Mining News: News Nuggets: Second Shorty Creek copper-gold target tapped

Freegold Ventures Ltd. Dec. 6 said the 2016 drill program at it Shorty Creek project in Interior Alaska has confirmed the presence of a copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry system with an alteration-mineralization footprint that covers roughly 2,500 acres. The company confirmed the porphyry potential in 2015, when it stepped out from the previous shallow reverse circulation drilling completed by Asarco in 1989-1990 with deeper core drilling. The best hole drilled last year, SC15-03, cut 91 meters averaging 0.71 percent copper-equivalent about 245 meters southwest of the historical drilling. Collared about 125 meters further southwest of SC 15-03, the first hole of the 2016 drill program, SC 16-01, cut 434.5 meters averaging 0.12 grams per metric ton gold, 7.46 g/t silver and 0.36 percent copper, or about 0.57 percent copper-equivalent. A 207-meter section of this hole averaged 0.045 percent tungsten trioxide. Freegold said early mineralogical work has confirmed that the tungsten present at Hill 1835 is in the form of wolframite, which is typically recovered by gravity concentration. A further 120 meters southwest, SC 16-02 cut 409.6 meters grading 0.41 percent copper-equivalent. A 409.6-meter section of this hole averaged 0.03 percent tungsten trioxide. Five holes of the 2016 program targeted Hill 1710, a 6,000- by 1,500-meter geophysical and geochemical anomaly situated roughly 2,500 meters northwest of Hill 1835. The holes drilled at Hill 1710 were spaced roughly 400 meters apart, starting on the western edge of the soil geochemical anomaly. Each hole intersected both copper and molybdenum mineralization with the copper values increasing as the drilling moved to the northeast. Hole 16-03, the westernmost hole, cut 172.6 meters averaging 0.03 percent copper and 0.034 percent molybdenum. Hole SC 16-04, collared about 400 meters to the east, averaged 0.05 percent copper and 0.014 percent molybdenum over its entire 426.5-meter length. Hole SC 16-06, collared about 800 meters northeast of hole four, averaged 0.07 percent copper and 0.01 percent molybdenum over the entire 516 meters. Hole SC 16-07 averaged 0.08 percent copper and 0.009 percent molybdenum over its entire 396-meter length, including 0.15 percent copper and 0.009 percent molybdenum in the top 70.8 meters. "The Shorty Creek target represents an exciting porphyry discovery in Alaska that has the potential to host a significant copper-gold-molybdenum resource,” said Freegold President and CEO Kristina Walcott. “We are extremely pleased with the results of the 2016 program and given these highly encouraging results we look forward to further drilling to follow up on this exciting discovery.” Shorty Creek is adjacent to the Elliot Highway about 75 road miles northwest of Fairbanks.

-Shane Lasley