Drilling Strengthens Continuity At Fronteer's Northumberland Gold Deposit
VANCOUVER, BC - Fronteer Development Group Inc. reported that recent drilling has strengthened the continuity and expansion potential of the Company's 100%-owned Northumberland deposit.
Mineralization has been extended both at depth and towards the west.
Depth extensions from hole FNU009 include:
- 7.17 grams per tonne (0.209 ounces per ton) over 3 metres (10 feet);
- 6.16 g/t (0.180 oz/t) over 3 metres (10 feet);
- 13.50 g/t (0.394 oz/t) over 1.5 metres (5 feet);
- all within a broader zone averaging 2.73 g/t (0.080 oz/t) over 64 metres (210 feet).
FNU014, a 152-metre (500 foot) step-out to the southwest, also returned at depth:
- 4.07 g/t (0.119 oz/t) over 1.5 metres (5 feet);
- within a larger zone averaging 1.47 g/t (0.043 oz/t) over 27.4 metres (90 feet).
Of the relatively few historic drill holes that have targeted deep mineralization on the property, many have returned similar encouraging grades, including:
- NW-1103 returned 13.9 g/t (0.405 oz/t) over 7.6 metres (25 feet) at a depth of approximately 518 metres (1,700 feet).
- NN-5 returned 9.15 g/t (0.267 oz/t) over 19.8 metres (65 feet) at a depth of approximately 305 metres (1,000 feet).
- NW-1165 returned 33.9 g/t (0.99 oz/t) over 3.0 metres (10 feet) of at a depth of approximately 914 metres (3,000 feet).
In addition to extending mineralization at depth, Fronteer's 2008 drill program also sought to test new shallow targets peripheral to Northumberland's existing pits. Fronteer intersected mineralization in multiple holes, including:
- 1.70 g/t (0.050 oz/t) over 9.1 metres (30 feet) in FNU003
- 1.52 g/t (0.044 oz/t) over 10.7 metres (35 feet) in FNU002
- 1.49 g/t (0.043 oz/t) over 4.0 metres (13 feet), starting from surface, in FNU004
Gold at Northumberland occurs in a window of prospective lower plate Roberts Mountain stratigraphy, which hosts some of the largest gold deposits in Nevada. The mineralization occurs in a series of stacked, sediment hosted gold zones that occur over a 2.6 kilometre-long by up to 1.1 kilometre-wide area (1.6 miles x 0.68 miles). Over 1,400 drill holes totaling about 154,000 metres (505,000 feet) have cumulatively established a high confidence level in the integrity of Northumberland's resource.
Northumberland's historical production, taken from small oxide open pits, is estimated at 230,700 ounces gold and 485,000 ounces silver - less than 10% of the current resource. Northumberland's NI 43-101 gold-equivalent resource estimate includes 2.44 million ounces indicated and 815,000 ounces inferred (43,440,000 tonnes averaging 2.17 g/t). The deposit is located entirely on private lands owned 100% by Fronteer.