Mining News: Drills turning at Shorty Creek

Freegold Ventures Ltd. July 19 announced the start of 2017 drilling at its Shorty Creek copper-gold project about 75 road miles northwest of Fairbanks, Alaska. The company first tapped porphyry style copper-gold mineralization at Shorty Creek in 2015 and expanded upon its find last year. Hole SC 16-01, drilled last year at the property’s Hill 1835 target, cut 434.5 meters averaging 0.57 percent copper-equivalent, which accounts for the value of the copper, gold and silver. This hole is 125 meters southwest of SC 15-03, which cut 292.6 meters averaging 0.38 percent copper-equivalent. Hole SC 16-02, drilled 120 meters southwest of SC 16-01, cut 409.6 meters grading 0.41 percent copper-equivalent. In addition to the copper, gold and silver, the 2016 drilling also tapped significant tungsten in the form of wolframite. SC 16-01 cut 2017 meters averaging 0.045 percent tungsten trioxide; and SC 16-02 cut 409.6 meters averaging 0.03 percent tungsten. Freegold said this year’s drilling is focused on further expansion of mineralization at Hill 1835 and initial drill testing of the Steel Creek and Quarry targets. Steel Creek is a large magnetic and geochemical target directly northeast of Hill 1835. Quarry, situated about 5,000 meters east of Hill 1835, is a northeast trending magnetic high that is more than 10,000 meters (six miles) long and associated with stockwork veined quartz-feldspar porphyry. Ground magnetics and soil geochemistry over a small portion of this very large anomaly were also completed. The soil sampling returned both strong copper and molybdenum values.

–SHANE LASLEY