MINING NEWS: Full Metal starts drilling at Ganes Creek, Gunsite

Patricia Liles

Mining News editor

In addition to its Pebble South property, Full Metal Minerals is actively working on two other exploration properties in Alaska this summer.

The Vancouver, British Columbia, junior began drilling in mid June on its Gunsite gold copper porphyry property north of Anchorage in the Talkeetna Mountains. The company also plans two phases of drilling at its Ganes Creek property in the west-central portion of Interior Alaska.

Full Metal holds an 85 percent interest in the 65-kilometer Ganes Creek property. The company plans a first phase of work this summer to include prospecting, detailed geological mapping and soil sampling, mechanical trenching and 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) of diamond core drilling, according to the company’s July 6 press release.

“A significant Phase II drill program is planned to test the drill targets identified in this year’s program,” the company said.

Exploration targets include looking for the bedrock source of the area’s placer gold and ultra high-grade gold quartz boulders. Ganes Creek is famous for producing large gold nuggets, including the fifth largest in Alaska’s history, the company said, and the majority of these are still encapsulated in quartz.

“The presence of cobble-size quartz with sulphide boxwork and coarse gold suggests that the placer gold is primary and originates from a nearby source,” the company said.

The Ganes Creek property is believed to be a faulted-off extension of the Donlin Creek intrusive complex, Full Metal said. Work performed during 2003 shows that the placer gold source at Ganes Creek is formed at a deeper structural level than at Donlin, resulting in dominant native gold and quartz mineralization, the company said.

Crews are also currently working at the Gunsite gold-copper project, completing a planned four to six diamond core drill holes for a total of 750 meters (2,400 feet).

The 3,100 hectare (7,660 acre) property is within 15 miles of an all-weather road, about 86 miles north of Anchorage. Two of four mineralized high-grade zones will be drill tested, the company said.

The company has an interest in one other property in Alaska and two in Nunavut, which have been optioned to Garnet Point Resources Corp. In a June 30 press release, Full Metal said the two companies signed an option agreement, allowing Garnet Point to earn a 60 percent interest in Full Metal’s Mac and Cache properties, southeast of Rankin Inlet, in northern Canada.

Garnet Point will make cash payments totaling $140,000, $35,000 in the first year, and issuing 1 million shares of its company to Full Metal, along with spending $4 million on exploration in four years, including $350,000 during the first year.

The two companies are planning an aggressive surface mapping and sampling program this summer, with drilling planned in the spring of 2005, the press release said.