North Springs Gold Project King Tonopah Gold & Silver Project Nyac Gold Project Tonopah Divide Gold Project Goldstrike Project Oddie Gold Project Project Pictures
Project Highlights:
Tonogold Resources retains 1/2% net profit royalty in sale of lease
57,600 acres in mining friendly jurisdiction, leased from Calista Corp
Rock chip samples greater than 1,000 g/t (29 ounces per ton) gold
Drill intercepts to 8.6 g/t (.25 ounces per ton) gold over .6 meters
Over 7,400 soil samples collected, up to 4.2 g/t gold
8,383 feet (2,556 meters) core drilled in 11 holes
Over 600,000 ounces of placer gold produced on property
Excellent infrastructure including:
• two runways, C-130 Hercules capable
• network of maintained roadways
Nyac Report March 19, 2008 with Appendices (16.9Mb) Large File
Implications of Coarse Gold in 2006 Drill Samples(1.6Mb)
Nyac Final Report 2005 (5.0Mb)
BLM-Alaska Open File Report 103-An Investigation of the Geology and Gold Mineralization in the Nyac District.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW NYAC CAMP PHOTOS
Regional Highlights:
The Tintina Gold Belt stretches across Alaska into the Yukon Territory of Canada. This region is home to significant gold deposits and mines, including the Donlin Creek deposit at 32 million ounces of gold, the Fort Knox mine with over 5.5 million ounces of gold produced and the Pogo mine that began producing gold in 2006. Alaska has been under explored and the major mining companies are looking to the state for major deposits. The Nyac Gold Project is considered to be one of the premier prospects in the region and has drawn much attention from the Alaska Miner's Association and visits from major mining companies such as, Barrick Gold, AnlgoGold, Kinross, NovaGold Resources, and Northern Dynasty.
Project Location:
The Nyac Gold Project is located in southwest Alaska on the Tuluksak River. This district is at the western end of the prolific Tintina Gold Belt and sits approximately 90 miles south-southwest of Donlin Creek and 60 miles west of Bethel.
Project History:
On November 19, 2008 Tonogold Resources announces the sale of it's lease interest in the Nyac Gold Project to Nyac Gold LLC. Tonogold will retain a one-half percent net smelter royalty in the project.
In June 2006 the company began that drilling program, along with an extensive surface sampling and mapping program. In all, 11 holes were core drilled to 8,383 feet (2,556 meters), 4,137 soil samples and 55 rock chip samples were collected and sent to ALS Chemex for assay. To date results from the first four drill targets, 1,880 soil samples and 23 rock chip samples have been received back from ALS Chemex at this time. Results from the first four core drill targets show intercepts up to 2 feet (0.6 meters) of 8.6 g/t (.25 ounces per ton) gold. Rock chip samples include assays greater than 1,000 g/t (29 ounces per ton) and 132 g/t (3.8 ounces per ton) gold.
In June, 2005 Tonogold began a surface sampling and mapping program that collected over 3,200 soil and 200 rock samples. These samples were taken on six prospect areas and all six reported multiple soil samples above 1.0 g/t gold. The highest soil samples came in at over 4.2 g/t gold and the highest rock sample was assayed at 15.1 g/t gold. Tonogold was very encouraged by these results as they indicated a very large surface area of mineralization. Each of the six prospect areas at Nyac has a footprint as large as the largest operating mine in Alaska. These excellent results led Tonogold to begin planning for an aggressive drilling program in 2006.
In March, 2005 Tonogold Resources signed a 10 year lease with Calista Corporation for the hard rock exploration and mining rights to the 57,600 acre Nyac property.
Total placer production since 1908 from the Nyac Gold District exceeded 500,000 ounces of gold, but until 2005 the hard rock source of the placer gold went unrecognized. Tonogold Resources was drawn to the property by the significant amount of work that had been done on the property by a number of geologists, including Zach Wenz. In 2003 Mr. Wenz conducted a thorough examination of the Nyac property and wrote a report that was used by the BLM as an open file report on the gold mineralization in the Nyac District. This report included information obtained in all of the prior exploration of the Nyac property dating back to the exploration done by Robert Wallace. Wallace made the first documented discovery of lode gold when he reported free gold in the quartz-chlorite veins of the host granitic porphyry.
Project Geology:
Assays from the first four holes drilled at Bonanza Ridge in our 2006 exploration program indicate a series of quartz-calcite-pyrite-chalcopyrite-bismuthinite veinlets associated with an aplite dike in sericite-altered granodiorite. Several fractures with similar wall rock alteration yielded isolated two meter intervals grading 1.0 g/t gold in addition to the 0.6 meters grading 8.6 g/t. Geology in the Bonanza Ridge holes at Nyac compares favorably with geology in the walls of the Fort Knox open pit mine near Fairbanks, supporting the low-grade disseminated, intrusive model previously expected for Bonanza Ridge.
Tonogold's 2006 mapping, surface sampling, and drilling efforts have given the company exciting new geologic insights at Nyac. The results from the last two years of exploration has led Tonogold to a renewed commitment to the Nyac project and we have begun planning a very focused exploration program for Summer 2007.
One reason for this expansive gold exploration outlook is the thick, extensive, sericite-clay alteration cut by fractures with secondary sericite-clay selvages encountered in all four holes. The laterally and vertically-extensive Bonanza Ridge alteration is located directly below the largest 2005 soil gold anomaly. The critical sericite-clay alteration increases in intensity downwards in each of the four Bonanza drill holes. Compilation of 2006 gold and trace element core assays, added to results of the proposed 2007 trench sampling and airborne Mag-EM surveys, should develop a disseminated and perhaps a higher-grade structural gold target beneath Bonanza Ridge for drilling late in 2007 or perhaps 2008.
Saddle Mountain is the second reason for Tonogold's positive expectations for 2007. The Saddle Mountain granodiorite underlies a large and internally consistent gold soil anomaly revealed by the 2006 soil program. The size of the 2006 Saddle Mountain gold anomaly is larger than the similarly intense anomaly above the Bonanza target revealed by the 2005 soil program. In addition, gold-bearing veins and fault-breccias in the adjacent Jurassic volcanics were revealed by mapping, surface sampling, and trenching at Saddle Mountain in 2006. High-graded quartz-chalcopyrite-pyrite veins at Saddle Mountain yielded outcrop values of 132 ppm gold and greater than 1,000 ppm gold in Jurassic volcanics.
Another positive insight gained from Tonogold's 2006 exploration program is a completely different, structurally-controlled style of mineralization encountered in the two holes drilled at the Wallace prospect, at the other end of the district from Saddle Mountain and Bonanza Ridge. A coarsely crystalline quartz-calcite-pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite-pyrite vein was intercepted in drill hole #10 with a narrower counterpart in drill hole #11. Besides the favorable gangue and sulfides (20% sulfides in drill hole #10), each vein intercept is characterized by a narrow chalcedonic silica envelope surrounded by a wide propylitic envelope. Host rock is Jurassic andesitic volcanics.
Tonogold expects to publish the final 2006 report on drilling, surface sampling and mapping at Nyac by the end of 2006. This report will include results from the 2005 and 2006 exploration programs and recommendations for 2007.
Maps
Click on thumbnail to enlarge
) Location Map |
) Gold Assays and Sample Points |
) Fort Knox Superimposed |
) Soil Samplers |
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