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MINING NEWS: Full Metal goes all out for Granite Creek Busy junior opts for chance to acquire 100 percent of gold property near Donlin Creek after tagging partners for other ventures Mining News
Full Metal Minerals Corp. May 15 said it signed an exploration agreement with an option to purchase 100 percent interest in the Granite Creek Gold Property in southwestern Alaska.
The Vancouver, B.C.-based junior said it can earn 100 percent interest in the Granite Creek property from a third-party Alaska resident by paying $375,000 in cash ($50,000 first year), and incurring $3.25 million in exploration expenditures ($200,000 first year). After exercising the option, Full Metal said it will make annual $150,000 advance royalty payments to the third party until commercial production gets under way at Granite Creek. After first ore, Full Metal will pay a 2 percent net smelter royalty, of which 1 percent, or one-half of the royalty, can be purchased at any time for $4 million, the company said.
The 1,470-hectare, or 431-acre, Granite Creek hosts an active placer mine in the Kuskokwim region, about 20 kilometers, or 12.4 miles, south of the Moore Creek Property currently being drilled by Full Metal and Highbury Projects.
Drilling under way at Moore Creek Full Metal and Highbury began drilling an initial 3,000-meter program at Moore Creek in April. The joint venture partners said they are targeting a 300-meter by 400-meter open-ended area of gold mineralization, and investigating its potential for both a bulk tonnage gold system and high-grade vein-hosted deposit.
Exploration for the bedrock source of placer gold at Moore Creek resulted in a discovery through trenching in 2007. Full Metal said it is planning an exploration program consisting of mapping, geochemical sampling and mechanical trenching to identify drill targets.
Full Metal said Granite Creek is surrounded on all sides by claims staked by Barrick Gold Corp, co-owner with NovaGold of the world-class Donlin Creek gold deposit, which is located 90 kilometers, or about 56 miles, to the southwest.
Multiple styles of mineralization have been identified at Granite Creek, including: intrusive stocks and associated hornfels with sheeted quartz-tourmaline veins, swarms of altered rhyolite dikes and sills with disseminated sulphides, and auriferous stibnite-pyrite veins associated with NE trending faults.
Historic exploration found gold Two samples of quartz-stibnite veins collected by Placer Dome in the mid 1990s averaged 17.5 grams per metric ton and 10.5 g/t gold, respectively. Four channel samples from an antimony rich shear zone ranged from 343 to 686 parts-per-billion gold. These results are historical in nature and have not been verified, the company said.
Battle Mountain Gold Exploration Co. completed two drill holes in the late 1980s. The results of the drilling are unknown. Placer Dome also conducted geophysical surveys on the property in 1996-1997. These programs revealed several areas of anomalous gold mineralization, with limited follow-up exploration.
Full Metal is an exploration company with multiple precious and base metal projects in Alaska and Yukon Territory. In addition to the Moore Creek effort, Full Metal has a drill programs are underway at the high grade 40 Mile zinc-silver-lead project. The junior also has current JVs with Kinross Gold, Freeport McMoRan, BHP Billiton, Metallica Resources, Triex Minerals, Altair Ventures and Highbury Projects.
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