Northern Freegold Resources Ltd. ("Northern Freegold" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on its recent and upcoming activities at its 100% owned Freegold Mountain project, Yukon. The property is accessible by a government maintained road and is located approximately 70 kilometres from the Klondike Highway which runs between Whitehorse and Dawson.
Northern Freegold has completed its 2012 drill program and metallurgical testing program. The main goals of these programs were:
- test the depth extent of the gold mineralization below the current Nucleus Zone indicated and inferred resource model;
- better determine the geological controls on the gold and copper mineralization; and
- metallurgical test work to design a basic process flow sheet and determine metal recoveries.
John Burges, President and CEO of Northern Freegold, stated, "Despite the challenging market conditions the Company has made substantial progress on its key objectives of the 2012 drilling exploration and development activities at the Nucleus gold deposit and we are very pleased with the results including the very positive metallurgical testwork. We anticipate completion of a number of important milestones for the Company over the next six months including an updated resource estimate at Nucleus and additional engineering which will support the first Preliminary Economic Assessment study on the Nucleus and Revenue deposits."
The Company is currently engaged in a reinterpretation of the Nucleus deposit geology and geological model based, in part, on the recent diamond drill results. Following this an updated National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource estimate will be completed for Nucleus. We expect to complete these studies later this quarter.
Preliminary metallurgical data was published in September on the Nucleus gold deposit and on the Revenue copper-gold-molybdenum-silver deposit. The results of these studies showed high recoveries of copper, gold and molybdenum in concentrate for the Revenue deposit and high recoveries of gold by cyanide leach for the Nucleus deposit. These results compare very favorably to other similar porphyry style gold-copper deposits in North America. Future metallurgical work will look at further optimizing these recoveries. A comparison can be found in the corporate presentation on the Company's website.
Results from the metallurgical studies, the updated resource estimate at Nucleus, and the existing resource estimate at the Revenue copper-gold-molybdenum-silver deposit will form the foundation for the first Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") for the Freegold Mountain project. Management anticipates this study will be completed during the first quarter of 2013.
Freegold Mountain Project
The Freegold Mountain project is located within the Dawson Range, approximately 70 kilometres northwest of the community of Carmacks, Yukon. Commercial electrical power is available at Carmacks, which is situated on the Klondike Highway, a paved all-weather highway running from Whitehorse to Dawson City. The property covers an area in excess of 198 square kilometres (75 square miles) and is accessible by a government maintained road. The Nucleus gold deposit and the Revenue Cu-Au-Mo-Ag deposit cover approximately 30 square kilometres.
Paul Reynolds, B.Sc., P. Geo., Vice President Exploration for Northern Freegold Resources Ltd., is the qualified person, as defined by NI 43-101, and has reviewed the technical information in this news release.
Source: http://www.northernfreegold.com/