EXPLORATION ’99 – NovaGold outlines targets near Pogo

NovaGold Resources (NRI-T) has identified three drill targets at the Caribou project, 40 km northwest of the promising Pogo deposit in the Tintina gold belt of Alaska.

Caribou comprises about 48 sq. km of the favourable geological environment. The land package was acquired based on its historic placer gold and bismuth production, and on results from regional geochemical sampling. The gold and associated mineralization are related to the same granitic rocks associated with the Pogo deposit in the Goodpaster region of east-central Alaska and the Fort Knox mine near Fairbanks.

Exploration in the region has been spurred by the success of partners Teck (tek-t) and Sumitomo at Pogo. At last report, the deposit hosted a resource of 10 million tons grading 0.52 oz. gold per ton. An updated estimate is expected shortly.

NovaGold’s Caribou project was initially a partnership with Kennecott Exploration, which funded the first program as a part of its option agreement. However, the major elected not to fund further work and consequently earned no interest for its previous contribution.

The three drill targets consist of highly anomalous gold, arsenic, antimony and bismuth in surface chip and soil geochemical sampling.

The No Grub zone, identified in 1998, measures 900 by 400 metres, contains two core areas with anomalous gold-in-soil values of up to 1 gram gold per tonne and chip samples of up to 3.4 grams gold.

The newly identified Headwaters zone, north of No Grub, is a large, semi-circular, 2,000-by-1,500-metre arsenic, antimony and low-level gold soil anomaly. Chip samples have returned up to 2.1 grams gold.

The newly discovered Caribou zone of anomalous soil gold and trace metal mineralization comprises 1,000 by 200 metres. Chip samples have returned values up to 2.5 grams gold.

All three zones are open.

NovaGold is awaiting results from an aeromagnetic and radiometric geophysical survey recently flown over the area. This information, as well as data obtained by geological mapping and geochemical sampling, will be used to develop targets for drilling in 2000.

NovaGold also owns a 5.6% interest in Etruscan Resources (EET-T), which in turn holds several gold properties in West Africa.

The government of Niger has granted Etruscan a permit for the Samira Hill gold project in the western part of the nation, with startup slated for late 2000. Samira Hill has a minable reserve of 6.6 million tonnes grading 2.4 grams gold per tonne.

Semafo (SMF-T) recently spent US$2.5 million to buy a 50% stake in the company that holds Etruscan’s properties in Niger, including Samira Hill. It also agreed to provide the remaining financing needed to bring the project into production.

In addition, Semafo funded Etruscan’s recent acquisition of the Soura permit, southeast of Samira Hill, from Ashanti Goldfields and Iamgold. The project hosts a resource of 5.3 million tonnes grading 2.2 grams gold.