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Far Northern Resources launches maiden drilling at Bridge Creek to expand gold resource

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By Imelda Cotton - 
Far Northern Resources ASX FNR drilling Bridge Creek gold
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Far Northern Resources (ASX: FNR) has commenced a maiden drilling campaign at its Bridge Creek gold project in the Northern Territory to follow up on long historic intersections and extend the known mineralisation.

Drilling in 1996 by Northern Gold returned a series of hits greater than 10 metres and grading up to 3.51 grams per tonne gold, at a gold price of around $366 per ounce.

Highlights of that work were 14m at 2.46g/t gold from 119.8m, 16m at 1.90g/t gold from 140m and 23m at 3.33g/t gold from 29m.

Increasing resource

Far Northern will aim to build on these results to the north and south of the current Bridge Creek inferred resource, which sits at 1.97 million tonnes grading 1.12g/t for 70,560 ounces of gold.

The historic intercepts could also demonstrate potential open-pit development options.

The Bridge Creek project comprises three granted mining leases within the Pine Creek Geosyncline, which covers approximately 66,000 square kilometres of the Northern Territory.

It sits in a sector of the axis of the Howley Anticline, approximately 12km along strike north from the Cosmo Howley gold mine, currently owned by Canada’s Agnico Eagle Mines.

Strong gold price

Chief executive officer Cameron Woodrow said drilling would give the company greater insight into Bridge Creek’s potential against a strong gold price.

“These historic drilling results represent a significant opportunity for us to build on the work completed by Northern Gold almost 30 years ago when the gold price was significantly lower than it is now,” he said.

“To have a project with historic high-grade gold and near-surface results on a granted mining lease, with today’s gold price fetching over $4,500/oz, represents a significant opportunity for our company.”

Schedule of work

Far Northern’s schedule of work at Bridge Creek will include drilling to upgrade inferred resources to indicated and to extend the mineralisation along strike and at depth.

An updated resource will allow the company to progress to mining studies such as pit optimisations and hydrogeological and geotechnical studies, as well as the calculation of an ore reserve.