The Northern Miner, 6/10/2008
The Northern Miner, 6/10/2008
First hole golden for Northern Freegold
Vancouver - "You only get one or two of those in your lifetime," said Northern Freegold (NFR-V) CEO Bill Harris. "We got some fantastic holes last year but this – holy smokers!"
The first hole of the summer season into the Freegold Mountain project in the Yukon returned a stunning gold result. Hole 68 cut 37.8 metres grading 10.41 grams gold per tonne and 0.29% copper from 42 metres downhole, including 3.3 metres of 100.69 grams gold and 0.54% copper. The core's high-grade mineralization is hosted in massive pyrrhotite with lesser pyrite and chalcopyrite; visible gold is also present, with quartz and chalcopyrite-pyrite-limonite veins.
The result comes out of the Nucleus zone, where two drill rigs are at work defining the gold-copper bulk-tonnage porphyry target. To date the zone strikes 450 metres, extends across 300 metres width, and reaches a depth of 120 metres, still open in all directions.
Hole 68 was collared 50 metres east of hole 58, which last year returned 4.26 grams gold over 75 metres, and 100 metres east of hole 41, which cut 72 metres of 2.5 grams gold. Results from 2007 drilling started to define a 150-metre segment of high-grade mineralization; the first drills turning on the project this year went straight to that area and punched in 14 new holes. Harris says his team is waiting for those results with "more than bated breath."
And Harris wasn't the only one excited over the result from hole 68. In three hours Northern Freegold jumped 70% to close at 85¢ on record volume of 1 million shares traded. The company's share price had declined over the winter but the June 9 jump made up all the lost ground. Northern Freegold has a 52-week trading range of 39¢ to 99¢ and has 47 million shares issued.
The Nucleus zone is only one of many targets on the 166-sq. km Freegold Mountain property. The company is advancing a 25,000-metre drill program at the property over the summer season, using four rigs.
Two drill rigs will remain on the Nucleus zone, focused on defining and expanding the zone in advance of a resource calculcation. A third rig is probing the Tinta zone, an intrusion-hosted, high-grade polymetallic vein system striking over 3,500 metres. Four holes last year extended the depth of mineralization at Tinta to 300 metres, tripling the potential size of the system, and the zone remains open in all directions. Northern Freegold also plans to calculcate a resource at Tinta.
The fourth drill at Freegold Mountain will move around the centre of the project. It is currently turning on the Goldy zone, following up on last year's 53-metre interval of 3.6 grams gold. From Goldy the rig will move to the Stoddart porphyry zone and then the high-grade gold-silver-copper Ridge zone, both of which were discovered last year.
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