Dec 4 2010
Fronteer Gold (TSX:FRG)(NYSE Amex:FRG) reports that core drilling adjacent to, and beneath, historic pits at the company's wholly owned Northumberland gold deposit has returned excellent grades over significant widths.
Fronteer Gold's goal is to advance Northumberland as a combined open-pit and underground operation. The majority of the drilling conducted to date by Fronteer Gold has focused on defining high-grade domains of underground-mineable sulphide gold mineralization, which are now in the process of being accessed via a 280-metre decline.
The other important component of Northumberland's overall development program is to define the open-pit mineable oxide and transitional material surrounding the property's two shallow historic pits. Core material, taken from seven holes located within and around Northumberland's existing pits, will be composited into samples for column leaching and other metallurgical testing at McClelland Laboratories Inc. in Sparks, Nevada.
Assay results from the program's first four of these holes include wide intervals of open-pit mineable gold mineralization. Drill highlights include:
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6.06 grams per tonne gold over 16.92 metres, including 8.93 g/t gold over 7.62 metres; and a separate zone that returned 2.44 g/t gold over 44.20 metres, in FNU43;
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2.93 g/t gold over 30.18 metres in FNU45; and
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2.78 g/t gold over 19.81 metres in FNU44.
Silver is also an important component of mineralization at Northumberland, where rich epithermal veins were mined in the late 1800s. High-grade silver highlights from new drilling include:
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369.50 g/t silver over 3.05 metres in FNU44;
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154.93 g/t silver over 4.57 metres, including 457.0 g/t silver over 1.52 metres; and 55.33 g/t silver over 3.66 metres in FNU43; and
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43.72 g/t silver over 2.74 metres in FNU46.
UNDERGROUND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
Contractor J.S. Redpath Corporation of Sparks, Nevada, has commenced construction of a 280-metre long decline to access deeper high-grade mineralization within the deposit.
The purpose of the decline is three-fold:
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To provide the most cost-effective method for future exploration/definition drilling and the best opportunity to assess controls on high-grade mineralization.
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To provide access for extraction of bulk samples for metallurgical testing and pilot testing.
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To afford an easy transition from exploration to production.
James Ashton P.E. is designated as a Qualified Person for the Northumberland drill results, with the ability and authority to verify the authenticity of, and validity of these data. Drill composites were calculated using a cut-off of 0.3 g/t. Drill intersections are reported as drilled thicknesses. Drill samples were assayed by ALS Chemex (ISO9001:2000) in Reno, Nevada for gold by Fire Assay of a 30 gram (1 assay ton) charge with an AA finish, or if over 5.0 g/t (over 100 g/t for silver) were re-assayed and completed with a gravimetric finish. For these samples, the gravimetric data were utilized in calculating gold intersections. QA/QC included the insertion of numerous standards and blanks into the sample stream, and the insertion of duplicate samples at random intervals within each batch. Holes are also analyzed for a 51-element geochemical suite by ICP-MS/-AES.
Source: Fronteer Gold