‘We have potentially drilled into a large Pogo-style system’

Special Report: Initial inspection of maiden drill core at Aurora confirms a large mineral system similar to the neighbouring 10moz Pogo mine, says Alaskan explorer Resolution. The all-important assays are coming soon.

Resolution Minerals’ (ASX:RML) recently acquired 64North project surrounds Northern Star Resources’ (ASX:NST) 10 million ounce Pogo gold mine and the large, high grade Goodpaster discovery.

That’s the type of tier 1 prize Resolution is hunting for.

In early March, the explorer began a maiden drilling program into the high priority Aurora targets, which displayed “significant geophysical similarities” to the neighbouring Goodpaster and Pogo.

The first 462m hole has now been completed; the second currently drilled to 192m of a planned depth of 600m.

Resolution Mining — Completed drilling (green dots), incomplete hole (blue dot) and planned further drill holes (orange dots)at the Aurora targets.

Initial visual observations and logging of this drill core confirms a Pogo-style mineral system is present at Aurora, the company says.

“We are very pleased that Resolution Minerals has achieved the aim of our maiden drilling program, which was to successfully identify a Pogo-style mineral system on our side of the fence, pending assay results for final confirmation,” managing director Duncan Chessell says.

“From these very early visual signs, it’s exciting to see we have intersected the right host rocks, with strong alteration and sulphide-bearing quartz veins – demonstrating we have potentially drilled into a large Pogo-style system.

“We look forward to assay results in about four weeks and aim to re-start drilling operations in mid-May.”

Due to COVID-19 restricting movements of drilling contractors, the company has brought forward a planned break and suspended drilling for about a month and a half.

Meanwhile, the explorer – which is fully funded for multiple drill programs following a recent $4.5 million cap raise – is also prioritising a pipeline of additional drill-ready prospects across the large 660sqkm land package.

Resolution – formerly Northern Cobalt – reached a deal to acquire up to 80 per cent of 64North project last year from Milrock Resources.

Milrock had quietly been acquiring the prospective and sparsely explored ground surrounding the Pogo mine lease while its larger neighbour was still getting around production issues at Pogo.

These include ground that is along strike from Goodpaster, where Northern Star hit top intersections of 4m at 67.5 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 5.2m at 15.7g/t gold and 5.2m at 9.5g/t gold including 2.4m at 18.1g/t gold.

Resolution also benefits from year-round project access via road – very rare in Alaska – which will massively reduce logistical costs.