Estelle Gold Property

USA / Alaska / Skwentna /

Millrock Resources and Teck Resources are Joint Venture partners in this project. Teck American Inc., a subsidiary of Teck Resources Limited (“Teck”), optioned the Estelle Property from Millrock Resources Inc. and Millrock Alaska LLC in May, 2010. The land package at the time consisted of 214 state mining claims covering 13,200 ha. Recent staking by Millrock in July 2010 has increased the landholding by 177 state claims, 91 of which fall within the area of interest (AOI) defined in the Millrock-Teck agreement. The Millrock-Teck agreement states that Teck has the sole exclusive and irrevocable right and option to earn up to 65% interest in and to the claims by making certain payments to Millrock and incurring certain expenditures on or in respect to the exploration and development of the claims. Mineral production from the majority of the claim group is also subject to private royalty interests for a total net smelter return of 3.00%.

In April 9, 2008 Millrock Resources Inc. announced that it struck an agreement with International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. to acquire its rights to the South Estelle gold property 160 km northwest of Anchorage, Alaska in the Rainy Pass district. The Estelle gold project is located in the Yentna and McGrath Mining Districts about 170 km northwest of Anchorage in the South Central Alaska Range. Millrock Alaska LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Millrock Resources Inc., holds 392 contiguous State of Alaska mining claims in the district, covering 24,600 ha. Estelle is one large, contiguous claim group that is adjacent to Kennecott Corporation's recently announced Whistler copper-gold discovery. The terrain is mountainous and challenging for exploration, but development logistics for a large mine are excellent. Road, port and power are less than 80 kilometers away along a broad, U-shaped valley.

In November 2008 Millrock reported signs of a large-scale disseminated, porphyry-style gold deposit. The junior said surveys carried out in August uncovered widespread hydrothermal alteration and abundant high-grade vein style gold occurrences along a 30-kilometer, or 19-mile, strike length. Shoeshine and Oxide Ridge are two intrusive-hosted gold occurrences that have piqued the junior’s interest.

Sampling at Oxide Ridge has outlined a zone measuring 200 meters by 300 meters. The junior said the talus fines are representative of bedrock immediately uphill from the sample site. The average of 24 talus fines samples taken from Oxide Ridge is 2.32 grams per metric ton gold. The work completed at Shoeshine in 2008 outlined a larger anomalous zone, measuring about 300 meters by a kilometer. The average grade of 49 samples taken from Shoeshine is 0.585 g/t gold. The company reports that one sample of porphyry rock cut by sheeted quartz veinlets assayed 13.13 g/t gold. Numerous talus samples assaying in the 3 g/t to 5 g/t range also were collected. Millrock notes this project has parallel similarities to Donlin Creek and has the potential for a multi million ounce reserve.

The geologic environment of the Estelle property is similar to the geologic environment that hosts many major copper-gold and gold porphyry systems found throughout the world and, of particular relevance, within Alaska's productive Tintina Gold Belt where Donlin Creek (Barrick/NovaGold) gold and Pebble (Northern Dynasty/Anglo American) copper-gold projects are currently under development. Gold mineralization in the Rainy Pass district is associated with the Mount Estelle composite intrusive complex.

The Estelle property is centered on the Estelle Pluton which is part of a series of plutons intruded into a Jurassic to Cretaceous flysch sequence as well as a Devonian to Pennsylvanian allochthonous sequence. The series of plutons was continuously emplaced from Late Cretaceous to Early Tertiary, 83 to 53 Ma, and is associated with mineralization.

Gold mineralization on the Estelle property is widespread. Four areas: Oxide/Oxide North, Stoney, Shoeshine, and RPM, have been identified by Millrock through soil and rock geochemistry studies. Nearly all of the mineralization on the Estelle property is spatially associated with porphyrytic intrusions and occurs as disseminations of sulfides, sheeted veins, stockworks, veinlets and hydrothermal breccias. Though mineralization is generally restricted to the intrusive rocks, at RPM mineralization also occurs in the hornfels.

References for information:
www.millrockresources.com/projects/estelle/
millrockresources.com/news/millrock_jan09_mining_news.p...
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   61°52'39"N   152°55'48"W
This article was last modified 13 years ago