NovaGold spins off assets

Vancouver — NovaGold Resources (NRI-T) and Viceroy Resource (VOY-T) have formed an company to explore for gold in the Yukon and British Columbia.

Dubbed SpectrumGold, the company will hold all of NovaGold’s Yukon exploration properties, along with Viceroy’s mineral assets in the Yukon and British Columbia. Initially each company will hold a half-interest in SpectrumGold, with NovaGold retaining a 50% equity interest, and Viceroy, 19%. The remainder of the issued shares will be held by current shareholders.

Under the agreement, an application will be made to list the shares of SpectrumGold on a senior stock exchange. NovaGold brings to the table its four properties in the Yukon, namely Klondike, McQuesten, Harlan and Sprogge. Viceroy contributes its gold resources and exploration rights to the Brewery Creek gold mine in the Yukon, along with its British Columbia assets.

Situated near Mayo, the McQueston property is NovaGold’s most advanced Yukon property. Previous drilling identified a large mineralized system in calcareous meta-sediments and intrusive rocks along the McQuesten structural zone.

In 2000, Newmont Mining (NEM-N) tested a 1.2-km portion of the structure with five holes as part of an option agreement with NovaGold to earn a 51% interest in the property. All five holes intersected significant mineralization, with hole 1 yielding 2.5 metres grading 3.2 grams gold per tonne and 6.1 metres grading 2.6 grams gold.

The Harlan property, 100 km east of Mayo, hosts a large in-soil anomaly of gold, bismuth, arsenic, antimony and mercury. Within the anomaly is a 500-by-300-metre area of intensely altered rocks, which, on average, exceeds 1 gram gold in soil. Mineralization is associated with intense alteration and silicification with quartz veining of calcareous chert pebble conglomerate, greywacke, siltstone, and shale, as well as altered dykes and sills.

The Sprogge property lies 175 km north of Watson Lake along Yukon Hwy. 10. In 2000, NovaGold sunk four holes on the property but encountered no significant mineralization.

The Klondike property is 30 km from the past-producing Brewery Creek gold mine, along a major northeast-trending structure. Mineralization is associated with altered, intrusive dykes and sills and hosted by siltstones, calcareous siltstones, and cherts. The project hosts a 3-by-1.5-km in-soil anomaly of gold, arsenic, antimony and mercury.

Trenches returned 5.9 grams gold over 8 metres, 3.1 grams gold over 10 metres, and 3.2 grams gold over 5 metres.

Some 55 km east of Dawson City, Y.T., lies the Brewery Creek mine, which operated from 1997 to 2001. In the second quarter of 2002, 2 million tonnes of ore capacity were unused on the heap-leach pad.

Viceroy and NovaGold will each pony-up $500,000 to fund the new company, which is expected to be publicly traded later this summer.

Alaska

In February, Placer Dome (PDG-T) exercised its right to increase its interest in NovaGold’s Donlin Creek deposit in southwestern Alaska.

Placer elected to earn an additional 40% stake, for a total of 70%. To do so, it must spend a least US$30 million on project development, complete a feasibility study, and build a mine that produces no less than 600,000 oz. gold per year — all within five years.

The move by Placer paves the way for NovaGold to move ahead with its wholly owned Rock Creek property, in the Kuskokwim gold belt of Alaska. The company has launched a 10,000-metre program of delineation drilling as part of a feasibility study.

Novagold has retained enginnering firms Norwest and AMEC E&C Services to complete an economic assessment and updated resource estimate for the Rock Creek project. The study is expected by mid-summer.

Situated 11 km by road from Nome, Alaska, the mineralization at Rock Creek is exposed at surface and amenable to open-pit mining with a low stripping ratio. At last count, the measured, indicated and inferred resource at Rock Creek was 9.3 million tonnes grading 2.85 grams gold per tonne. The mineralization consists of a central higher-grade series of sheeted quartz veins surrounded by an outer shell of disseminated gold on fractures. Metallurgical tests indicated an 86% gold recovery rate using a 65-mesh crush and conventional gravity methods.

Meanwhile, junior TNR Resources (TRR-V) terminated its option to earn a minority interest in the Rock Creek project. Instead, it will earn an interest in NovaGold’s Shotgun property, south of Donlin Creek.

TNR can earn a half-stake by spending US$3 million by May 2006, issuing 1 million shares and advancing the project to production. It can earn a further 20% by spending US$6 million on project development and issuing a further $1 million in stock. NovaGold retains a back-in option to regain a 50% interest in the project.