Freegold mines 10,000 tons of material at Golden Summit
2006-10-23 15:30 ET - News Release
Mr. Steve Manz reports
FREEGOLD COMMENCES MINING ACTIVITIES AT GOLDEN SUMMIT
Freegold Ventures Ltd. has commenced mining operations on its Golden Summit project, near Fairbanks, Alaska. An initial 10,000 tons of high-grade surface vein material is being mined from the Cleary Hill eastern extension and the Cleary Hill south vein swarm that were discovered in the June, 2006, trenching program. Mining commenced near the historical Beistline shaft in the eastern extension at the rate of 300 to 800 tons per day. The mineralization, favourable quartz veins and shears in this area, originally discovered as a four-inch to 18-inch vein (which graded 39.5 grams per tonne (1.15 ounces per ton) longitudinally over a 185-foot strike length), has now been increased through mining to a width of over 30 feet. Quartz veining with gold flakes recovered through panning of crushed rock continues to be seen in the wall of the pit. In addition, numerous new mineralized structures have been uncovered during the construction of the one-mile-long haul road that runs through the two areas, and through additional overburden stripping.
Mining to date has stockpiled approximately 2,000 tons of material from an initial 250-foot length of the 30-foot-wide pit near the Beistline shaft. Initial discovery of this extensive bleeding of quartz vein mineralization into the hangingwall of the main vein was discovered when the area was cleared in preparation for mining. The initial narrow pit was subsequently widened after five-foot-long channel samples, located five to 10 feet into the hangingwall returned assays of 25.3 g/tonne, 34.3 g/tonne, 31.1 g/tonne and 26.1 g/tonne. An area stripped a further 80 feet to the south of the current pit wall returned an additional 22.3 g/tonne over a 15-foot-long channel sample. It is uncertain whether this zone is part of the same hangingwall structures.
Significant mineralization in this area consists of silicification of the host rock and quartz veining with the introduction of significant amounts of pyrite and arsenopyrite. Multiple episodes of faulting, shearing and brecciation can be seen in this area. The mineralization appears to be most extensive in areas where the main Cleary Hill east extension zone is intersected by shears coming in at an angle of 50 degrees from the southwest. Visible gold has been seen in several hand specimens, and samples of quartz veining that were crushed and panned in this area have also yielded flakes of gold.
Preliminary sampling of the 10,000-ton bulk sample will be taken in the coming weeks, with crushing, further sampling and gravity concentration of the contained gold for subsequent sale to be undertaken in the spring.
The building of the new haul road has successfully exposed several previously unknown veins in the area, and new trenches have been dug following the haul road mapping and sampling program. One of the new structures, located 80 feet to the north of the Wackwitz vein, assayed 15.45 g/tonne over five feet. Assays from the other sampled exposures are pending. The road-building process also exposed the surface of the original Cleary Hill vein. The historical Cleary Hill mine produced over 280,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 44.6 g/tonne (1.3 ounces per ton). This structure, which is bounded by footwall and hangingwall shear zones, contains quartz and brecciated quartz veins, and appear similar in nature and mineralization to the Beistline shaft area currently being mined 1,000 feet to the east. Overburden stripping, cross trenching, mapping and sampling of this structure are in progress.
Alaska Assay Laboratories in Fairbanks, Alaska, and ALS Chemex Labs in North Vancouver, B.C., completed analyses for gold via fire assay analysis plus multielement ICP-AES and ICP-MS analysis using four-acid digestion.
The qualified person for this release is Michael P. Gross, MSc, PGeo, vice-president of exploration, Freegold Ventures.
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