Project Highlights
On trend with Pogo mine (3.6 Million Oz.), 2.5 miles to the east
2,560 acres In historic Goodpaster Mining District
Quartz veins to 2.4 g/t
Project Location
The Rainbow, Aurora and Indian (RAINBOW) claim blocks are situated 80 air miles southeast of Fairbanks and 2.5 miles west of Teck-Cominco's Pogo gold deposit in the Goodpaster Mining District of east central Alaska. Each claim block consists of active State of Alaska mining claims located in the Big Delta B-2 and
B-3 1:63,360 Quadrangles. Limited prospecting has found elevated gold and trace elements in a sporadic suite of rock and soil samples on the properties. Quartz vein float samples with up to 2.4 g/t gold and anomalous arsenic and bismuth are found from prospected slopes less than 3 miles from the Pogo mine, on trend to the east.
Project History
In December, 2006, Tonogold Resources has leased these under-explored mining claims which lie in close proximity to the 3.6 million ounce Pogo deposit.
Local prospectors, John Hansen, Dave Wright, and Bill Johnson, have been prospecting in the Goodpaster Mining District since the mid-1970's starting at Tibbs Creek, Black Mountain and Central Creek. They moved on to prospecting the Goodpaster River area, particularly areas near Liese and Pogo Creeks in the 1980's and concluded the area was very promising but beyond their means to adequately explore such a large area. In the winter of 1997-98, rumors of the Pogo discovery filtered back to the community of Delta, which renewed their interest in the area and upon researching the existing claim picture they found that a substantial part of their original area of interest remained open. Using snowmachines, skis, and snowshoes, they staked the RAI properties which they feel are the most geologically significant claims outside of the Pogo deposit itself. Working strictly out-of-pocket, these individuals carried out grassroots exploration efforts that began in 1999 and has since identified areas of anomalous gold in soil and rock. In 2002, AngloGold (U.S.A.) Exploration, Inc. signed lease agreements with the owners that consolidated the RAI claim groups with AngloGold's existing nearby properties forming a large land package west of Pogo. Only limited reconnaissance level sampling was completed on portions of the Aurora and Rainbow blocks by AngloGold. Their focus was on the Indian block and this received only 4 man-days of soil sampling along ridgelines in 2003. AngloGold declined to continue the lease after the 2003 season, as they were primarily focused on their nearby claim blocks.
Project Geology
The RAI properties, as mapped by State geologists, are underlain predominately by pre-Mississippian paragneiss with lesser schist and quartzite, and Mississippian-Devonian orthogneiss rock packages (figure 1), which both typically only crop out along prominent ridges. In general, foliation within the paragneiss strikes westerly and dips moderately to the south. Cretaceous age granite, granodiorite and tonalite plutons are mapped and in close proximity to the RAI properties. The granodioritic Goodpaster Batholith (Cretaceous) underlies a corner of the Indian block and extends further to the north and east. The Aurora block is underlain by paragneiss (pMp), schist, and quartzite (pMsp) with minor orthogneiss (MDogd). Several early Tertiary basaltic dikes were noted by AngloGold geologists. The Indian block is predominately underlain by orthogneiss (MDot and MDog), which is the same unit hosting the nearby Pogo deposit. Granodioritic phases of the Goodpaster Batholith lie along the northern edge of the claim block. The Rainbow block consists mostly of paragneiss (pMp), hornfels surrounding a 96.5 to 99 Ma tonalite (Ktn), and lesser orthogneiss (MDogd). The tonalite is of the same age and composition as the block faulted tonalite proximal to the Pogo deposit and often locally referred to as the "Pogo diorite". The northwest trending gneissic packages and tonalite are easily linked between Rainbow and Pogo after restoring the inferred off-set along the intervening faults. A small moderately sericite-carbonate altered Cretaceous (?) granodiorite/quartz monzonite dike was noted by AngloGold geologists in the northwestern corner of the Rainbow claim block. AngloGold described areas of alteration of the gneiss units on the property as consisting of localized moderate to strong silicification, sulfidation, sericite +/- carbonate alteration and small-scale quartz veining often associated with weak pervasive iron oxide staining.
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