Drilling In Nucleus Zone Expands MineralizedNorthern Freegold Step Out Drilling In Nucleus Zone Expands Mineralized Area to the South Intersecting 60.80 m of 0.99 g/t Gold
2/29/2008
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Feb 29, 2008 (Marketwire via COMTEX News Network) --
Northern Freegold Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:NFR) is pleased to announce additional drill results from the final 9 holes in the 2007 diamond drill program at the Nucleus Zone at the Freegold Mountain Project, Yukon. Twenty-seven (27) holes totaling 6,313 m (20,705 ft) were drilled within the Nucleus Zone over a period of 3 months.
Highlights:
- The 2007 drill program at the Nucleus Zone has identified a gold biased gold copper porphyry with a current drilled extent of 450 m long by 300 m wide by 120 m deep and open in all directions
- GRD-07-64 intersects 60.80 m of 0.99 g/t Au including:
-- 22.65 m of 1.48 g/t Au
- Holes GRD-07-061 and 063 confirm mineralization continues to the southeast of the central area of the Nucleus Zone with:
-- GRD-07-061 intersecting 36.05 m of 0.73 g/t Au
-- GRD-07-063 intersecting 38.35 m of 0.79 g/t Au
- Northern Freegold is well financed and has access to at least 4 drills in the 2008 season and plans an aggressive drill campaign of 25,000 m at the Freegold Mountain Project leading to the calculation of 43-101 resource estimates once 2008 drill results are received
Susan Craig, President, commented, "The 2007 drill program at the Nucleus Zone which focused on step-out holes from the known mineralized zone was successful in discovering signficant mineralization to the west, south and east, such as 75 m of 4.26 g/t Au (see Dec. 6, 2007 news release). The receipt of these final assays from the Nucleus Zone allows us to define drill targets for our aggressive drill program in the 2008 season. Completing the 2007 drilling campaign at the Nucleus Zone with mineralization still open in all directions and to depth provides NFR with an immense number of exciting targets for exploration and continued definition in the 2008 season."
Nucleus Zone Drill Results Holes GRD-07-59 through GRD-07-67-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thick- Thick- Length From To ness ness Au Au CuHole No. m m m m feet g/t oz/ton ppm (%)--------------------------------------------------------------------------GRD-07-059 269.14 16.20 21.90 5.70 18.70 0.50 0.015 (i)And 31.40 37.05 5.65 18.53 1.11 0.032 (i)And 52.90 59.21 6.31 20.70 1.72 0.050 (i) Includes 56.09 57.91 1.82 5.97 4.60 0.134 (i)And 94.50 96.30 1.80 5.90 2.11 0.062 1165 (0.12)And 129.50 138.45 8.95 29.36 1.11 0.032 (i) Includes 131.50 133.50 2.00 6.56 2.90 0.085 (i)And 143.2 187.00 43.80 143.66 0.10 0.003 1683 (0.17)--------------------------------------------------------------------------GRD-07-060 280.42 49.00 58.40 9.40 30.83 0.66 0.019 1298 (0.13)And 79.55 91.65 12.10 39.69 0.09 0.003 1485 (0.15)--------------------------------------------------------------------------GRD-07-061 198.12 37.25 73.30 36.05 118.24 0.73 0.021 (i) Includes 51.25 57.70 6.45 21.16 1.50 0.044 (i) Includes 67.30 71.30 4.00 13.12 1.38 0.040 (i) And 91.10 93.10 2.00 6.56 1.39 0.041 (i)--------------------------------------------------------------------------GRD-07-062 222.5 74.60 78.10 3.50 11.48 0.73 0.021 3185 (0.32)Includes 76.00 76.80 0.80 2.62 2.11 0.062 8679 (0.87)--------------------------------------------------------------------------GRD07-063 252.98 36.57 39.70 3.13 10.26 0.97 0.028 1071 (0.11)And 71.15 109.30 38.15 125.13 0.79 0.023 (i) Includes 71.15 86.15 15.00 49.20 1.10 0.032 1285 (0.13) Includes 106.40 109.30 2.90 9.51 1.22 0.036 2366 (0.24)And 154.00 189.8 35.80 117.42 0.45 0.013 1508 (0.15) Includes 158.55 170.30 11.75 38.55 0.86 0.025 1445 (0.14) Includes 158.55 161.05 2.50 8.20 2.22 0.065 4231 (0.42) Includes 167.10 170.30 3.20 10.50 3.54 0.103 1071 (0.11) Includes 188.00 189.80 1.80 5.90 0.70 0.020 7130 (0.71)--------------------------------------------------------------------------GRD-07-064 257.55 19.45 29.45 10.00 32.8 0.67 0.020 (i)And 55.60 57.95 2.35 7.71 1.65 0.048 (i)And 69.05 129.85 60.80 199.42 0.99 0.029 932 (0.09) Includes 91.65 114.30 22.65 74.29 1.48 0.043 (i) Includes 91.65 100.58 8.93 29.29 2.33 0.068 (i)And 125.05 153.75 28.70 94.13 0.47 0.013 1955 (0.20) Includes 125.05 129.85 4.80 15.74 1.09 0.032 4072 (0.41)And 171.50 174.65 3.15 10.33 0.81 0.024 (i)And 214.30 229.60 15.30 50.18 0.63 0.018 1567 (0.16)--------------------------------------------------------------------------GRD-07-065 216.40 No significant results--------------------------------------------------------------------------GRD-07-066 86.86 Hole abandoned and not sampled--------------------------------------------------------------------------GRD-07-067 222.50 No significant results--------------------------------------------------------------------------(i) Cu values less than 1,000 ppm Mineralized intervals with a length times grade value of less than 2.5 g/t/m are not included in the above table.
Nucleus Zone
A plan map of the 2007 drilling including results from holes GRD-07-59 to 64 can be found at www.northernfreegold.com.
The Nucleus Zone is a gold-biased gold-copper porphyry with a current drilled extent 300 m wide by 450 m long and 120 m deep. Host rocks are Paleozoic metasediments intruded by mid-Cretaceous granites and granodiorites. Mineralization appears to be concurrent with younger, smaller, felsic intrusions and quartz feldspar porphyry dykes (QFPs) that crosscut the older units. A microgranite stock is located on the north side of the Nucleus Zone and related QFPs with brecciated and/or faulted margins trend northwest-southeast across the zone.
Mineralization occurs as quartz-sulphide veins and stringers, disseminated sulphides, breccias, fault zones and in the QFPs. Visible gold is found with quartz and chalcopyrite/pyrite/limonite veins in the gold rich-core of the zone. Quartz-sericite-pyrite (phyllic) alteration forms a halo around the richer parts of the zone and transitions outwards into kaolinite-sericite (argillic) alteration. Lack of recent glaciations in the Dawson Range has produced a deeply weathered oxide zone which extends 50-100 m below surface and overprints hydrothermal alteration. Gold is found in both oxide and sulphide zones while copper is more commonly found at the base of the oxide and in the underlying sulphide zone. Common copper minerals are chalcopyrite and chalcocite.
GRD-07-059 and 060 were drilled 50 m south of the high grade gold-rich trend of the Nucleus Zone, which has been partially delineated in previously released holes GRD-07-041 and 058. Holes 59 and 60 were well mineralized over considerable core lengths. Although neither hole intersected the exceptionally high grade values seen in GRD-07-041 and 058, hole 59 did intersect 5.97 m of 4.6 g/t gold, illustrating potential for additional high grade intersections.
GRD-07-064 was drilled to fill a gap between older short holes at the south end of the Nucleus Zone. Hole 64 returned 60.80 m of 0.99 g/t gold and has opened up some drill targets for further testing. Holes GRD-07-059, 60 and 64 all confirm continuity of mineralization along this fence of holes drilled 50 m to the south from the high grade gold-rich trend.
GRD-07-061, 062 and 063 were drilled to test the southern extent of the Nucleus Zone. GRD-07-061 and 063 confirm mineralization in this area and 063 improves upon values from previously released holes GRD-07-054 and 055, creating drill targets for 2008. The section through holes 054, 055, 061 and 063 shows significant mineralization over a 250 m wide zone, open to the east and west and suggesting continuation of mineralization to the south.
GRD-07-062 is one of the southernmost holes drilled in the Nucleus zone and is situated at a lower elevation than other holes. The mineralized interval in the top of the hole may be suspect due to poor core recovery, however the short interval from 74.60 to 78.10 m returning values in both gold and copper indicate the potential for the discovery of mineralization further to the south and east.
GRD-07-065, 066 and 067 were drilled 1 km northeast of the Nucleus Zone. GRD-07-065 was drilled to follow up on interesting values from a 1970 drillhole but did not return significant results. GRD-07-067 was drilled parallel to Mechanic Creek to follow up on values from outcrop samples but it also failed to return any significant results. GRD-07-066 was a short hole drilled from the same location as 067, but at a different dip. It was not sampled and assayed.
About the Freegold Mountain Project
The Freegold Project is situated within the Dawson Range portion of the Tintina Gold Belt, characterized by plutonic rocks of the 100 million year old Cretaceous Dawson Range Batholith and early Jurassic Klotassin Suite metaplutonic rocks intruding metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks of the Yukon-Tanana Terrane. The region is transected by the west-northwest trending Big Creek Fault, which provides the locus for an over 100 km long well-mineralized belt, with placer gold deposits, porphyry copper-gold, and gold veins and breccias bodies, extending from Mt. Freegold northwesterly to the Casino copper-gold porphyry deposit. The Freegold Project covers a 30 km strike extent of this belt.
The Freegold Mountain Project covers an area in excess of 64 square miles (166 square km) and several road accessible mineralized zones which include historical estimates not compliant with NI 43-101. Historical work on the Freegold Mountain property dating back to 1930 indicates that the property holds significant potential to host an intrusion related gold deposit or bulk-tonnage gold+/-copper porphyry style mineralization (ie Nucleus Zone) such as that seen at Kinross Gold's Fort Knox deposit in Alaska which has produced more than 3 million ounces in the past 10 years and still has a resource of 2.7 million ounces of gold from proven and probable reserves of 159.7 million tonnes grading 0.53 g/t as at Dec. 31, 2006 (www.kinross.com). These reserves have not been verified by the qualified person and the information is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization at Freegold Mountain. The Project also has potential to host other related deposit types such as intrusive hosted polymetallic vein systems (Tinta Hill), epithermal vein systems (Goldy) and skarn deposits (Margarete/Augusta), as well as other porphyry targets (Castle, Com, Nitro, Rage).
Quality Control and Assurance