Jul 13 2020
Millrock Resources Inc. has offered an update on drilling and other exploration activities at the 64North Gold project.
Airborne magnetic base map with CSAMT conductors and progressing airborne ZTEM/Magnetic Survey Areas with historic, planned, and recently completed drill hole locations. Image Credit: Millrock Resources Inc.
Financial support for the exploration activities are being provided and managed by Resolution Minerals, as part of a collaborative arrangement signed, with Millrock as the project operator. The 64North Gold Project is an immensely huge tract of claims in the emerging Goodpaster Gold District of Alaska.
Drilling activities have been carried out since early June and are ongoing. The focus of the drilling program is on the Aurora Target.
The Aurora target being drilled is close to and immediately west of the Pogo Mine property, owned and managed by Northern Star Resources Ltd. Earlier, Northern Star had announced a gold resource of 5.95 million ounces of gold in a range of veins grading 9.6 g per tonne gold.
With over four million ounces of gold already mined at Pogo, recently, Northern Star has reported a new gold discovery known as the Goodpaster deposit, near the mutual claim boundary.
Millrock warns that mineralization on the adjacent Northern Star property does not necessarily indicate hosting of gold mineralization on Millrock’s property. At present, hole 20AU004 has tested a CSAMT conductive zone on-trend and beneath the Half-Ounce Gulch prospect.
Earlier workers at this site have reported high-grade gold grab samples, together with two historic drill holes hosting high-angle veins below the prospect.
Previous workers could not have the advantage of the CSAMT data, and the previous holes (MR12-01 and MR12-02) were not drilled sufficiently deep to intersect the shallow-dipping conductive zone, which Millrock proposes to host low-angle fault structures with quartz veining, gold mineralization, and sulfides. Currently, the hole is at a depth of 900 m beneath surface.
Hole 20AU004 is an exciting hole to drill. We believe the gold mineralization at surface is a good indicator for gold below surface in flat-lying structures. We are drilling through the target zone now. The ZTEM survey, if successful in detecting the conductive zones initially indicated by the CSAMT ground-based method, could result in great efficiencies in future exploration of other prospects across our expansive, district-scale land holdings.
Millrock President & CEO
The Aurora target is a 2-km x 5-km zone of low-magnetic rocks, located close to a late diorite intrusion. The conditions are quite similar to those seen at the adjacent Pogo Mine.
According to Millrock, a westerly extension of the Liese Creek fault was intersected by the late diorite body and is known to have a vital role in the genesis of the Pogo gold deposits. There have been documentations of highly anomalous gold-bismuth-arsenic in soil. Earlier drilling has intersected high-angle gold-bearing quartz veins.
But, the few holes drilled by previous workers did not reach sufficiently deep to intersect the low-angle, regional shear zone known to present gold at Pogo and the Goodpaster Deposit. According to Millrock, this structure could occur at the Aurora target.
Several fault zones and zones of quartz veins and mafic rocks intercepted in the 20AU001 drill hole fit with the exploration model. The mafic lithological layers were preferentially ruptured by the low-angle, regional shear.
The Aurora Target is situated in this regional shear and the existing drill hole program will investigate the shear for gold mineralization in a range of places. In 2019, CSAMT and ELF ground-based geophysical surveys found the regional shear at Aurora.
The ZTEM airborne survey that concluded on July 8th and 9th, 2020, has been performed in the same region, together with extensive airborne magnetic surveys. In case it is possible to effectively detect the regional shear using airborne methods, they can even be applied to other areas of the project in a highly cost-effective way.
Millrock has come up with an all-inclusive COVID-19 safety plan, which includes clear protocols to help maintain the operating team safe. The plan has been submitted to the relevant agencies and approved by the State of Alaska. Until now, the exploration team has been in good health.
Resolution can earn about 60% interest in the 64North Gold Project by means of exploration expenditures of US$20 million, issuance of 38 million Resolution shares, and payment of US$200,000 cash. US$5.0 million is the minimum commitment for 2020. Millrock’s report dated December 16th, 2019, documents other details of the agreement between Millrock and Resolution.