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Looking for another Pogo South African gold producer increases its presence in Alaska, plans summer drilling program near Pogo Patricia Jones Petroleum News Contributing Writer
Exploration crews working for AngloGold (U.S.A.) Exploration Inc. will drill up to 10 diamond core holes this summer on optioned property just a few miles west of the Pogo gold deposit in eastern Interior Alaska.
It’s the third year of exploration work in Alaska for AngloGold, a subsidiary of the South Africa-based major mining company, which produced almost 6 million ounces of gold in 2002.
“Alaska is an attractive place, at least in North America. It’s a place we’ve chosen to conduct exploration,” said Jeff Pontius, AngloGold’s exploration manager in the United States. “It’s under explored and it has mineral potential, and a favorable regulatory environment — it looks like — we assume that is so.”
AngloGold’s first foray in Alaska has come through an option on property neighboring the Pogo deposit, staked by three different companies during a land rush in early 1998. Located about 40 miles northeast of Delta Junction, Pogo’s high-grade, 5.5 million ounce gold deposit sparked a claim staking rush that involved more than 150,000 acres of state land in the hills of the remote Goodpaster River Valley.
Since its discovery by exploration crews working for Sumitomo Metal Mining in the mid-1990s, Pogo has been advanced to a development project by joint venture partner Teck Resources, a subsidiary of Teck-Cominco.
State and federal regulators are currently assessing public comments generated by release this spring of a draft environmental impact statement. A decision is expected later this summer, and should developers receive a green light, road construction and initial dirt work will begin late this fall, according to Teck’s Alaska Regional Manager Karl Hanneman.
AngloGold’s exploration program west of Pogo is the only drilling plan submitted to state regulators for that region this summer.
“We’re definitely watching how things go in Alaska from a permitting side. Pogo is one of the important projects out there that the state is considering,” Pontius said. “The Pogo deposit is a very attractive gold deposit … we’re exploring for similar deposits.” Going deep According to AngloGold’s hardrock exploration application submitted and approved by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, the maximum depth of the core holes will be 2,000 feet.
Most of the holes will be drilled to only 1,000 feet, although crews have 1,400 feet of steel pipe to work with, Pontius told Petroleum News in a telephone interview on May 30.
“The targets we’re drilling are down at depths of about 1,000 feet — that’s kind of the common depths that people drill to in this area,” he said. “We’re still in the early stage of exploration — we’re just trying to get a look at the rock out there.”
A heli-portable core drill is being used at the site. The company plans to complete 3,000 meters of core samples this summer, Pontius said.
“It’s a small program. This is just continuing on with testing regional targets,” he said. Past work Last year, AngloGold drilled three core holes in the same area, the first drilling in the Pogo area exploration for the company.
The core holes were drilled on claims staked in 1998 by a Vancouver, B.C.-based exploration company called Blue Desert Mining Inc.
Now renamed Nevada Geothermal Power Inc., that exploration company conducted grassroots geochemical work on the property to identify a soil anomaly dubbed the Hook zone, said company president Brian Fairbank.
AngloGold first optioned that property, along with two other Pogo-area parcels, from Blue Desert in 2000. Since then, AngloGold has dropped all but the acreage west of Pogo called Gobi, Fairbank said, spending about $200,000 to $300,000 on that acreage, he said.
In 2002, AngloGold punched three core holes on the Gobi property. That work turned up “smoke,” Fairbank said. “None had ore grade mineralization, but one had a very interesting alteration and low levels of gold … trace gold throughout the hole.”
His company released data on the best drill intercepts from last year’s work, which included a three meter section that contained 1.05 grams per ton of rock. Other property owners AngloGold has two drill holes planned on the Gobi property, and two on adjoining claims held by Zeus Exploration Inc., based in Lakewood, Colo. The remaining drill holes and camp facilities for the summer program will be located on claims staked by Rimfire Alaska Ltd., based in Vancouver, B.C.
AngloGold’s drill crews have approval to work on the Pogo area property until Aug. 8. Up to eight exploration workers will be supported by helicopter access from Delta Junction.
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