Mining Explorers 2015: Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo LLC
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. (85 percent); Sumitomo Corp. (15 percent)
General Manager: Chris Kennedy
Senior Mine Geologist: Dave Larimer
Sumitomo Metal Mining Pogo LLC – a joint venture between Japanese firms Sumitomo Metal Mining Company (85 percent) and Sumitomo Corp. (15 percent) – budgeted roughly US$15 million to explore the high-grade gold zones at and around its Pogo Mine in Interior Alaska in 2015. This follows a US$17 million program last year that further defined and expanded East Deep, North and South Pogo, three zones of high-grade gold mineralization adjacent to the current underground workings at the high-grade underground mine. Situated some 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Fairbanks, Pogo began operation in 2006 by mining the Liese zone, three flat-lying, parallel quartz veins that carry high-grade gold. In 2010, SMM Pogo discovered East Deep, a twin to Liese. Geological and metallurgical evidence indicates that the Liese and East Deep zones were once a single body of gold-rich mineralization split by a wedge of gold-barren igneous rock (diorite) some 95 million years ago. The Pogo mill sits on this wedge, making mining of East Deep as convenient as the original zone. Today, the Pogo mill processes high-grade ore from both zones. While East Deep and Liese appear to have been torn apart by intruding igneous rocks, the zones are still linked at the North Zone, a group of higher grade vertical veins that likely provided a conduit to deliver gold mineralized fluids to the flat-lying Liese and East Deep zones. In 2014, SMM Pogo drove two drifts from the underground workings at East Deep to the North Zone. These exploration drives will provide a better angle for drill the vertical North Zone veins as well as provide a platform for defining the northwest expansion area of the East Deep zone. The 2015 program includes roughly 140,000 feet (42,650 meters) of surface drilling in 80 holes and about 28,000 feet (8,550 meters) of underground drilling in 20 holes. This program primarily focused on expansion of the north East Deep and North Zone areas, as well as Pogo South, a new zone immediately south of the Liese zone.
3204 International St., Fairbanks, AK 99701
Tel: 907-458-4003
www.smm.co.jp/E/csr/environment/pogo/
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