Freegold Commences 40,000 foot Phase 2 Expansion Drill Program at Golden Summit
VANCOUVER, Feb. 27 /CNW/ - Freegold Ventures Limited (TSX: ITF, OTCBB:
FGOVF, Frankfurt: FR4) is pleased to announce the first of a series of
drilling programs that will be undertaken on its projects this year. Each
program is designed to further delineate and extend the new, open-ended
mineralized zones intersected in the 2007 programs, and to continue to expand
and further upgrade the Company's gold resources.
The first program to be undertaken is a 40,000 foot Phase 2 continuation
of the systematic RAB drill program that was conducted from December 2006
through November 2007 on the Golden Summit project outside Fairbanks, Alaska.
This program consisted of 674 (40,093 feet) shallow, closed spaced vertical
holes that were drilled in north-south oriented lines of holes at various
locations along a mile wide east-west oriented area of gold mineralization in
the vicinity of the historic Cleary Hill Mine. This area was seen to contain
broad and continuous gold-bearing shear zones over the entire mile length and
over a maximum tested width of 1,500 feet. The mineralization identified in
this first phase of drilling remains open in all directions. This mineralized
area is comprised of multiple 100 to 300 foot wide parallel shear zones that
can be traced from drill fence to fence. The shears themselves contain
multiple high grade narrow veins (which was the focus of historical
underground mining in the camp) surrounded by lower grade mineralization, that
in its entirety, presents attractive bulk mineable, open pit mineralized
targets.
As seen in Figure 1 (www.freegoldventures.com/i/maps/Map_022708ITF.jpg)
the initial fences were drilled in the eastern half of the area, starting in
the vicinity of the old Beistline shaft, where trenching, stripping and the
first bulk sampling initially revealed the potential bulk mineable nature of
the gold mineralization. As the first fences ended with good gold
mineralization in the holes at the northern and southern ends, subsequent
fences were drilled over progressively longer lengths as they moved westward.
These initial fences were drilled as 500 foot step-outs until Fence 5
(covering 1,725 of width) which contained multiple 100 to 275 foot wide zones,
each averaging more than 1 g/t over the maximum 78 foot depth capability of
the RAB drill. Fence 6 was a subsequent 2,300 foot step out to the west
testing a particular shear target with shorter fence lengths. This particular
shear was then traced back to the east in Fences 7, 8, 16-19 where it is now
appears to be trending into the heart of the main vein swarm south of the
Cleary Hill mine.
The Phase 2 drilling, which will continue to use the same percussion
blast-hole drill equipped with an OEM dust and drill cutting collector, is
designed to test and delinate multiple expansion targets. As Phase 1 drilling
encountered high-grade intercepts over significant widths at or near surface
in many of the fences (e.g. 9' @ 28.5 g/t (Fence 15), 3' @ 33.9 g/t (Fence 9),
6' @ 23.4 g/t (Fence 3), 9' @ 25.3 g/t (Fence 5), and 3' @ 34.8 g/t and 15' @
19.6 g/t in the Beistline area), the first fences in Phase 2 are designed to
test the continuity of some of the wider, higher grade areas of gold
mineralization along strike. Drilling has now commenced with short fences of
holes (Fence 24) stepping out from 75 to 150 feet on either side of multiple
higher-grade mineralized intercepts encountered in Fence 4 (e.g. 6' @ 20.5 g/t
, including 3' @ 36.2 g/t (hole 191), 6' @ 15.0 g/t, including 3' @ 22.2 g/t
(hole 194), and 3' @ 19.3 g/t (hole 196)). Logging of drill cuttings recovered
from holes already completed is identifying visible gold in some of the drill
holes, indicating that these higher grade shears and veins zones may have
continuity along strike.
Subsequent fences will be drilled in the Tolovana mine area on the
western end of the zone. Since the original fences in this area only tested
the mineralized zone over widths of approximately 100 feet, two of the Fences
(6 and 17) will each get extensions to the north and south (Fences 6 N and 17
N extensions plus Fences 22 and 23 to the south) totaling an extra 1,000 feet
to determine if the same width of mineralization seen in Fence 5 continues to
the west. Fence 20 will then be drilled over a length of 1,750 feet to cover
the last large gap between Fences 5 and 19. These three fences were bulldozed
to bedrock last fall before freeze-up in order to facilitate the commencement
of winter drilling. Numerous areas of quartz veining and alteration were seen
in this stripping, and significant grab samples taken at surface along the
area to be drilled include 5.2 and 80.5 g/t along Fence 20, and 7.5, 8.3, 12.3
and 23.7 g/t along Fence 22.
Following completion of extensional and in-fill drilling on the western
side of the zone, RAB drilling will move back to the eastern Beistline area.
Fence 25 will test for additional parallel vein swarms over a distance of 500
feet to the south of where the previous RAB drilling and bulk sampling ended
in gold mineralization. This will be followed by Fence 26, an 800 foot
eastward step out that will be the first systematic exploration east of the
Beistline shaft area to determine if the vein swarm continues in this
direction. If this step out is successful, plans for additional step outs to
the east will be developed.
In addition to this ongoing RAB drilling (which is continuing to be
viewed as a cost effective exploration tool to determine the areal extent of
mineralization in this area), the Company will also be conducting a deeper
core drilling program that will provide the first systematic testing of this
gold mineralization to depth, and provide the Company with the first
opportunity to begin determining the resource potential in this Cleary Hill
mine area. Detailed information on this drill program, an update on initial
Golden Summit bulk sampling results, and information on drill programs
currently planned on our other Alaskan projects will be reported shortly.
True widths of the veins reported in this release are variable, as the
orientation of the various mineralized structures encountered throughout the
drilling is variable. Drilling is currently being conducted with an
Ingersol-Rand conventional percussion drill. Cuttings are returned up the
drill hole with the use of an OEM vacuum drill cuttings collector, and are
dropped from a cyclone directly into a sample bag. Samples are collected every
three feet, with the drill bit being pulled off the bottom and the hole
cleaned at the completion of each sample interval. Freegold maintains a
geologist and sampler at the drill rig for all drilling to take and log all
samples to insure that quality assurance and control procedures are in
accordance with 43-101 requirements. One duplicate assay is conducted in every
drill hole and either a blank or a standard is inserted in the sample stream
every 10 samples. Alaska Assay Laboratories in Fairbanks, Alaska is being used
to analyze the drill cuttings for gold via fire assay analysis plus multi
element ICP-AES and ICP-MS analysis using 4 acid digestion.
About Freegold Ventures Limited
Freegold Ventures Limited is a North American exploration and development
company with a management team experienced in mine development and production
that is actively exploring advanced-stage gold projects in Idaho and Alaska.
Freegold holds a 100% lease interest in the Almaden gold project in Idaho.
This large tonnage epithermal gold deposit was the subject of a feasibility
study in 1997 calling for the development of a 95,000 oz/year open pit, heap
leach mine. Freegold has recently finalized a 54,700-foot drilling program
aimed at further expanding the size of the resource and is in the process of
generating a new 43-101 resource prior to undertaking new economic evaluations
in 2008. Drilling at depth and to the north and south of the known
mineralization is continuing to identify new extensions to the deposit, and
newly identified open ended areas of molybdenum mineralization continue to be
encountered along with the gold in the northern portions of the deposit.
Freegold's 40,100-foot drill program has resulted in the discovery of new
high-grade veins and bulk tonnage shear zones on its Golden Summit project
outside Fairbanks, Alaska. Over 7 million ounces of gold has historically been
recovered from Golden Summit which is situated less than 5 miles to the north
of the +7 million ounce Fort Knox Mine. In order to further evaluate the
mineralized zones delineated to date, on-site seasonal bulk sample processing
using a gravity-based concentration plant has commenced. Exploration is
ongoing as the Company continues to define additional areas of larger, lower
grade mineralization through on-going drilling and stripping.
Exploration has also commenced on the Vinasale property in Alaska, where
geophysical and surface sampling programs have recently been completed on this
140,000 acre property which contains the Vinasale gold deposit, and on the Rob
property in Alaska, where recent drilling has intersected high-grade gold
(29.0 g/t over 13 feet and 20.1 g/t over 13.5 feet) in near surface quartz
veins similar in appearance and grade to those being mined at the nearby 5.6
million ounce Pogo mine.
The Qualified person for this release is Michael P. Gross, M.S., P.Geo,
VP Exploration, Freegold Ventures Limited.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
"Steve Manz"
Steve Manz
President and C.E.O.
The TSX has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news
release. CUSIP: 45953B107
DISCLAIMER
This news release contains certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within
the meaning of Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of
1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of historical fact,
included herein are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and
uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be
accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from
those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause
actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are
disclosed in the Company's documents filed from time to time with the Toronto
Stock Exchange, British Columbia Securities Commission and the United States
Securities & Exchange Commission.
For further information: Kristina Walcott, VP Corporate Development,
(604) 662-7307, jkw@freegoldventures.com
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