Freegold Ventures (FVL: TSX) announced Tuesday that drilling has recommenced on its Golden Summit project near Fairbanks, Alaska.
A phase 1 drilling of 10,000 metres (approximately 15-20 holes) is planned, starting with the completion of drill hole GSDL2002, which was shut down at 165 metres in March due to safety concerns related to covid-19.
Two holes (GSDL2001 and GSDL2002) were initially planned to test Freegold’s revised interpretation that the strike of the Cleary Hill vein system may extend west of the old Cleary Hill mine working towards the Dolphin intrusive in an area of limited previous shallow drilling.
As the district’s highest-grade historical underground mine, Cleary Hill produced 281,000 ounces at an average grade of 1.3 oz/t before production ceased in 1942.
The previous Cleary Hill mine workings are projected to lie approximately 500-600 metres to the northeast of hole GSDL2001, which returned 188 metres grading 3.69 g/t gold. The last 20 metres averaged 9.87 g/t gold.
Hole GSDL2002 is collared 150 metres to the east of GSDL2001 and is aimed at further developing an understanding of the orientation of the Cleary Vein Swarm.
Freegold said the current program will focus on systematically drilling the areas to the north, west and east of the initial 2020 holes to further test and refine its revised interpretation.
Shares of Freegold Ventures jumped as high as 25.8% during Tuesday’s session to an eight-year high of C$0.78 per share. The Vancouver-based gold miner has a market capitalization of C$160.9 million.