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NovaGold To Drill Eagle Plains’ McQuesten
Gold Property, Yukon
Cranbrook, B.C.: Eagle
Plains Resources Ltd. (EPL:CDNX) and NovaGold Resources Inc.
(NRI:TSE) announced today that their option agreement
on the McQuesten Gold Property has been amended to include
a major drilling commitment. Eagle Plains has 100% interest
(less 2% NSR) in the property located in the Keno Hill
Mining District, 40 kilometres northeast of Mayo, Yukon.
McQuesten consists of 51 quartz mining claims (2500
acres) that are accessed by the all-weather Yukon Silver
Trail highway with an adjacent hydro-electric transmission
line. The of Elsa is located 5km to the north.
In 1999 NovaGold purchased (from Viceroy Exploration
Ltd. (VOY:TSE) the right to earn a 70% interest in
the property from Eagle Plains by making exploration
expenditures
of C$1,000,000 on the property and assuming cash payments
totalling C$320,000. To date all cash payments relating
to the option agreement have been settled. The completion
of a 10,000-foot drill program will fulfil the C$1,000,000
expenditure requirement whereby NovaGold will earn
its 70% interest and enter into a joint-venture agreement
with Eagle Plains.
Drilling and trenching on the McQuesten property indicates
the presence of a large mineralized system hosted
within calcareous meta-sediments and intrusive rocks.
Mineralization
consists of disseminated and semi-massive sulphides
(pyrrhotite, pyrite and arsenopyrite) in quartz-sericite
and skarn alteration packages of sedimentary rocks.
Felsic sills and dikes intrude along a low angle shear
zone. Two major zones have been identified in the
McQuesten Mineralized Structural Zone: the West and
East Zones.
Drill holes in the West Zone contain up to 18.3 m
of 3.74 g/t and 24.4 m of 2.16 g/t Au. Trenches include
16.0 m of 2.67 g/t and 27.0 m of 1.62 g/t Au. Drill
holes in the East Zone contain up to 16.3 m of 2.19
g/t and 9.6 m of 2.87 g/t Au. Trenches include 9.2
m
of 4.94 g/t and 8.3 m of 2.72 g/t Au. Both zones remain
open along strike. The accompanying tables summarize
the significant drill and trench intervals to date.
Induced polarization geophysical surveys reveal additional
untested anomalies outside of the currently defined
East and West Zones. Ground and airborne magnetic
data suggest that the East Zone and Southeast Anomaly
are
part of a mineralized trend: the McQuesten Mineralized
Structural Zone that is continuous for over 3 kilometers
in strike length.
Bottle-roll leach tests on unoxidized drill core recovered
up to 84.3% of the gold indicating that the ores are
not refractory and therefore amenable to conventional
cyanidation processing methods.
Highlights of significant drill and trench results- McQuesten
West Zone.
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DH/TR_ID From(m) to(m) Length(m) Au g/t
Length(ft) Au oz/t
---------------------------------------------------------------
D-W8102 18.0
22.6 4.6
3.13 15
0.09
D-W8103 6.5
18.3 11.8
3.52 39
0.10
D-W8104 50.6
53.8 3.2
6.55 10
0.19
And
33.7 37.8
4.2
2.22 14
0.06
D-W8107 18.3
21.6 3.3
2.07 11
0.06
And
49.9 52.7
2.8
2.76
9 0.08
And
87.9 92.4
4.5
8.17 15
0.24
D-W8108 46.0
55.5 9.5
2.17 31
0.06
D-W8109 49.5
55.5 6.0
3.85 20
0.11
D-W8114 22.4
25.0 2.6
2.34
9 0.07
RC9702 11.0
35.4 24.4
2.16 80
0.06
RC9703 9.1
27.4 18.3
3.74 60
0.11
RC9706 86.3
92.4 6.1
3.12 20
0.09
TR9701 28.0
44.0 16.0
2.67 52
0.08
TR9703 8.0
35.0 27.0
1.62 89
0.05
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Highlights of significant drill and trench results- McQuesten East Zone.
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DH/TR_ID From(m) to(m) length(m) Au g/t
Length(ft) Au oz/t
---------------------------------------------------------------
D-8301 100.6
110.2 9.6
2.87 31
0.08
D-8306 94.3
110.6 16.3
2.19 53
0.06
TR9805 54.0
58.0 4.0
7.64 13
0.22
TR9806 107.0
107.5 0.5
10.00
2 0.29
TR9810 81.8
91.0 9.2
4.94 30
0.14
And 60.0
64.0 4.0
2.32 13
0.07
And
61.7 70.0
8.3
2.72 27
0.08
On Behalf of the Board of Directors
Tim J. Termuende, P.Geo.
President and CEO
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