Adelaide, Australia (ABN Newswire) – Resolution Minerals Ltd (ASX:RML) (FRA:NC3) is pleased to announce that it has completed the Company’s first drilling program on the Sunrise Gold Prospect at the 64North Project in Alaska. Drilling was conducted along an existing access road, targeting outcropping granite hosted mineralisation, analogous in style to Kinross’s Fort Knox Gold Mine, which is one of Alaska’s most profitable mines. The Sunrise Prospect was identified in 2020 by a RML trenching program and is located less than 5km from Northern Star’s operating Pogo Gold Mine.
Summary
– A 1400m long “fence line” of 27 shallow RAB drill holes designed to test outcropping mineralisation at the Sunrise Prospect has been completed.
– Encouragingly the drilling intersected granite (the target rock unit) in all holes.
– Results are expected in four (4) weeks.
– The 64North Project is located in the Tintina Gold Province (Alaska), which hosts giant size deposits such as Kinross’s Fort Knox Mine of 13M oz Au endowment.
– Resolution is fully funded for multiple drilling programs in Alaska and Australia testing gold and copper prospects following the recent $3.2 million capital raise.
– The East Pogo drilling program is due to commence in late May.
“This is an exciting time for Resolution and its investors because the Sunrise Prospect is potentially a large intrusion hosted gold mineralisation system, analogous to the Fort Knox Gold Mine, which is one of Alaska’s most profitable mines. If the drilling program at Sunrise proves successful in identifying this style of gold mineralisation it also opens up other look-a-like prospects across the 64North Project and demonstrates the potential for this under explored region to host multiple gold mines.”
– Managing Director, Duncan Chessell
Drilling Program Details
The reconnaissance program of a 1400m long “fence line” of 27 shallow RAB drill holes across at the Sunrise Prospect has been completed ahead of schedule. The program is drill testing beneath the outcropping mineralisation identified in the 2020 trenching program, for potential large-scale gold mineralisation near-surface. The program varied from the original hole design, of 40 holes, due to slightly increasing the spacing between holes, whilst still providing geological testing of the interpreted granite. Hole depth was ~75m across the trenching zone (See Figure 1* – that was undertaken in 2020 by RML) and 25m-45m hole depths to the east and west. Encouragingly the drilling intersected granite (the target rock unit) in all holes. Samples have been submitted to the lab in Fairbanks for preparation and transport to Vancouver for assay and we expect to be able to inform the market in approximately 4 weeks of results. Upon positive results, the Company will consider further deeper drill testing with heavy duty RC drilling rigs and diamond core drilling.
Project Details:
The 64North Project surrounds Northern Star’s (ASX:NST) Pogo Gold Mine, 120km from Fairbanks, Alaska in the Tintina Gold Province. The two main styles of mineralisation being targeted in this region are the high-grade Pogo style and the large-scale, but low-grade Fort Knox style. These styles are typical for the Tintina Gold Province, which hosts over 100M oz of gold endowment. Resolution will be assessing the scale potential of Fort Knox style Sunrise Prospect over the following few weeks, before drill testing of the Pogo style, East Pogo Prospects in late May.
RML has earned a 30% interest and continues to earn-in towards a 60% interest in the project with a conditional pathway to 80% on a “best block” at RML’s election; see RML ASX Announcement 9 February 2021 for full details.
About the Fort Knox Gold Mine and Fort Knox style of mineral system
Fort Knox style Intrusion hosted systems are typical of the Tintina Gold Province and can form very large tonnage, but low-grade (typically <1g/t Au) deposits, so the size potential of the Sunrise Prospect is important to establish with initial reconnaissance drilling. In the case of the Fort Knox Mine the approximate surface expression of the 13M oz Au endowed Fort Knox Mine is ~1100m x ~900m and is mined by open cut method, with considerable gold being recovered by inclined heap leach method at very low-grades (0.2g/t Au) but corresponding low production cost.
When considering what a successful drill test might look like at the Sunrise Prospect investors should consider the analogous profitable low-grade Fort Knox mine information available on the Kinross full year report 2020, which states the Fort Knox Mine, Fairbanks Alaska, Resource, Reserve and Production figures (available on Kinross website www.kinross.com):
– 237,925 oz Au Produced 2020
– US$1,054/oz Au Production cost
– 0.1g/t Au cut-off grade
– 0.2g/t Au grade of heap leach resources
– 2.4m oz @ 0.3g/t Au Reserves
– 2.6m oz @ 0.3g/t Au M&I Resources
– Produced 8M oz Au during a >20 year mine life.
About the Pogo Gold Mine and Pogo style mineral systems
NST’s operating world-class high-grade Pogo Gold Mine has an endowment of 11M oz of gold and started production in 2006, producing approximately 300,000oz/year at over 13g/t Au through much of this time. This demonstrates the highly prospective nature of the district overall. The Pogo style gold system present is typically shallow dipping (almost flat lying), quartz hosted gold mineralisation of 4m to 20m thick arranged in “stacked sheets” of very high grade gold mineralisation and is mined underground. This style of mineralisation is potentially found at shallow depths (50-150m) on the East Pogo Prospect and was the target of deeper diamond core drilling in 2020 at RML’s Aurora Prospect.
*To view tables and figures, please visit:
https://abnnewswire.net/lnk/P7118VVZ
About Resolution Minerals Ltd:
Resolution Minerals Ltd (ASX:RML) is a mining company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of precious and battery metals – such as gold, copper, cobalt, and vanadium.
The company is led by Managing Director Duncan Chessell and an experienced team with proven success in corporate finance, marketing, metallurgy and geoscience. This equips Resolution Minerals with the tools to meet the changing demands of the mining markets.
Resolution Minerals Ltd Listed on the ASX in 2017 with a focus on the exploration of the Wollogorang Copper Cobalt Project. It has since aquired the Snettisham Vanadium Project and more entered into a binding agreement witth Millrock Resources to earn up to 80% of the highly prospective 64North Gold Project.
Source:
Resolution Minerals Ltd
Contact:
Duncan Chessell
Managing Director
[email protected]
Julian Harvey
Investor Relations
[email protected]