Vancouver — Disappointing drill results have prompted mining titan Barrick Gold (ABX-T) to stop work on the California and Surf properties in the Goodpaster district of Alaska.
The properties are adjacent to each other and lie along the eastern extension of the Pogo trend, a 13-km-long, southeasterly trending belt that hosts the 5.6-million-oz. Pogo gold deposit. After spending $600,000 last year, the major elected to drop its option to earn a 51% stake in the project.
Barrick targeted “Pogo-style mineralization” at the Boundary zone, which lies on the boundary of both properties. In 2000, three of four drill holes intersected visible gold, as well as quartz stockwork that was more intense than expected. The highest values were hosted in 1-to-5-cm quartz-pyrite-pyrrhotite veinlets that contained visible gold intergrown with bismuthinite (hole 4 cut half a metre grading 24.26 grams gold per tonne). Broader zones of gold mineralization were discovered in quartz-sericite-altered or sheared gneiss cut by thin quartz-pyrite-calcite stringers (hole cut 2.4 metres grading 2.36 grams gold).
Last year’s exploration program included geological mapping, rock chip and power auger soil-sampling, and an 800-line-km airborne magnetic and radiometric geophysical survey over the California and Surf properties. A 619-metre hole was also drilled, to test the Boundary zone mineralization at depth. The hole intersected quartz-feldspar-biotite gneiss, altered gneiss, altered granite dykes, and granodiorite.
The project now reverts back to Western Keltic Mines (WKM-V), which holds a 70% interest, and Rimfire Minerals (RFM-V), which holds 30%. Western Keltic also has the right to earn an additional 10% by spending $3.5 million on exploration and issuing 200,000 of its shares to Rimfire.
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