc., an Alaska Native Corporation headquartered in Kotzebue.
