MINING NEWS: Tonogold touts Nyac’s Ft. Knox-like features

Company has results from 2005 summer exploration program at 57,600-acre Kuskokwim River Delta prospect on Native lands

Rose Ragsdale

Mining News Contributing Writer

Monogold Resources Inc. posted results Sept. 15 of sampling results from its 2005 summer exploration program at the Nyac Gold Project in southwestern Alaska that reinforce its geologists’ theory that the prospect contains a gold deposit similar to the Fort Knox gold mine near Fairbanks. (See story in June 19 issue of Mining News.)

Tonogold said the latest results represent fill-in sampling done in previously identified prospect areas within a 57,600-acre parcel in the Nyac Mining District in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. High values within 155 soil assays received from ALS Chemex were 2.46 parts per million gold, 3.0 ppm Au and 4.2 ppm Au, along with four other samples between 1.0 ppm Au and 1.8 ppm Au and 10 additional samples between 0.5 ppm Au and 1.0 ppm Au. The highest assay received (4.2 ppm Au) from the samples was 62 percent higher than the previous high soil value of 2.4 ppm Au from the first 1,916 soil assays obtained from samples last month. (Note: 1 ppm equals 1 gram per metric ton equals 0.0292 ounces per short ton).

Interim results from the sampling program announced Sept. 7 revealed six gold prospects at Nyac with large, disseminated, low-grade gold potential. The 2005 Nyac sampling and exploration program was a systematic grid sampling of clay-bearing soils over the center of the district. Based at Calista’s Nyac Camp, sampling teams took over 3,000 soil and 200 rock samples, covering an area of approximately six square miles.

All six prospects identified have soil that assays over 0.5 ppm gold and multiple returns over 1.0 ppm gold.

“Management believes that these newest geochemical returns confirm the evidently large, low grade, disseminated gold potential of Bonanza Ridge, in addition to the apparent width and the higher grades along the east-west structure at Shamrock Head,” Tonogold said in a statement Sept. 15.

“These encouraging soil results at Bonanza Ridge and Shamrock Head confirm that these two large areas, each more than a kilometer square, could have gold mineralization similar to the Fort Knox deposit near Fairbanks, Alaska.”

The Nyac District also shares some geologic characteristics with the 23 million-ounce Donlin Creek gold resource. Both have northeasterly structural control and gold-mineralized dacite dikes. However, Nyac has lower arsenic values and appears to have better metallurgical characteristics, the company said.

“These results definitely justify a substantial drilling program at Nyac. We have abundant, high probability drill targets over a large area. We will aggressively pursue the Nyac Project with drilling in the 2006 season,” said Tonogold President Jeff Janda. The work during the 2005 season was limited to surface sampling and mapping, and covered about 7,500 acres.

Tonogold geologists, along with geologists and samplers employed by Alaska Native regional corporation Calista Corp. performed the work. Tonogold holds an exploration and mining lease for Nyac with Calista, the second largest native corporation in Alaska with land entitlements of more than 6.5 million acres.

The California-based junior mining company is also awaiting results of fill-in sampling on three other Nyac prospects it explored this summer.