Donlin Gold finishes major 2021 exploration program at project near Kuskokwim River; $3 million approved for mine feasibility study

Donlin Gold continues to move forward with a proposed large gold mine in the mid-Kuskokwim River area west of the Matanuska Susitna Borough.

The company is nearing completion of a major 2021 test drilling program of 79 holes drilled to do further assessment of the ore resources.

Results of the drilling are good so far, the company says.If the mine is built it would be a multi-bilion-dollar construction project that would benefit the Matanuska-Susitna Borough as well as small communities in southwest Alaska.

A 315-mile natural gas planned to be built to the project would be staged from the Mat-Su region.

Donlin Gold is one of the largest known undeveloped gold deposits in the world with approximately 39 million ounces of gold in the measured and indicated resource categories, which includes proven and probable reserves.The mine would be an open-pit mine that would process approximately 59,000 tons of ore per day for an estimated 27 years. The life of the mine is likely to be extended because the known deposit covers only part of the lands under lease and there is gold mineralization in the adjacent areas.

That means that, if built, Donlin Gold has considerable potential for expansion as the current deposit is depleted.

Meanwhile, four drill rigs were at work at the site this summer and fall, drilling 24,200 meters over the summer and early fall. Initial results from 29 holes are now available.

“The (2021) program has been enormously rewarding, yielding significant new high-grade (gold ore) intercepts” in an area between two main ore deposits at the project, NovaGold Resources, a 50 percent owner of the project, said in a press release.

“That points toward the potential feeder (ore) zones of this large system. Additional assay results will be released as they become available,” NovaGold said in its statement.

Novagold is a “junior” exploration company, but the other 50 percent partner, Barrick Gold, is a major mining company. Donlin Gold is the operating subsidiary formed to develop the mine.

In a significant development, Donlin Gold’s board approved $3 million in additional 2021 expenditures toward a revised feasibility study, a signal that the company continues to be optimistic about the project.

The feasibility study will update estimated costs and is a key part of the process needed for a final investment decision.

“With all key Federal and most key State permits in hand, Donlin Gold continues to advance additional state permits, including receipt of final 12 water rights permits. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources also completed its review of a reconsideration request (for decisions by the state)and upheld the natural gas pipeline State right-of-way agreement and lease authorization,” NovaGold said in its statement.

The project site is in hills 10 miles north of Crooked Creek village on the Kuskokwim River. Lands at the prospect are leased from the Calista Corporation, the Alaska Native regional corporation for the Yukon-Kuskowkim region, and The Kuskokwim Corporation, or TKC, a consortium of several small village corporations.

TKC owns the surface lands while Calista owns the subsurface mineral rights.

Infrastructure planned for the mine include a power generation plant, water treatment plant, access roads, housing, two ports on the Kuskokwim River, a natural gas pipeline and an airstrip.

Construction would take three to four years. The mine would require an average load of 157 megawatts and, to provide that amount of power, a 14-inch, 312-mile long buried pipeline is being considered to transport natural gas from the Cook Inlet region to the mine site.

Approximately two barges per day would take camp supplies and small amounts of diesel fuel from Bethel to a port site approximately eight miles downriver from Crooked Creek.

The diesel and supplies would then be transported on a 30-mile access road to the mine site.

The 312-mile, 14-inxh Donlin Pipeline is planned that would transport natural gas from the Beluga natural gas pipeline system to the mine. The right-of-way for the mine would cross about 207 miles of state-owned land.

Donlin Gold estimates that the mine could produce an average of 1.1 million ounces of gold annually during operation, a production level that would make it one of the world’s largest gold mines.