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MINING NEWS: Pebble 2004 drilling yields promising results Northern Dynasty Minerals awaits revised resource estimate for huge gold-copper-molybdenum deposit Rose Ragsdale Mining News Contributing Writer
As its 2004 drilling program draws to a close, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. is awaiting a revised independent estimate of the size of its Pebble gold-copper-molybdenum deposit in Southwest Alaska, Ronald W. Thiessen, the company’s president and CEO announced in mid-December.
Northern Dynasty said it spent C$33.5 million to drill 173 holes that include the new East Zone discovery holes, which intercepted substantial higher-grade gold-copper-molybdenum mineralization outside of the previous resource boundary.
Earlier this year, Norwest Corp. established in an independent estimate that the Pebble prospect is the largest deposit of contained gold and the second-largest deposit of contained copper resources in North America.
A new estimate, due in the first quarter of 2005, will incorporate results from this year’s drilling.
Northern Dynasty believes the results demonstrate and confirm exceptional uniformity and continuity of Pebble’s deposit mineralization in a near-surface configuration with almost no internal waste over a broad area measuring at least 3 kilometers east-west and 2 kilometers north-south, Thiessen said.
A complete tabulation of assay results from the 173 core holes (numbered 4136 through 4309) drilled during 2004, along with drill hole location maps, is posted on the Internet at www.northerndynasty.com. Additional mineralization 15 kilometers southwest Thiessen said another highlight of the 2004 drilling program is the discovery of additional gold-copper mineralization in a single hole drilled about 15 kilometers southwest of the Pebble deposit.
The 89-square-kilometer Pebble mineral system, which is known to host several substantial gold-copper deposits and occurrences, has been listed by the U.S. Geological Survey as the world’s most extensive system of its type.
Norwest’s estimate of the Pebble resource was 26.5 million ounces of gold and 16.5 billion pounds of copper within an inferred mineral resource of 2.74 billion tons grading 0.55 percent copper-equivalent (0.30 grams gold per ton, 0.27 percent copper and 0.015 percent molybdenum above a cut-off grade of 0.30 percent copper-equivalent).
The 2004 work program was designed to collect detailed engineering, environmental and socioeconomic data for completion in 2005 of a feasibility study and permit applications for a long-life, large-scale, open pit, gold-copper-molybdenum mine, Thiessen said.
A recent preliminary assessment indicates that the Pebble project could generate very attractive rates of return at production rates of 100,000 to 200,000 tons per day over a 30- to 60-year mine life.
In November, Northern Dynasty exercised options that could result in the company acquiring up to a 100 percent interest in Pebble and at least 50 percent interest in the surrounding exploration lands.
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