Vancouver, British Columbia --
NovaGold Resources Inc. (TSE : NRI ; OTCBB : NVGLF) is pleased to
report on the first summary results from the 2002 Preliminary
Feasibility Study exploration program from the Donlin Creek gold
deposit in Alaska.
Highlights
* In-fill drilling confirms high-grade continuity. Drilling
highlights include: Drill Hole DC02-673 with 17.7 meters
grading 8.8 (g/t) grams per tonne (58 feet grading 0.26 (oz/t)
ounces per ton); and Hole DC02-677 with 59.3 meters grading
6.9 g/t (195 feet grading 0.20 oz/t) and 45.7 meters grading
6.0 g/t (150 feet grading 0.18 oz/t) (See table below for
complete results).
* Exploration drilling discovers new gold zone north of the
high-grade Acma Zone. Highlights from the first follow-up core
hole includes: DC02-688 with 17.9 meters grading 5.6 g/t (59
feet grading 0.16 oz/t). Additional assays from this drill
hole and other follow-up core holes are still pending.
* 5,800 meters (19,000 feet) have been drilled to date in 65
holes. Assay results are complete for the first 30 holes in
the program.
* AMEC E&C Services Limited of Vancouver (AMEC) has been engaged
to continue to provide engineering support for the
Pre-Feasibility Study on the Donlin Creek gold deposit.
Donlin Creek Pre-Feasibility Drilling In Progress
In March 2002, AMEC E&C Services Limited of Vancouver (AMEC)
completed a preliminary independent economic assessment study of
the mining, processing, metallurgical, and other economic factors
necessary for the development of the Donlin Creek project. This
preliminary economic assessment study estimated the capital cost,
operating cost parameters, and the optimal scale of operation. The
study showed that with further exploration and development work a
conventional open-pit mining operation at a 2 g/t gold cut-off
level should be economically viable at Donlin Creek.
In April 2002, NovaGold initiated the next phase of development
with a US$8 million Pre-Feasibility Study drill program and engaged
AMEC, to continue to provide additional engineering and design work
for the Donlin Creek gold deposit. The program will include
approximately $US6 million in drilling and $US2 million in
engineering, environmental and other studies. It is anticipated
that the company will expend a project total of $US10 million
before the end of the year and thereby earn its 70% interest in the
Donlin Creek Project.
New Akivik Gold Zone Discovered in Exploration Drilling
The Company is extremely encouraged with the results to date from
the spring phase of the 2002 drill program. The drill program began
in early-April with two diamond core drills and one reverse
circulation rotary drill (RVC) working on the property. A
multi-staged drill program has been designed to raise the level of
confidence in the inferred drilled category and to expand the
currently defined resource. The focus of the drill program will be
on delineating additional near-surface, higher-grade resources. To
date a total of 5,800 meters (19,000 feet) of core and RVC drilling
has been completed in 65 drill holes (41 RVC and 24 core holes).
Assay results are complete for the first 19 RVC holes and 11 of the
core holes. Only 6 of these drill holes were in-fill with the
remainder of the spring program focused on step-out exploration
drilling to test high-priority targets and define new near surface
resource potential around the existing resource areas. Significant
mineralized intervals of intrusive porphyry and sedimentary rocks
have been intercepted in these holes.
Several drill holes designed to test a major gold-in-soil anomaly
more than 500 meters (1650 feet) north of the high-grade Acma zone
have discovered a previously unrecognized gold zone of mineralized
intrusive porphyry dikes and sills. Initial geologic modeling of
this new mineralized area, called the Akivik Zone, indicates many
similarities to the multi-million ounce Acma zone. Initial RVC
drill results include DR02-643 which included 6.1 meters grading
3.9 g/t (20 ft at 0.11 oz/t), 6.1 meters grading 2.4 g/t (20 ft at
0.07 oz/t) and an additional 32 meters grading 2.1 g/t (105 ft at
0.06 oz/t). The first follow-up core hole in this new zone includes
DC02-688 with 17.9 meters grading 5.6 g/t (59 feet grading 0.16
oz/t) a second similar mineralized zone in the same hole is still
pending assays. Further follow-up drilling of these very
encouraging results is on-going and this new zone of mineralization
remains completely open down dip and along strike to the northwest
and southeast.
Other exploration drilling was also completed south of the Lewis
Zone and west of Acma in the 400 Target area. Significant
mineralized intervals of intrusive porphyry and sedimentary rocks
were encountered in each of these areas. Follow-up step-out
drilling designed to define new potential resources will be
completed on these exploration targets during the summer program.
In-Fill Drilling Confirms Continuity of High-Grade Resource
The second diamond core drill successfully completed a series of
in-fill holes perpendicular to the dominant drill direction in Acma
to verify grade continuity. The intersections from drill holes
DC02-673 and DC02-675 and DC02-677 are representative of this
confirmatory drilling. As expected, these holes intercepted thick
zones of dense quartz and arsenopyrite veining confirming the
continuity of the Acma high-grade mineralization. Highlights
include: Hole DC02-673: 17.7 meters grading 8.8 g/t Au (58 ft
grading 0.26 oz/t); Hole DC02-675: 44.9 meters grading 3.7 g/t (147
ft at 0.11 oz/t) and 57.9 meters grading 4.9 g/t (190 ft at 0.14
oz/t); and Hole DC02-677: 59.3 meters grading 6.9 g/t (195 ft at
0.20 oz/t) and 45.7 meters grading 6.0 g/t (150 ft at 0.18 oz/t).
These results confirm the geologic model for the mineralization and
will be incorporated in the next resource estimate update.
Beginning with the summer program additional core drills may be
added to the program to complete exploration target testing on a
100 meter by 100 meter drill grid around the perimeter of the
modeled $300/oz pit boundary that is adjacent to but outside the
existing Acma and Lewis resource areas. Core drilling will also
upgrade inferred resources to the higher measured and indicated
categories and complete further step-out exploration of
high-priority exploration targets such as the new Akivik zone. This
work will be completed as a series of drill programs throughout the
summer and early-fall. Summary results should be reported by the
middle of each month.
Donlin Creek New Drill Results Highlights Table
---------------------------------------------------------------
DHID Interval Length Gold Length Gold Type Objective
(m) (m) g/t (ft) oz/t
---------------------------------------------------------------
DR02-628 36.6 to 42.7 6.1 3.2 20.0 0.09 RVC Exploration
---------------------------------------------------------------
DR02-629 25.9 to 29.0 3.1 11.1 10.0 0.32 RVC Exploration
---------------------------------------------------------------
DR02-630 18.3 to 22.9 4.6 9.4 15.0 0.27 RVC Exploration
---------------------------------------------------------------
DR02-639 39.6 to 44.2 4.6 3.2 15.0 0.09 RVC Exploration
---------------------------------------------------------------
DR02-643 19.8 to 25.9 6.1 3.9 20.0 0.11 RVC Exploration
19.8 to 51.8 32.0 2.1 105.0 0.06 RVC Exploration
---------------------------------------------------------------
DR02-645 15.2 to 27.4 12.2 2.9 40.0 0.09 RVC Exploration
---------------------------------------------------------------
DC02-672 135.7 to 140.0 4.3 3.7 14.2 0.11 Core Exploration
----------------------------------------------------------------
DC02-673 99.5 to 117.2 17.7 8.8 58.0 0.26 Core In-Fill
---------------------------------------------------------------
DC02-674 43.0 to 47.0 4.0 6.7 13.1 0.19 Core Exploration
211.7 to 217.0 5.3 3.5 17.4 0.10 Core Exploration
---------------------------------------------------------------
DC02-675 25.0 to 29.0 4.0 3.1 13.1 0.09 Core In-Fill
47.0 to 91.9 44.9 3.7 147.3 0.11 Core In-Fill
101.0 to 158.9 57.9 4.9 190.0 0.14 Core In-Fill
167.5 to 207.5 40 4.1 131.2 0.12 Core In-Fill
---------------------------------------------------------------
DC02-677 4.0 to 16.5 12.5 4.2 41.0 0.12 Core In-Fill
57.0 to 63.0 6.0 7.5 19.7 0.22 Core In-Fill
83.5 to 142.8 59.3 6.9 194.6 0.20 Core In-Fill
150.1 to 195.8 45.7 6.0 149.8 0.18 Core In-Fill
---------------------------------------------------------------
DC02-681 9.1 to 11.4 2.3 7.4 7.4 0.21 Core Exploration
35.5 to 62.8 27.3 3.6 89.4 0.10 Core Exploration
88.5 to 107.5 19.0 3.3 62.4 0.10 Core Exploration
---------------------------------------------------------------
DC02-688 66.0 to 83.9 17.9 5.6 59.0 0.16 Core Exploration
---------------------------------------------------------------
A complete summary table of all results from the program along with
a series of drill hole location maps will be available for view and
download on the NovaGold website (see link below).
NovaGold Projects section of NovaGold's website:
novagold.net
2002 Donlin Creek Gold Resource Estimates
In late-2001, NovaGold engaged the independent engineering firm
MRDI Canada, a division of AMEC E&C Services Limited of Vancouver
(AMEC), to complete a new resource estimate and preliminary
economic assessment study based on NovaGold's updated 3D geologic
model including all exploration on the project through 2001. AMEC
was contracted to complete these studies based upon its more than
40 years of experience in developing and building mines in Alaska
and the Canadian North.
The independent geological analysis completed in January 2002
doubled the previous estimates of the contained gold resource at
Donlin Creek. Dr. Stephen Juras, P.Geo., MRDI's chief geologist in
Vancouver, supervised the data verification and resource estimate
updates. Dr. Juras is a Qualified Person as defined by National
Instrument 43-101. MRDI has completed a technical report detailing
the resource estimate parameters which is available for review at
www.sedar.com.
The 2002 Donlin Creek resource estimates are as follows:
2.0 g/t cut off grade used in 2002 AMEC Economic Assessment Study
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Resource Tonnes Grade Contained
Category (Millions) Gold g/t Ounces
--------- ---------- -------- ----------
Measured 5.054 3.84 623,000
Indicated 68.917 3.49 7,732,000
---------------------------------------------------------------
Total M&I: 73.971 3.51 8,347,000
Inferred 92.433 3.66 10,877,000
---------------------------------------------------------------
3.5 g/t elevated cut off grade for first 5 years production
schedule
-----------------------------------------------------------
Resource Tonnes Grade Contained
Category (Millions) Gold g/t Ounces
--------- ---------- -------- ----------
Measured 2.225 5.36 383,000
Indicated 24.705 5.04 4,002,000
---------------------------------------------------------------
Total M&I: 26.930 5.06 4,385,000
Inferred 36.806 5.22 6,183,000
---------------------------------------------------------------
Notes: (1) Tonnes and Contained Ounces are rounded to the nearest
1,000.
Donlin Creek Project Summary
Donlin Creek is one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in the
world. The deposit is located in Southwestern Alaska on 109 square
kilometers (42 square miles) of private patented land. The project
is 19 km (12 miles) north of a commercial barge site on the
Kuskokwim River at the village of Crooked Creek, Alaska. A State of
Alaska designated winter road connects the project to the barge
site. The project has an all-season exploration camp for up to 75
people with an adjacent 1,500 meter (5,000 ft) runway that is
directly serviced by commercial aircraft as large as the C-130
Hercules freighter.
The current scenarios focus on developing Donlin Creek's shallower
and higher-grade ore zones that would be amenable to low-cost open
pit mining methods. The gold ores would be crushed, finely ground,
and then fed to a flotation circuit to separate the gold bearing
sulfide minerals from the rock. The high-grade sulfide concentrate
would then be oxidized using pressure oxidation in an autoclave or
with bio-oxidation. The gold would then be leached from the
oxidized residue and the gold recovered with activated carbon. The
current mining scenarios suggest Donlin Creek would have at least
14 years of mine life with an average grade of approximately 5 g/t
(0.15 oz/t) for the first five years. It would mine between 8,000
and 20,000 tonnes of ore per day and would produce between 743,000
and 1,100,000 ounces of gold annually. Potential remains to further
improve the overall gold recoveries and costs through process
optimization, which will be the focus of additional engineering
work.
NovaGold will earn a 70% interest in the deposit by spending US$10
million on exploration and development by 2011. NovaGold intends to
complete its earn-in expenditures by the end of 2002 as part of the
preliminary feasibility and project development work. Upon vesting
by NovaGold, a joint venture between NovaGold and Placer Dome would
be established, and Placer Dome would have 90 days to decide on one
of three options: a) to remain at 30% interest and participate as
a minority partner; or b) to convert to a 5% Net Profits Interest
(NPI); or c) to exercise a back-in right to re-acquire a majority
interest in the project (70% Placer Dome / 30% NovaGold) by
expending three times that expended by NovaGold at the time the
back-in is exercised, conducting a feasibility study, and making a
decision to mine at a production rate of not less than 600,000
ounces of gold per year within a five year period from the exercise
of the back-in.
About NovaGold
A diversified natural resource company, NovaGold acquires and
develops precious metal deposits in North America. NovaGold has no
debt, and has one of the largest gold resource bases of any junior
mining company. The company generates revenue for exploration and
development from its construction aggregate, gold royalties and
land development operations in Nome, Alaska. NovaGold was the top
performing stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange (symbol NRI) in
2001. The company also trades on the US OTC (symbol NVGLF).
Financial reports and other information are available at
www.novagold.net.
For more information on NovaGold contact:
Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, President & CEO
Los Gatos, California, USA (408) 655-6766
E-mail: RickVann@NovaGold.net |
