Northern Freegold (TSXv: NFR) - The Proof's In The Porphyry
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The Proofโs In The Porphyry
Northern Freegold Drills Yukon Gold, Silver, Copper, Moly
~ By Greg Klein - February 13 2012
Northern Freegoldโs TSXV:NFR January 18 inferred resource estimate was, as an incredibly low finding cost,โ Burges points out. โPart of that comes from having a
President/CEO/Director John Burges says, another milestone in its rapidly advanc- porphyry asset. When you have a pretty good sense of the overall structure, you can
ing Freegold Mountain Project in central Yukon. The Revenue Depositโs initial 43-101 scale up the size with relatively low-risk, low-cost drilling.
came in addition to the adjacent Nucleus Depositโs existing resource of 1.39 million
gold-equivalent ounces indicated and 898,000 gold-equivalent ounces inferred. โWe have an eight-kilometre geophysical anomaly running from Nucleus to the Stod-
dart Zone,โ he adds. โRevenue is in between and thatโs probably where the porphyry is
The boost of 3.66 million gold-equivalent ounces prompted analysts Michael Fowler centred. When you compare that geophysical anomaly to the soil geochemistry, where
and Leonie Soltay of Loewen Ondaatje McCutcheon to rate Northern Freegold a we have extremely strong copper and gold showing across a four-kilometre strike zone
speculative buy with a target of $1.44โa steep hike from its January 18 high of $0.30. that crosses about the middle of that geophysical anomaly, itโs easy to become con-
vinced that itโs a single porphyry system. Itโs one of the largest geophysical anomalies
youโll see and probably comparable to some of the largest porphyry projects in the
world. Thatโs the potentialโobviously we havenโt proved that yet. We have to work at
that every drill season.
โRevenue is open laterally in all directions and at depth. This coming season we think
weโll have very similar results as we drill the western side of the deposit.โ
This year the company also plans to drill Nucleus below its current depth of about 300
metres and to explore some of the projectโs prospective targets. The drill season usu-
ally runs from April to October.
As for infrastructure, โWe have a government-maintained road leading to the main
highway, a key advantage over companies that have to helicopter everything in. A high-
voltage transmission line is about 30 kilometres away. We are on Crown land, but we
That helps explain why Burges, a Northern Freegold newcomer as of November 1, maintain strong relationships with the local communities.โ
โwould want to move from a pretty comfortable Wall Street role covering the resource
and commodities sector to a junior exploration company in the middle of a financial Those relationships are enhanced by Founder/Director Bill Harris, a second-genera-
maelstrom.โ tion Yukon prospector who knows the territoryโs people as well as its geology. โHe not
only found the deposit but was able to amalgamate a very fragmented land package,โ
After being approached by Director Greg Johnson, the first thing Burges noticed was Burges notes.
the companyโs valuation. โIt was trading at about a third to a quarter of its peers,โ he
says. โSo the companyโs cheap. But companies are sometimes cheap for fundamental Director Greg Johnson is President/CEO of South American Silver TSX:SAC and a
reasons. I then went through the basics. The Yukonโs a great place to be mining, and co-founder of NovaGold TSX:NG who helped push three projects through to feasibility
the region has good infrastructure. But did the company have the ability to scale up its as the companyโs market cap rose from $50 million to over $2 billion.
resource? This latest announcement shows we can do just that, and do so rapidly.โ
Tim Termuende is President/CEO/Co-founder of Eagle Plains Resources TSXV:EPL,
With a gold-equivalent cutoff of 0.5 grams per tonne, Revenueโs January 18 inferred which Burges describes as โa serial incubator of assets which they spin out, the most
resource estimates 101 million tonnes grading recent example being Copper Canyon Resources, which NovaGold acquired last year.โ
0.34 g/t gold for 1.12 million gold ounces VP of Exploration Al Armitage is a 25-year geologist with extensive experience in
3.14 g/t silver for 10.19 million silver ounces North American porphyry assets, says Burges. โWith his colleagues Al Sexton and Joe
0.13% copper for 286.87 million copper pounds Campbell, theyโve really driven the exploration side of the company.โ
0.04% molybdenum for 89.61 million molybdenum pounds
1.08 g/t gold-equivalent for 3.66 million gold-equivalent ounces The company had $3.6 million cash as of December, Burges says. โThe cheapest
capital would come from exercise warrants. We now have 29.8 million warrants at a
The adjacent Nucleus Deposit has a February 2011 indicated resource estimating 45-cent exercise price.โ
48.5 million tonnes with a gold-equivalent cutoff of 0.4 g/t grading
He concludes, โWe have the kind of asset that intermediate producers likeโlow-cost,
0.7 g/t gold for 1.1 million gold ounces open-pittable bulk-tonnage projects. And having a project like this in a low-risk jurisdic-
0.9 g/t silver for 1.4 million silver ounces tion with good infrastructure makes it even more valuable. I believe Freegold is going to
0.06% copper for 67.75 million copper pounds be huge, and weโre rapidly working towards that.โ
โ
0.89 g/t gold-equivalent for 1.39 million gold-equivalent ounces
At press time Northern Freegold had 111.5 million shares trading at $0.29 for a market
The Nucleus inferred resource estimates 41.45 million tonnes with a gold-equivalent cap of $32.4 million.
cutoff of 0.4 g/t grading
0.47 g/t gold for 627,000 gold ounces We spent $4 million on exploration and con-
0.98 g/t silver for 1.31 million silver ounces verted that to over 3.6 million gold-equivalent
0.07% copper for 62.03 million copper pounds
0.67 g/t gold-equivalent for 898,000 gold-equivalent ounces ounces, an incredibly low finding cost
โLast season we drilled 27 holes, 12,375 metres, all of it in Revenue. We spent $4 โ John Burges
million on exploration and converted that to over 3.6 million gold-equivalent ounces,
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