FREDDIE Freddie is located to the northeast of Goodwin Butte, in an area where initial drilling defined large zones of sulphide-bearing, silicified breccias within silty carbonate units showing evidence of low-angle thrust faulting. These lower-plate carbonate rocks sit below a shale cap rock at the intersection of high-angle NNW and NE district-scale faults along an antiformal fold hinge, as seen in outcrop at Goodwin Butte and in initial oriented-core drill holes. Together, these features represent characteristic host rocks and mineral controls for Carlin-type mineralization, which are supported by the elevated gold and related pathfinders contained in the silicified breccias encountered during drilling. In addition to the drill samples, there is also strong geochemistry support in soils and groundwater: the biggest and strongest mercury and arsenic anomalies in soil sit immediately above the target; and the groundwater sampling encountered notable increases in gold, thallium, and arsenic in the groundwater flowing past the target.
The concept to be tested at Freddie is that of oxidized, silicified breccia-hosted gold mineralization, analogous to the mineralization at Goldrush