Golden Zone Gets Another Look
A Canadian-based firm is taking an extensive look this summer at a historical gold, silver and copper deposit and shuttered underground mine located on the south flank of the Alaska Range, near Cantwell.
Piper Capital Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, began in late May a drilling and trenching exploration program at the Golden Zone property, accessible from the Parks Highway on the Colorado-Bull River Road a few miles south of Cantwell. Charles Hawley, an Anchorage-based geologist overseeing this summer’s work program, said the exploration budget is about $700,000.
Crews began work on May 20 and have completed about 7,000 feet of drilling, Hawley said in a telephone interview from the historical mine site July 23. Crews have completed 13 diamondcore drill holes and will begin drilling with a reverse circulation rig in August, he said. A total of about 20 drill holes will be completed this summer, with the possibility of follow-up drilling this fall.
“You always generate more questions when you start drilling than what you answer,” he said. “We’re trying to build on the old information and transform ourselves to keep going.”
An underground gold mine producing in the early 1940s, Golden Zone is currently estimated to contain 214,000 ounces of gold, 948,000 ounces of silver and 24,000 pounds of copper, based on an independently calculated resource estimate completed this spring by Norwest Corp.
That new mineral resource is based on previous drilling totaling 65,000 feet, trenching, underground sampling, previous reports, comparisons to similar deposits and a site visit, according to Piper’s May 30 press release.
Results from that past drilling averaged almost one-tenth of an ounce of gold per ton of rock, within an elliptical body almost 600 feet long, nearly 500 feet wide and at a depth of about 650 feet, according to Piper Capital.
The new measured-and-indicated resource estimates that Golden Zone contains approximately 2 million tons of mineralized material, grading 0.106 ounces of gold per ton of rock, 0.47 ounces of silver per ton and 12 percent copper.
“We are delighted with this updated resource estimate at Golden Zone,” said Ken Judge, president of Piper Capital, in a press release. “The goal of our upcoming drill program is to continue to add to this resource by testing additional open areas adjacent to the main breccia zone as well as additional showings on the property.”
This summer’s exploration program is the first drilling work on Golden Zone in almost 10 years, Hawley said. Objectives include defining additional mineralization at depth and on the edges of the known Golden Zone breccia pipe. Secondly, drill crews are stepping out about 1,000 feet north and a few hundred feet to the south of the breccia pipe. “All of this is in the Golden Zone corridor that is pretty well defined,” Hawley said.
Additionally, plans call for drilling on the Long Creek prospect, located about 1.5 miles south of the Golden Zone pipe, mineralization that has a “different geological setting,” he said, more of a reconnaissance target.
Finally, geological crews will be working on the Silver Dike prospect, northeast of the Golden Zone corridor, Hawley said. Piper Capital funded additional claim staking near Golden Zone. That work, completed this spring, expanded the property’s land block to nearly 20,000 acres. “That really stretches you,” Hawley said.
Those new mining claims to the south include extensions of the Long Creek prospect, including a large deposit of high-quality limestone in addition to identified gold and copper mineralization, according to the Feb. 15 press release. Claims to the east contain a northeast extension of a graben cut by a swarm of granitic dikes mineralized with silver, lead, zinc and tin.
Four trenches have also been completed as part of the first phase of exploration, Hawley said. Each trench is about 500 feet long, 10 feet wide and 10 feet deep.
The Golden Zone claim block was previously developed as an underground mine and hardrock mill operation in the late 1930s and early 1940s by Wesley Earl Dunkle, who worked throughout Alaska as a prospector, economic geologist and hard-rock mine developer.
As a result of World War II and the U.S. governmentmandated closure of non-essential mines, Golden Zone was shuttered in January 1942, according to a biography of Dunkle written by Hawley. Dunkle failed in attempts to restart production at Golden Zone following the war, according to Hawley’s book, “Wesley Earl Dunkle: Alaska’s Flying Miner.”
Some limited exploration has continued on the property through the years, and the original claim block with historical buildings has been maintained by Anchorage-based Mines Trust Co., which acquired Golden Zone in the 1980s.
Hawley is president of Mines Trust and chairman of Piper Capital, which currently holds a 5 percent interest in the property along with an option to acquire a 100 percent interest.
In turn, Piper has optioned its interest in the property to Hidefield Gold PLC, an exploration and development company headquartered in England, with properties in South America, Canada and the Lower 48. Participation in the Golden Zone project is the company’s first activity in Alaska, Hawley said.
Copyright Morris Communications Jul 31, 2005